Percentage vs mileage pay

Mileage rarely works out better unless the sun, moon and stars all align and you are running the perfect freight for how you want to run.

Or you are being cheated and they are skimming off the top. Ask a question of any percentage company. "How easy is it for me to verify what you billed on the load and what it the process."

The response should let you know what type of company you are dealing with.

 

I say 6 of one, 12 of the other. Made money hauling dryvans by mile and flats by %.

 

I know this is 2 years old, but I read on their site that the mileage option also pays for all fuel along with the $1.00 a mile. That sounds like a good thing without having that cost, but is it really? I mean, is it all smoke and mirrors? Your fuel probably doesn't run you 75 cents a mile which is potentially what you would be giving up on an average percentage load....right?

 

It really doesn't matter in the final analysis as long as things are profitable. I pay myself $750 a week ($39K annual salary) and net from the operation passes to me on top of that, which is just over $40K this year up to today. And that is with being by the house a couple of times a week, off on weekends and holidays, and taking a few weeks off cumulatively thru the year. And I am on a per mile gig. No dedicated stuff, but I do keep load selections within a 400-600 mile circle of the house. Lots of good freight in the upper midwest and I deal with a lot of really good customers.

Maybe $80K profit is not much to some, but where I live, it is twice the average income in my state and with low property costs and other stuff, it goes as far or further than $120K profit in a high cost of living area.

 

You say load selection...are you leased on somewhere or running your own authority with certain customers?

 

Percentage is better but percentage with choice to pick where you go (not necessarily load boards) . But it must be said what percentage 10%, 15%, 20%? Percentage or mileage, if I could profit 100K a year and make less then 100K odometer miles I'd take either.

 

I am leased on with a carrier, but I get choices. Granted, all of the the choices are in my general guidelines for where I will run my truck, but I still get a selection. They are not going to hand me a half dozen loads they know I will not run just to get me to select the one they wanted me to run anyway, just giving the appearances of giving me a choice. All my choices are for customers I would normally run anytime. I picked one earlier in the week that was a little shorter, but dropped earlier and avoided some snow moving in. On many of them, I also have the luxury of setting my own time it will get delivered. The load I have on now, I picked up this afternoon and brought it home, I was asked when I wanted to deliver. I told them and it was set up. Sure, there are instances where they will pass a single load to me with no choice, but it is always a customer I do anyway, it is just that it needs to get power under it quickly, so I take it. I have never been dissed or shafted for refusing a load. I have even pulled away from a dock before loading because the customer was a total moron and wanted to treat me like dirt. I called the carrier, told them I would not be treated like dirt, and said I was heading home empty and I would call them Monday. Never heard one gripe from them. That was a couple years ago. I have been here 8 years.

 

You definitely found the best kind of company. It is nice to see stuff on this forums that spin something positive. It's kinda depressing to read all over the forums how every trucking company in America is so terrible.