Run empty, run cheap or sit the weekend.

making lemonade out of lemons

we always wonder how the foreigners come here and within a few months or years, they have five trucks, their own authority, their own mcdonalds, etc

because they worked hard to get where they got, and it may have taken doing things many americans refuse to do

 

I was thinking the same thing, except for the other way ... $1200 + 350 = 1550/4340 = 0.35 ... ???

 

Okay my fuel reciepts for the trip shows I actually put $1,800 in for fuel so since the last load I hauled $1,200 just for fuel money that leaves $600 out of my pocket. When I left I had full tanks from the previous week. At the time I hauled this I used 507 gallons of fuel to make this run. 507 gallons of fuel got me 3650 miles which leaves 690 miles that I drove on my fuel from the week prior and No I didn't add that fuel expense since that fuel was already paid for from a prior week. The truck I had at this time never went below 7.2mpg. Like I said darn good week in my book.

 

What kind traile you were pulling flat bed right?

 

The problem is the type of freight you haul. I can find many $4 mile loads for my flatbed, but for a van driver, it is going to be hard most the time. But I don't care if it is a van full of socks or a flatbed loaded with steel, if it's going to ND/MT/FL/ME or anyother "slim" freight state, it should be paying around $4 mile. The problem you run into with van is that there are SOOOO many running around and most have no idea how to run their own operation and will take ANYTHING to stay afloat. Your job is to be smarter than them and not take a descent paying load to a bad area. Most guys see the revenue from the load going out and that's all they can see. They need the $$ right now because they are running cheap. Then they get the load and go there and have to take ANYTHING they can find to get them rolling again.

I would stick to running midwest and leave it at that. There is plenty of freight here and the rates are good. You can make as much running 5 days week pulling a load everyday as a guy running for 3 days out to ND and having to come back to MN empty.

 

Yes sir I was pulling a flatbed. I ran that week with a 94 Freightliner FLD flattop with a 3106 350 kitty cat with a 9spd no jake. I get 7.2 loaded running 61mph, all day.

 

I've been watching several loads tonight. One is a 750 mile load to NJ that started at $1.50 a mile 3 hours ago and just now posted again for the third or fourth time it's up to $3.80 a mile now. I know of several places where loads like this pop every weekend but I'm always at home when I see them. I could position my truck in any of these areas and if I sat all weekend and none of them popped it would have still been better to wait in case they did. Rolling for less than nothing is crazy. But a person needs to know what happens in any given area they might go to based on the past several weeks.

 

I wouldn't touch it this weekend with the Frankenstorm on the way!