Tolls

i made 4 going in. and only bounced 100 miles for 2 going out. and bounced 75 miles for 3 on a cross country trip. THAT would be a reason to stand.

and you all say me and 200 other trucks made a bad decision.

the other alternative was to sit for days because the only thing coming out was $1 going from one bad area to another.

i certainly won't bounce serveral hundred miles. burning up fuel to chase decentt rates is crazy.

 

First post is everyone made a sub-standard rate. Now you are justifying a good rate. Not sure what the point is. Regardless of how you justified it by your inbound rate, you can't possibly know what the others ran it for or what rates they got before and after.

 

nope. only know what rate they got in.

and sub stand doeson't mean cheap. it means sub standard. especiazlly for loads that were emergency. that none of us knew.

guess you all have your own defenition of sub standard.

 

When you say emergency, do you mean the government was paying for emergency relief supplies? The government is famous for paying way to much for way to little. I guess some brokers got fat pockets, and the truckers took it on the chin!

 

I saw a quote from LBZ that said, "I hate it when people who complain about things, do the things they complain about". It's not unusual for me to bounce hundreds of miles for a rate at times. Nothing crazy about it at all. My deadhead is over 30% of my hub miles this year. And I average at least as good as (likely much better than) drivers who take the nearest $1.60 load. For someone who forgot to pick for important details before booking the load you sound a tad bitter about your rate on an emergency load. I don't feel bitter about the ones I book or the ones I miss. Your $4 inbound rate bought and paid for some deadhead to a better market but it's so much easier to just book the close stuff and roll.

 

Absolutely, the business decision is then made! How is it that a driver who seemingly has the ability to get a rate that he is willing to move for, bitter? Its counter intuitive to any law of business, is it not? You moved your truck for a rate, you accepted said rate, you negotiated the rate, you fielded or made phone calls, you signed the rate confirmation and yet you are unsatisfied/

These comments are not aimed at Rollin' Coal but to any owner operator who deems himself unfairly treated.

 

Here is my way of thinking, as I'm not an O/O anymore, but the wife and I have been talking about buying another truck and trailer, when I was still doing my own thing, I always tried to avoid bad pay area's, but you all know that's not always possible, but when I was in a bad area, even thou the pay was barely covering the bill to run the truck, in order to get to a better paying job, isn't that better than taking the money out of your pocket to get to the better paying run?, I would much rather take that $1.60 to get me to a better paying run, than to just deadhead there out of pocket

 

No. Why is it so difficult to grasp the concept that deadheading 400 miles for a load that goes another 400 loaded miles paying $800 on 800 total miles is a much better option than going 1 mile down the road to pick a reload going a further 799 miles down the road for $800 on 800 total miles? Neither load is great but if those are your best options obviously option one is the best as it's less wear and tear on your vehicle with all those empty miles.

I said it in a previous post. If your model consists of grabbing the nearest $1.60 load going to wherever you'd like to go, or that rate is the best an area will support, and you cannot deadhead 150 or 200 or 300 or 400 or however many miles it takes to get to a better market then you got a POOR rate going into a bad market. There is nothing wrong with taking that $1.60 a mile if your rates to it support that, more power to you, but not everyone operates that way and there are other ways....

When I go to Michigan I won't go up there for less than $3.50 a loaded mile gross rate cause for the life of me I've never had any luck getting a rate out of there. Granted that is not a load I get often but I do get loads like that from time to time after all the suckers have loaded up for $2.25 a mile. Granted I do have limited areas I will reload out heading to - BUT - I deal with that in my way. Now unless I can put a couple of partials together coming out of MI I will deadhead all the way down into Kentucky, over 300 miles, for a better rate. And it's funny how my rate per mile average still comes out the same as it would taking the cheap freight out of Michigan.

You have to know your markets, where you can and can't go for whatever rate, and what you can get in other markets. You also have to think outside the box. It's so much less work, so much easier, to take whatever is nearby. Snowwy says some of us would have taken that reload and I told him no I wouldn't. I don't go to unknown markets or lousy ones without first getting a rate that justifies it and having a general feel for what I can do for a reload within 500 miles of where it delivers.

There ARE always options besides copping out for a cheap reload, then making excuses, and whining about it later.....

 

i don't know if it was govt or not. it probably could have been. but it wasn't emergency releif supplies. the loads went to ONE of them tornado cleanups in IL.

i don't like going to bad areas. but that area gets offered a lot. and sometimes there's a load out. sometimes there isn't.
the last 2 trips. there wasn't.

the first time. i bounced for a decent rate. to take the ONLY load being offered. unfortunately, it went to another bad area. like all the rest of the CHEAP crap beingn offered. i sat 24 hours before another great rate came long. but it was back to the same dead area i just got out of. luckily, those emergency loads popped up. i didn't have to bounce far to pick it up. and it took me to a GOOD freight area. where i didn't have to bounce far for an even better rate. and a very light load.

that's why i say. you all would have been crazy to NOT take those loads. i call it substandard for such an emergency load. but it DID pay. and it went to a better freight area.

you all can say YOU WOULDN'T have taken those loads. all you want. but i highly doubt you would have refused.

 

You didn't even read what I posted. I said I wouldn't have and I wouldn't have. It's not how I operate. If that was the best rate to be had in that area I'm checking much farther out for other options, simple as that.