Mercer Average

Not sure your going to get a straight answer from any of us. We all run different lanes and types of loads (short haul, long haul, hazmat, oversized, containers, military, entertainment.....). Of course each of these comes with its ups and downs in rates. Also rates vary depending on the part of the country you are in/work.

 

Call a recruiter and they'll tell you the fleet avg.

 

During the month of December the fleet average was 1.88, that's what a recruiter told me.

 

My average for the year of 15, all miles off the odometer, was 1.93 and that's with over 30 percent dead head. My dh is much higher than the average guy, for two reasons, 1 I live in south Florida. 2 I run a lot of very short loads, on those I might have 3 times more empty miles than loaded ones.

 

What constitutes a short load? I'd be super happy making between 1.90-2.00 for all miles. I'd run loads with less than 450 miles and tarp everyday if thats what it takes.

 

If this was directed at my post above, well it varies every day. A big chunk of what I do is short 30 to 100 mile runs that pay over 500 to the truck. But might be 150 to 200 miles from me. So on an average day, I might have two hundred total miles, only 50 of which was loaded, and have a truck pay of 500+. Won't work for every one. But works for me.

 

Some people classify it different.
As a former guy with my own authority I always classified anything I could knock out in 5-6 hours drive time was a local run. Anything above that but not more than 8 hours drive time was a short haul.

 

Yep. We all have different definitions. To me local is something that i load run and deliver and go home after. Basically any load that doesn't cause me to sleep in the truck. Short haul for me is any load requiring up to half a day of work, but not close enough to the house to go back home after delivery

 

The short hauls always garner a better rate. However, the rate you get will also depend on the lane you are operating in and what the load to truck ratio is in an area. It varies. The economy also plays a huge part.