What is with rates???

LTL are loads that you general have a week plus to deliver giving you time to look for freight for a couple days if need be. LTL is generally paying under $1.40. At least that is the definition of loads listed as LTL. We classify LTL and TL by pay amount, so to us what we are hauling is not LTL because it is paying better. $2 per mile is great for a hot shot. A 1 ton averages 8 to 13 mpg, the apportioned plates are 1/3 the price, etc etc. The truck cost a little less to run.
Now in defense of what you all are saying, when I entered this business everyone thought that hot shots drove 1 tons and smaller trailers because they could get freight there fast and jump scales (or many believed they didn't even need to stop at scales). So sometimes a potential o/o would call me and say "well why in the world would you want to drive a hot shot if you cannot skip dot rules. I don't get the purpose." I would explain things and they would understand but still be a bit disappointed. I did not enter this industry in the 70s so I never got to understand the greatness of old school hot shot trucking (I wish I had). But today for me and every single person I know including all of my competitors, other dispatch services, etc consider this to be the definition. There is tons of freight on TL load boards that the brokers consider full and is paying either great or ok ($2.20 or $1.90) for when it is small (under 20k). And most of the time those loads are paying better than any 45k lbs load on said board and that is before negotiations. I would not consider that to be an LTL unless it was paying less than the 45k loads.

My experience backing is 7 years doing this exact thing with approximately 50 trucks avg and only 2 3 day vacations during that 7 years. During a good percentage of the year I work 80 plus hours Monday thru Saturday. I have drivers located in most states excluding the NW. A majority of them out of TX, GA, and OH. I do not have to explain what a hot shot is to any of them (not in last few years). They all have the same basic understanding as I. But I am new school and I do not say that as a good thing. I wish I had been in trucking during the good ole days I hear about all the time.

As for the LTL piece together, it usually does not pay. Now that is not to say that it cannot pay. It very well can. Most companies use that as a way to make an ignorant inexperienced driver believe that he is making money when he is not (and I am talking about o/o not company drivers). There would never be a con to a company driver if he was being paid mileage unless they made him sit for days. This is not how we operate anyway. Here is a general idea. Okay I am looking at a load from Houston, TX to Syracuse NY. This load is 32x8x8 7,000 lbs strap and go. That is 1625 miles. The upside is that we do not mind Syracuse, easy drive and not tons of tons unlike other parts of NE. But downside is that a hot shot gets bad fuel mileage with 8 ft tall. This can be prevented with proper set up but most hot shots do not have that set up and the get bad wind dynamics. So we will bid more. Normally I might ask for $1.80 per mile with my drivers 275 miles deadhead and 1625 miles loaded. That comes to $3420. But since the load is tall I will ask for $200 per mile with deadhead which is $3800. Really that is $2.33. They want it there in about 3 to 4 days which can be done with normal transit time as long as no major mechanical issues, bad weather, or illness occurs and then their would be paper documentation on those events. Now I have not mentioned including deadhead this whole time, because I fear after all of these years we will have to discontinue that in the near future. It has become more difficult. Hot Shots have to do a great more distance of deadhead or at least mine do versus my semis. Also up until now I have always got extreme deadhead all the way from long areas. If we are taking a Los Angeles run, I ask for 1330 extra miles on rate but I do go a little lower on the rate. I know I will be lucky to get $1.50 out of Cali so that extra $2100 bucks will ensure that they get to the east coast for a decent rate. We are not awarded those runs often but that is ok. No driver of mine is going to sit for 4 days in CA. We do get this deal a lot with ND and CO. Now if this sounds absurd then that is ok, because my drivers have LOVED this crazy policy that only we had. They hate going out west and want big bucks to do it, so I made sure to get big bucks or not bother trying to go.

 

And finally a non serious one of the bunch. Thanks for lightening my mood!