Solid Average Flatbed gross rate per Mile ????

My first year pulling a flatbed with Landstar I managed $2.03 mile for all miles, I ran 8 months of the year, doing mainly legal size loads with a few OD loads thrown in. I ran everywhere, with some weeks being 4,000 miles and some weeks being 1,000 miles.

This year, I have ran both flat and step. I've done more specialized stuff such as hazmat, and ran some local freight for agents. So far this year, my P&L is showing $2.34 mile for all miles. I've worked all year with maybe 4 weeks off total.

Where u live and what you run will determine your avg rate. If I stay local, I can prob do as good, I not better than I have been running all over. That is my plan till next spring, to stay in a 500 mile radius of Chicago. Mainly IL IN MI OH KY WI.
I have an agent that does exclusive freight with Amtrak and he is wanting to use me for local stuff and job site deliveries. They pay crazy amounts of money, but I will also have to be willing to get a call at 2am to roll out and grab a piece here or there. Which is fine with me if it pays well.

 

That's why I posted the question as I did. as

 

you really have to have input from land star drivers. my pay is 3 grand gross. 1700 mile a week. home every day. 4 day work week. but that does you no good, cause land star has many deductions that will play into your calculations.

 

for us we are kinda on the cheap side at 1.68 ish..but unlike others with a 59 year old driver we choose easy and more miles freight more than pay,for example: most my loads are 1500 miles or better, so the rate per mile may be lower but if we run 2000 miles at 1.70, three days and the freight is off the truck at $1150 a day. Also this is odometer miles, and we dead head ALOT, id say in an average week 800 miles of DH, so im getting a 1.65 the whole time Im DH, im ok with that. (note our equipment was designed around this plan, so we get great mileage on the interstate.)
we stay out of northeast and northwest because our truck was not designed for big mountains and slow speed limits.

Key here is get your plan and get equipment to go with that.

It may take a year to find what works for you.
CLuck and SHC do a good job maximizing there trailer and staying somewhat closer to there radius, it works for them.

 

I'm @ $2.68/loaded mile and $2.19/all miles for the year on my truck. I could do better if I wanted too, sometimes I just get tired of fighting with brokers and take standard rates. Other times I dig in my heels and demand crazy rates. If you want those kind of numbers you better plan on making a lot of phone calls and doing a lot of haggling.

 

Dannythetrucker makes a point about how much time it takes to get good rates. You have to work at it to either get a decent rate for any area, or really make yourself consistantly available to the same set of brokers. Sometimes you get what your looking for on the first couple of calls other times it takes 50.

 

I would ask those Landstar BCO's whether the rates that they quote are gross (before Landstar gets their cut) or money "to the truck?" It will make a difference. I know when I leased to Landstar, most quoted gross load pay rather than truck money. When you lease to a carrier, such as Landstar, that is agent based and pays percentage, rates can vary widely. With Landstar, your success will depend more on your patience, aggressiveness and persistence in finding good paying loads. You should allow at least 6 months to get a feel of their system. Since each load pays a different rate, it can be difficult to get a handle on an average, although Landstar should be able to supply those to you. It will be a fleet average. It is much easier to calculate when you are paid a flat mileage rate for all miles.