mileage and price questions

I can find $1.70 a mile freight and $1.85 a mile freight but not as much as the $1.30 $1.40 stuff that seems to be the norm. I won't haul any load for any length of miles for a $1.70, $1.85, $1.95, nothing below $2.15 a mile, all miles in, goes on this truck. Remember "all miles in" on that means it includes deadhead and you need to include deadhead on every load you book. There is very litlle to no profit in $1.70 a mile freight no matter how many miles you run and my equipment is paid for. Maybe a few pennies a mile if you're lean and mean. My question to you is how can you expect to thrive on a few pennies a mile of profit if you don't have 1,000 trucks making those pennies per mile profit? What kind of plan is that? Quit planning around X amount of miles a week around any rate period. A better plan would be to focus on getting the best rate possible and forgetting about "minimum revenue per day", $1.70 at 3,500 miles a week" those sorts of thoughts will lead you astray and cost you the patience/focus necessary to get solid rates. I could easily do 3,500 miles every week at $1.70 a mile. Getting better rates is always easier said than done but not impossible.

 

Really the key for you (living in CO and I assume wanting to get home) is going to be to find decent freight going out. I think you would do well to try to expand your radius idea though. If you can get some loads going to IL, IN, OH and surrounding you will find great paying loads back to CO. I mean you should be able to get loads in the $3/mile range or better, nobody wants to haul them because it's so hard for people on our end to find loads back.

So if you can find somebody with steady freight out this way for 1.50/mile or better and you can get 3.00/mile back you'd be averaging 2.25/mile and over 2000 miles per trip.

 

I don't plan for "X amount per mile". Probably do things ENTIRELY different than most in the business.

I explain it here.
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...-per-mile-bottom-line-what-4.html#post2671545


Since I hit the road with my own truck in July, I am finding I am really close in what and how I plan and bid my rates. I am not happy with the level of the rates, but I am hitting $3.50 or better on my short stuff around the house if I could just not kill them with even 50-70 miles dead heads.

 

There is a lot of good info here

 

And if you knew how cheap the freight is in Florida (1.00 per mile), you would have a better idea of how scarce and cheap the freight is in Colorado. You would then understand the impact of this statement.

If you want to run out of Colorado plan a month out, at least, to make enough to come home for a short stay.

 

Personally, I think you need experience driving someone elses truck, and save your money. Then, when you have EXPERIENCE... and a savings account, revisit your business plan. If you are only a wannabe trucker, you havent the slightest clue what you are doing. One mistake, and you will be repaying your 28,000 loan from your new job at mcdonalds, and have a 30,000 lb paperweight in your yard.

 

Here's one more thing about being an o/o. Do you even know where you would look for loads in your area? If you work for someone else first, you will learn where pick ups and deliveries are around you, on THEIR equipment. This is how I did it, except with reefer. I like to think I've got a decent grasp on where rates should be, for hauling what commodity, at what time of year. A little easier to learn using someone else's money. (and get paid at the same time)

With a mixer truck, have you ran one before? I'm sure there is a learning curve to that also. What is the work cycle like for a mixer truck? Steady all year? Busy in summer and nothing in winter? I have no idea.