Why pull cheap freight.

Yes, but I did not say to DH all the way back to your starting part. I said to DH to a better freight area, where you know you can get $2 mile instead of $1 mile.

As you know, I don't run cheap stuff. I always negeotiate the DH pay into what the rate is offered. For instance, I took a chemical load from PA to Canadian, TX. The rate was at $3.75 but I told them i could do it PLUS .50cpm to DH the 350 miles to OKC.

Obviously to get a load, travel 1,000 miles for $4 mile and Dh all the way back is pointless. The only time I would do this is on short-haul loads less than 200 miles. There are many times I've ran a load from Chicago to Indy and DH back but then you are hauling for a daily rate rather than a rate per mile.

 

I figure my .50cpm to the next good freight area. I refuse to haul the load for $1 mile in the bad freight area because if we just keep taking them, they will just keep offering that rate. It is morals and principal to me. Plus with that .50cpm Dh rate, I can shoot over to the next area empty, getting 9mpg and salvaging a day usually. while you are loading your $1.50 mile load and now wasting a few days hauling it to where-ever it goes. In that time I can DH say 200 miles, load up another $3 mile load and get moving down the road again.

 

And there it is... it's not the rate, it's the skim off the top..... and LS is skimming some heavy cream...

 

I am willing pay 27% to them for weekly settlements, cargo insurance, 14,000+ available loads a day, the fact they handle all paperwork, and good rates.

 

I don't see why so many are so worried about who is skimming what and how much off the top. Take a load for a rate that you are happy with or let it sit and rot.

 

I just keep wondering to myself, if people stopped taking cheap freight from dead areas, ok the rates go up, but then the rates going INTO those areas would go down. So it wouldn't make a difference.

 

Just so we're clear, that's .27 of every dollar.........

Let's say we took the rate of a $1.60, which we would all agree is way to cheap.... right??

And increased the $1.00 by the .27cpm that's being skimmed...bringing that up to 1.27, and increasing the .60cpm by it's 27%, which would be roughly 16cpm.... gives us .76cpm roughly...(it would actually be .762)...

$2.032... two dollars and three cents a mile...

So, who's getting over on who??

You're complaining about a rate that's too cheap, and at a $1.60, yes, it is, however, at $2.03 per mile gross.... and after LS skims you.... you get what??

A dollar sixty.

And so rather than get paid something to leave the area, you prefer nothing instead.

Because that $1.60 is unfair.

It's all supply and demand, and all I'm attempting to do is to put it into perspective.....

When brokers can't move loads, because of.....

1. a shortage of trucks

and

2. other brokers paying more to get the available equipment

Then the situation favors the carrier and the result is a nice paying load, a load that made you happy to have bought a truck.

And it works the opposite when the conditions are reversed.

It's the reality of a free market economy.

And what's the value of a great rate when 27% is coming off the top??

$3 per mi at 27% is .81cpm, or $3.00-.81=..... $2.19

Yeah, I'll deadhead 200-300 miles to make an additional .16cpm..... wait, what did that dead head cost me in fuel again???

 

Yep, that's how it works Oscar. I don't haul $1.60 freight. I haul Poland Spring water when I can get $2 or better, and yes there are times when you can negotiate better rates....

I've hauled LS brokered freight out of ME for a fat rate... If I remember correctly it was 5 pallets of fabricated foam insulation going to Tolleson AZ, this was like almost two years ago.... $2,200.... not bad for five pallets, I almost felt like a criminal....

Had a lot of room left on that 53....

 

But whatever, everybody gets to do what they want.... run empty, haul something, sit and wait, whatever.....

I've done all three at one time or another, it just all depends...

But you can't pick up a thing if you don't make that phone ring.....

 

these threads do always get a bit confusing with comparing everyones different "math" and then adding in Landstar and other lease operators. Your "load board" is a whole different animal to the ones I use as an independent O/O. But if I understand you correctly you are saying that after Landstars cut you got 3.15 per mile plus .50/mile from Midland to Dallas on a Chicago to Midland run. So that would come to roughly (Midland - Dallas 330 @ 0.50) = $165, (Chicago - Midland 1200 @ 3.15) = $3780. So you got 3780 + 165 = $3945 or $3.28/loaded mile for the run to the truck, plus Landstar's 27% = $4.51/ loaded mile? I keep a pretty close eye on Chicago to TX step and flat loads and I was seeing rates of $3/mile+ pretty regular last summer, but it's been like pulling teeth to get them to give over $2.50 lately even to Midland or Laredo, El Paso, etc..., starting to come up but still. Yah, if Landstar can get $4.50/mile to Midland from Chicago I guess we should all be leased on. I also charge a little less for deadheading (90cents/mile), but I have to tack a little extra on my loaded miles to make it work out ($1.40/mile). Not knocking the way you do it, especially if you can really get 9 mpg deadheading. Just curious if you are basically deadheading for fuel money if you are accounting for all your other expenses and depreciation appropriately on the loaded miles.