Are we gonna Learn?

OP, don't be so quick to dismiss leased operators as "you don't count this is not your thread". I'm leased under someone else's authority yet find my loads the same as you. All of it is brokered freight too. $1 a mile freight will never go away, that is reality. If you're not hauling it why worry about it? Everyone band together and quit hauling for CHR? I get excellent rates from CHR I think they're great.

 

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[TD="class: midtext"]I just hauled a load into Boston for $4.50 a mile.Not to mention i got $45.00 after the first 2 hours.I ended up at 8 hours paid detention on a show load to convention center.When i went to look for a load going back west,all i could muster up was 1.00 a mile and they were all 44,000 lbs..Needless to say the freight SAT ON THE DOCK.

If i would of took this freight at these prices here's what was involved..100 mile deadhead and another whole day (24 hours) picking up and delivering.More wear and tear on me and my equipment..Just not truly worth it in the long run..I ended up ''deadheading'' to Syracuse NY and found me a $3.00 load 5,000 lbs going to Chicago...VERY NICE and WELL DONE on my part...Mind you..If the driver got a load out of MASS for 1.00 going to Chicago at 44,000 lbs,I will guarantee i will do better than him from SYR to Chi...It is simple basic math...

Moral of my story..DO NOT be afraid to DH to better freight.Let the heavy cheap stuff sit there for SWIFTY and WERNER...And always go into the ''bad'' freight areas with GREAT MONEY..If they can not pay the ''great'' money going in,DO NOT GO...SIMPLE[/TD]
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Which trailer you pull? $3 from syracuse going into chicago is a good rate to me.

 

I pull logistics van..When that is slow i try to grab Haz Mat Loads....

 

He's probably also getting the Landstar BCO rate, which you will never see offered on a load board by a Landstar agent. Although I did luck out and get a BCO rate from Landstar corporate when they posted it by mistake and they honored it when I called on the load.

 

I don't think the OP understands market economics.

Let's say City A has a lot of freight, and City B has very little freight.

City A to City B pays $4/mi
City B to anywhere pays $1/mi
$2.50/mi average

If people stopped hauling from City B to anywhere, then rates would indeed go up to, say, $2/mi to incentivize people to take it.

Suddenly, rates from City A to City B are not $4/mi anymore. They go down to $3/mi, because truck owners could still make the same average, and are willing to take it for $3/mi.
$2.50 average. SAME THING

Example - when rates in Florida go up in produce season, the rates going IN will DROP.

The average rates of lanes are NOT based on greedy brokers, because there are thousands of brokers. They aren't all colluding.
They are based on a combination of how much freight is in any given area (45% of average rates?), and also based on how much the owner of the truck is needing to make to cover costs (45% of average rates?) and then the remaining 10% of the makeup of average rates are based on how much profit the truck owner wants to make.

It would be in anyone's interest to make as much money as they can, while at the same time having a quality of life that they desire (home time, quality of truck, only running to certain areas) - that would actually be the rational thing to do. Not everyone is rational, and that is unfortunate. But for the most part, most, not all, but most, truck owners are rational.

Bottom line is, as a national average as a whole, rates are where they are at because that is the rate at which both shippers, brokers and trucking companies all make the amount they NEED plus the profit they WANT, and specific lanes across the country are based on that along with freight density.

Supply and demand rule everything, and that's the way it is.

 

exactly right, I don't even need a business lesson from BBB to understand that if for some reason you could haul straw out of Fargo for $2/mile, then guys are going to start going there for less money. I turn down a lot of $3 or $3.50/mile loads going to ND because I know it's gonna be $1 or $1.20 or deadhead part way out. If I knew I could get $2/mile straw I'd be all over those $3.50/mile loads ! So am I the guy to blame because I will haul that straw when and only when I get the appropriate rate going in ? Or is it the guys taking those sucker bet $2.50/mile loads into ND ?

 

broken record.

megas will always haul that cheap stuff no matter who it's offered to.

I get a broker offering me cheap freight, it's his game. I don't care. so they offer it. Big deal.

I don't operate on a "load by load" basis. If anything, I'd call it a "law of averages". And it's a lot higher than $1/mile freight.

 

There's a fairly large group of trucks out there that O/O's forget about. All of you are in trucking to make money, hauling other peoples stuff. What about the people running a business that have their own fleet of trucks delivering their OWN products to their OWN customers? That is me. I run a manufacturing plant producing a product (I know, strange concept in the USA these days, lol). If I have a truck 500 miles from my plant that has just delivered, I have the truck load up at the closest place and "backhaul" something to get back to my plant. I know, evil word, sorry.

I do not have the time or energy to run a trucking company. Getting some money to pay for the fuel for the trip plus maybe a little extra is a win for me, as long as it is done quickly. I make my money on the product I make and sell to my customers, trucking is an after thought.

Technically I own the trucks, I even drive now and then. But no way do I have the time to find the best rates coming back to my production plant. So I guess.....I'm the guy you all hate at times, lol. Sorry.

 

You're in a shrinking minority of manufacturers who have their own trucks to move their product. It's an old costly model much cheaper to contract that stuff out to those whose business is "trucking" and focus on your own core business. Understand you do what you do to get trucks back, that's how lots play the law of averages. If companies like yours sold all their trucks tomorrow $1 a mile freight would not just disappear.