Shippers low ball tactic.

No he is right. Short hauls can be a full or 2 day deal.
None of this 1.00 a mile crap... I have my mim. rate also, but the lowballers who do a 200 mile run for 250.00 need all their tires to blow out at the same trip.. Try replacing them on your cheap rates

 

I also do 1k a day. Im not sure where u run but I run all over. Maybe I pick my markets better but I don't have a hard time making that. Oh and I don't do AL, AR, MS as they do not pay. I do Portland as you say, it can pay.

 

let me get this right.
1000 day minimum constitutes mileage of 250 to 500 per day, load and unload? You operate under your own authority correct?

and what happens when a shipper breaches contract? what are your legal options?
How do you collect ? 30 day ?

 

Hi folks.Lets quit the B.S. here.........As I am Always supportive of carriers ,especially us independents,Please Quit Bloating numbers, especially RIGHT NOW....Its very difficult moving locally, 'freight' hovering $700-$1000 per day on legal 'Freight', Not happening (Broker or direct). Lets get real here, Yeah in 2008-2014 you could slam $8-900 per day through a borker or direct and be home for dinner, Not now, Unless you have secret shipper(s) that aren't shopping...cause guys are moving truckload intracity 50 mile or less for $200-$300 bucks,AND not guaranteed more than 1 a day, Just the way it is.

I've been at this game awhile and I'm having difficulties making $600 per day (regionally)
There's no "secret" freight paying those numbers right now.. So,The Truth everyone. It makes for better conversation.

 

Thats because youre in Chicago

 

Hmmm, could be

I see that Timber up in Mass and Conn has moved from $1.05 per mile to a mind blowing. .84 cents per mile
I see Port freight from Jersey to the Midwest dropped from $1.70 per mile to $1.35 per mile
I see Steel from Phila/Camden up into New England Crash From $3.85 per mile Down to a mere $2.40 per mile

Hmmm,,, It must be chicago

 

I understand that the quoted poster hates brokers. That's ok with me. I don't care. But I was an independent for 10 years and the quoted poster is 100 percent correct. Stop inflating your numbers. You know its BS, O/O's who have a business clue know its BS.....

 

No that was just an example where he mentioned state of IL. On another note I don't mind Northeast. Typically when I go east I like to go to MD/NJ area. From there pick a little short 350 max type of run, paying atleast $1400.. And preferably light easy unload is a must. Then I would dead head back and pick something to Midwest. Of course it has to be reasonable. I have a load I can show you that was 3 miles, pick and delivery straight through $750. All in the morning. In Ohio. It is hazmat however. This is why I say depends on commodity.

Bottom line is this : I know what I need to make, for truck maintenance, myself, etc. If I have to dead head, haul heavy, special commodity, sometimes just because I am only guy in the area with insurance that is high,sometimes expedited, sometimes military, but I'll do it and give service and for that I need my price. I charge the broker, the direct customer, whoever it is I need to make what have in mind. Are they making more than me, are they losing money? Not my problem. I work hard and I'm not dealing with trucking to make scraps. I'll deadhead thousand miles away if I have to. Can't work with unreasonable brokers or cheap shippers. Also there are few tricks to negotiating. I've never took a load without getting atleast a little bit more. That's my mentality every time I go on the road. I need a reason to take that load, and if the reason is "it's taking you home".. Well I always have money to go home whenever I feel like it without a load.

Also you'll make great money with LTL. For example 1 pick, 6 drops. Pick Sunday delivery by Thursday noon. all together miles let's say 1,200. I calculate 5 days based on my $1,000 a day min fee, and my minimum is $5,000(more of there are tolls, etc). But I see guys that will take it for $3200 because it's "over 2/mile". If you divide $3200 by 5 (days) it's $640 a day. What is a average daily fixed cost? What about taxes? Add a bit of fuel to it? What are you really left with? Even at $5,000 for a load like that it's not great.

As a owner operator or independent carrier you have to look at this as a business. Always decrease cost, increase revenue. Value your time away from home, weather conditions, sitting at shops, paper work, driving, etc and not many understand that.

I'm sure everyone has heard "I'm losing money on this load!".. I always chuckle and say "good thing you made great profits on other loads!".. They say "not really its been tough".. I reply with "maybe you should find a different industry because everyone is making money".., that quickly changes that theme and we're back onto "if you want my truck and service this is the rate, I can't come down and I don't want to waste your time"... Then I get put on hold.. And then "ok we got approved rate can I have your truck number, where do you want me to send it? " blah blah. Many won't even go that far. Sometimes I go as far as saying "if you're looking for a cheap truck don't waste my time, call me if you got the money that I need".. Where I know there is no good paying freight I specifally look for a least desirable place to deliver. It's a load that will be hard to move and I'll negotioate by telling them "you know nobody wants to go there, let's be reasonable, let's do $cxx, and go about our day and focus on other loads".. You'll be surprised how many times it works, and there are times where they won't budge.

 

That's true, you can't locally get that everyday, but you'll end up in different states where your truck is needed for some reason for the short run. You're not going to go home for dinner in for example High Point,NC if you live in ST Louis, MO. If you're on the road away from home why should you stay in High Point,NC on. 250 mile run for $600 or even less?? It doesn't make sense. You charge your $1000 min, or keep moving else where.

 

Regarding low-ball shippers:
I quit saying "it will never move for that" a long time ago. One of my solid base customers went to 3PL from in-house a couple of years ago, the 3PL brought most of the carriers over- they'd call me with loads and I'd say "no thanks at that rate". Eventually I got the "If you don't move something we will take you off the list". OK, works for me.
Does the freight move at the rates they are offering? Yes, it sure does.
Can they count on consistent pick-up/delivery times? Nope.
Can the shipper/receiver verbally communicate vital load information with the driver? Not always
Have the damaged & total loss goods claims gone way up? Yep, but that doesn't affect the shippers bottom line
Are the employees/salesmen at the shippers various locations happy? (I still talk to a couple of them from time to time) Not at all- but they can't do a #### thing about corporate decisions
Is the shipper going to say "wow, things were so much better before when we used our own qualified carriers"? Not any time soon that I can see, they are moving product at a fraction of what it was before- it's bottom rung service but it's cheap= bottom line

I don't hate brokers/3pl/FF, if the market is there and you can pull it off more power to you. In fact I think that uShip getting 20% or so of gross and never having to arrange for a truck or being an actual broker is absolutely BRILLIANT!

I don't hate cheap carriers, they will either thrive or fail. I'm guessing the later.

Everything I do now is with customers that either won't or can't use logistics providers, I've had to adapt to the market.