Whats a fair rate?

Been doing it for many years but I am always willing to listen, I do not see where you have offered a suggestion or opinion other than I am wrong, What would you charge and why?

 

168$ a day to drive an 8 axle truck...whose going to work for those peanuts?

 

I would like to point out that we are talking about a 200 mile load here. If you figure on 95 miles you're doing it wrong. there is no way he is going to find a "backhaul" for an 8 axle rig on 100 miles. $850, you're talking a little over $4/mile, I don't think that's enough. I mean I sure as heck wouldn't want to try to pay for an 8 axle rig on $4/mile. I can't say because I don't bid this type of stuff, but I would think it would have to be $1200 or more per load.

 

If you fail to account for anything in your rate besides fuel, maint and driver pay (low for a decent specialized low miles driver), and argue the point, then I realize I'm talking to someone who has never had any skin in the game. Someone bidding freight has to know their true cost per mile to ensure a profit. This includes truck and trailer payments, office expenses, tags, permits, insurance, taxes, etc.
I've never run in Canada, but from what I've seen CA-CA rates are typically strong as fuel cost are high, as well as other factors. To blatantly throw a number out there would be absurd of me, unless it was so high, a decent profit would be ensured. Lowmax's operating cost could be at $2.75 per mile with his fuel costing him $1.20 per mile. My break even with driver making .40 per mile, .50 fuel per mile, and 5 axle reefers and flats hovered around $1.50, and that was in 2006-7. That was three year old trucks and 7 year old trailers. So to just add the .70 fuel differential, that's $2.20 break even, plus a lot more maintenance, higher payments, and everything costs more now as well, plus it's in Canada (costing even more). My break even was also based on 10,000 miles per month, something Lowmax isn't going to hit pulling this freight.That is why I say you have no concept of this business, or in general. On top of that, a lot of naive folks only worry about the dispatched miles, not the actual miles the truck runs. The trucks expenses are based on the odometer. If the driver runs home or to the truckstop after the loads are done that night, that can easily be 10-50 unpaid miles. Unfortunately the fuel fairy doesn't fill the tanks at night to make up for this unpaid expense.