.95 per mile? What am I missing?

In terms of OTR truckload freight operations ... Those rates + FSC also cover a LOT of money in terms of lumpers and tolls if you're at certain carriers. Also, the freight availability "should" be there (they always have a pre-plan available for you, miles are 1500+ loaded, minimal wait time on either end)

$1.40 a mile and all the freight you care to haul you can do ok even with a sizable note. But the key is having ample freight that allows you to run 3,000+ MPW fairly consistently and easily, in between home time sessions (which need to be kept to a sensible level) But running "regional" where typical loads are less then 600 miles, it would be very difficult to make money (run enough miles) at such a rate agreement.

 

all OO's for goodness sake

get your OWN PLATES, your own physical insurance, your own bobtail, your own IFTA

the only thing the carrier should cover is what is required, carrier and liability

this way, you are more independent than dependent

 

You can get plenty of miles running regional at the right carrier. I ran regional at $1.40 a mile loaded 90 cents empty miles, practical miles. Avg length of haul was 500 or 600 miles. Average week I turned 3,200 miles. Paid for truck and years of financial frugality behind me (I know how to manage money) and I continually lost money. Granted my truck never got better than 5.8 mpg and in the early months it did have a lot of costly breakdowns. But really you could consider the costly breakdowns no different than having a large payment. It was a slow and painful road to financial ruin. I could have hung in there and done it even longer but the handwriting was on the wall.

 

That's impressive. In the work we do and that I'm familiar with, that would be WAAAAY too many load and unload appointments to meet and time wasted waiting at a dock. Must have been a lot of drop/hook which is great if you can find the right carriers and region and shipper base.

 

Nothing impressive about it and it's really not much more than load in the morning, drive, unload the next morning most times not all as complex as you assume. Sometimes maybe do shorter stuff and hit a couple or 3 docks a day. Around TN regional carriers providing miles like that are a dime a dozen. Or at least were. Most have gotten on electronic logs anymore so the miles are more typically 2,500 a week. It was about 40 percent drop and hook. Out and right back to TN most 99% of the time. Some carriers have more drop and hook and some less. Home every weekend.

 

That's still not enough. Anything below 1.4 is horrible

 

Depends on the CPM and its a starting point for those that have no CLUE on what they need to SURVIVE and with my fleet wide average of $2.50 / mile on all miles I think I have it figured out.

Most business operates on the 10 & 10 minimum markup method over their costs or 21% at least the divide by .79 gives you 26.5%

 

Jr, the average otr driver makes much more than 34k. Only the newbies paying back the driving school shark loan are making that little. 53k is a more realistic average. Plus benefits. In order to make that 65k how many miles did you run and how much home time did you have?

 

you and me both brother. I gave it a full two years thinking I just wasnt working hard enough, or doing something wrong. Finally figured out I was doing something very wrong, I was operating on a bad business plan(cpm contract).

 

It all comes down to the old saying, work smarter not harder