May was okay

Cool, really good numbers there. I was shooting for $2.50 but missed the mark. I still might squeeze my rate upwards this afternoon with a quick easy load I'm thinking I might get to cap off the month, but not to $2.50. May was my best month last year and looks to be the same this year. July will be the end of the "good times" first half of the year for me with the van. Last year it went to the pits at that point and I expect this year to be no different, then the motor went down in August. As long as I hit at least $10K in June, on as few miles as possible, I've banked enough to cover sitting at home for all of July, although I intend to try and "pick off" $3-$5K in July if I can, and the same in August. Then September thru year end should be no problems finding rates, if this year trends somewhat closely to last..

8,115 total miles to my delivery point around lunch time - the final 211 miles are the route I'll take according to googlemaps
5,347 loaded miles only
2,768 deadhead miles
34% deadhead
$19,505 revenue to the truck
$2.403 rate - all miles in
$3.647 loaded miles only rate to the truck
27 loads
300 miles avg length of haul, incl deadhead


May last year:

7,627 total miles
5,833 loaded miles
1,794 deadhead miles
23.5% deadhead percentage
$22,159.44 gross revenue - to the truck
$2.905 all miles in rate - to the truck
$3.798 loaded only rate to the truck
18 loads
423 average length of haul - including deadhead

These numbers are actual "to the truck" numbers after percentage came off the top. Last year my percentage was 3 points higher than this year. I'm pleased with the numbers, my only wish is that every month were like that! Last May rates were everywhere and easy to pick off. This year was more involved and had to deadhead more, freight is just down overall.

 

Rates back in the toilet again.. coincidence? haha!! Maybe they will tick back up as the month wears on and I can meet my 6 month period goal. As it is looks like another day of hammering unwary brokers on what rates ought to be as a given.. ..such a pain having to shop all the time. I did squeeze in another $756.50 revenue on one last load for May cracking $20K to the truck in a month's period, for the first time since.. way back last year in May..

 

Actually I pay all of the insurance, cargo gets charged back. You always pay for that stuff regardless if you're independent or leased on. They do billing and cut a check every week. I was taking an extra 3 points waiting on checks but I got tired of waiting, having such a huge chunk of money hanging in limbo. Invoicing they do is nice but I'm sure I could handle it on my own even though I'm positive it's probably the least fun part. I kicked around earlier this year going out on my own but put that on hold for at least another couple of years or maybe longer. I'm seeing more value in the cut now than I was earlier. That's for sure. Getting more and more phone calls from "dispatch", actually from brokers who call needing trucks. Now sometimes those are from ITS postings but sometimes not. It keeps me from having to make any, or really, very few calls booking loads... ...of course I haven't been thru a typical slowdown like July yet to see if any of those incoming calls are going to be worthy of firing the truck up.. ..Even so I'm sure many of the loads I have gotten were in fact due to people reaching out to the company asking for available trucks. Actually they send out an email 3 or 4 times daily to hundreds of recipients that shows the location of every truck in the fleet anywhere in the country. A really simple idea that works and is paying off as long as I and other drivers keep them updated of our status.