Be honest

Have I ever?YES. Have I in the last 2-3 years?Absolutely NOT.

About two weeks ago I deadheaded a truck from Cou d'alene,Id. to Omaha to pick up a good paying load to Chicago. From Chicago I have a regular customer that loads us to New Albany,Ms. to get the truck home. I have trucks that empty out in the mountains of Western Mt. and Id. all the time. Usually those trucks deadhead to the Seattle area to pick up imported electronics at another of my regular customers that pays good money going back to TN.

The point is; I could have found loads to get those trucks to these other loads. But normally, I don't even look for anything. By time you go through the hassle of getting loaded and unloaded and then worrying about collecting from a broker, it's not worth the time spent. I get enough on my outbound hauls that I could just deadhead them all the way home everytime and still make a very small profit. The fact is, I'm not dumb and I'm not in business to make SMALL profits.

 

I HAVE!!

of course that was 1993, does it still count?

 

Well, let's talk math...

Sitting for two days waiting for the "right" load...
How much money in diesel idling?
How much money in expenses for sitting there?
How much more lost revenue for not driving?

Sometimes it is not as easy...

Maybe a 350 mile drive at $1.00 a mile gets you to a better HUB and can make money out of this new HUB..

Does is make sense? or does sitting make more sense... I don't know... hard to tell really...

 

not to mention you are just helping keep those rates cheap by hauling it

 

You're right Grumpy- I am a broker. BUT, I also dispatch 35 company owned trucks. I broker the overflow when needed. So I see it both ways, and the only thing that irritates me is people that don't see things both ways. You can't run through life with blinders on- you'll hit stuff.

It's not hard to figure out- if it's too cheap to make sense, don't haul it! We shut trucks down if we're going to spend more in fuel than a motel room and food for a driver. If we get calls for cheap stuff, we don't take it. It's not rocket science... If we NEED to get home to take care of a customer's outbound freight, we run. If we know we're going to arkansas on a Friday, we build money into the rate to make up for what we may or may not get. It's all part of running a business...

And Brickman is right- what's up with the guys with shipping hours from 8am to 12pm lately? Jeez!

 

I hadn't seen it in that light Brickman.. you are right...