Reefer vs Flatbed

http://fleetowner.com/van-reefer-rates-slip

 

A friend of mine with a stepdeck leased to Packard said he averaged $ 1.76/mile (odometer miles) to the truck last year.
I think I saw someone say the average to the truck at Mercer is $ 1.71 to the truck ( book miles I guess ).
That's all I know on the subject

 

Dang, I had those averages with a van last year.

 

biggest problem with these "figures" is they dont list miles ran per year or avg miles per trip.
easy to make $5 a mile going 40 miles so you make $200, if thats all you did all day....then it makes your avg per mile look awesome but actual revenue to truck aint going to cut it.

 

I average about $2.50 a mile with TMC.

 

See a lot of owners justify running lots of miles creating big gross revenue for low rates who say the same thing. $5 a mile on 40 miles? Cheap would be $10 a mile and on a bad day I'd take that over any of the $800 for 500 mile loads that are a dime a dozen. Lower miles, higher rate per mile will always trump big gross on low rates as long if one is very proactive in finding the freight.

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I have been running $900-1100 revenue a day and only 200-350 miles a day since early march. Been able to do that since I got a reefer in my area. Can't do that with a dry van.

There's been a couple of long trips in there to test out the truck. Even that trip is $7500 revenue and 3400 miles in 6 days.

 

it was just an example for the poster. Just didnt want him to me mesmerized buy big rates per mile...assuming he would be running that kinda rpm all day for 700 plus miles every day.

As you guys have pointed out...

 

When I ran reefer for a year from 2011-12, I was averaging $1.31 and had to buy the reefer fuel which was about $700 per month. I switched to flatbed last year, leased to a company, and averaged $1.57 per run mile. We now operate under our own authority, still flatbed and average $1.76 per mile. These are based on odometer miles, not paid miles which include dead head.

Plus, with flatbed, you generally load and unload from 0700-1500. With reefer you will load and unload between midnight to 0700 (generally speaking). Flat bedders get a bit more respect from their customers, while reefers customers give dogs more respect. And you have to pay them to unload their freight.

Consider this also: According to DAT/Transcore there are generally five loads to one truck with a reefer. Flat beds average 19 loads per truck. Hope this information helps.