Freight bills from 1978

Very good post Young man, nice to see documents from yesteryear. Nice pics also.

 

Back in the early 70's we hauled steel from Houston, Texas to Dallas/Fort Worth , Texas for about $.43 cents a CWT, a CWT being 100 pounds , so 44,000 pounds was charged at $.43 x 440 = $ 189.72... Nobody hauled a legal load... Everybody loaded anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000 except my dad, who would load a 100,000 payload every time if they would load that much... So at .43 x 65,000 or $ .43 x 650 = $279.50, we all made 75% of the gross and we all made a little money... Fuel was about 25 to 28 cents per gallon... Everybody had a B61 Mack ( they would get 6 to 7 mpg ) or a Freightliner or Emeryville with a 220 or 250 Cummins and a 10 speed.... The 220 would get about 5 to 6 mpg and the 250 would get about 4.8 to 5.3 mpg... Aloung about 1978, we hauled stteel coils from Lone Star , Texas to Fort Collins , Colorado and the rate was 2.42 a CWT but Lone Star would not load over 50,000 per load... We tried to stay about 48,000 all the time ... The loads payed anywhere from $1,100.00 to $1200.00 for a posted milage of 880 miles... We earned 75% using our trailer, fuel was still in the 50 cent range until it went up... we would load oilfield mud back from either Green River or Grey Bull , Wyoming for about $800.00 to $900.00 per load depending on the drop point... Yep, we made a whopping 38 to 43 cents per mile round trip on the short Houston turns and about 53 cents per mile on the Lonestar runs... Oh, my 1959 B 61 Mack cost me $2,800.00 in 1970 and I ran it for about a year and a half and bought me a 1969 Peterbilt 359 for around $14,000.00 in late 1971.... Yes , I remember some of the rates, especially those that made money... Texas machinery and oil field rates were almost double....