Todays great rate

53' Fontaine Infinity Step with ramps, load levelers, tarps, more gear and tools to get what ever the job is done. Better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

As for commodities,.. my choice loads are equipment and machinery. Loaders, dozers, small excavators, man lifts, motorgraders. I also like to do over size loads. Nothing too crazy. Fiberglass tanks, sheets of steel, farm equipment, structures.

But I will and do haul anything that fits. Warehouse racks, shingles, bricks, super sacks of chopped rubber, super sacks of bentonite, Pallets of salt bags, lumber, pipe, snow plow blades, truck chassis, foam insulation panels, steel coils, crates of what ever,.. military loads,.. if it fits, it ships,.. if it doesnt fit,.. I'll get a permit and ship it anyway.

Last 3 loads were completely opposite of each other. Hauled 2 over size plastic tanks from Ne for Ct DOT, then took a 40 ft container down to Md and now sitting out side receiver in Nj with a bailing machine, 2 hoppers and another machine that chops up styrofoam for recycling.

Hurst

 

Wow. I thought over sized would probably be the only bullet proof market considering it might be serious customers that don't deal with brokers.

What type of RPM have you averaged after and before permits lately? I understand if you don't want to answer but I'm just curious

 

It varies. From last Sept till Dec 20th when I took off for a few weeks I was averaging $2.65mi from brokered loads,.. thats all loads combined. Some over size that paid as much as $8.75mi, to cheap pcv pipe that barely paid $2.15mi. Basically I took anything over $2mi that weighed under 40k. Over 40k I wanted at least $2.50 - $3mi. Originally I wouldnt take tarp loads for under $2.50 either. I just did one a couple weeks ago that barely broke $1.91 mi. It was the best paying load to get out of where I was.

I came back out Jan 5th , and seems rates really took a nose dive after the holidays. Mid west and southern lanes,. I was struggling to see $2 mi. Took me 3 weeks to work my way back up here to the NE. Last 3 loads I described previously,.. the 2 over sized tanks from Ne to Ct paid $4000. About $2.75mi. (Each tank weighed 4002 lbs. 8004 lbs total load weight),.. so $2.75 mi even with permits was profitable for me. I averaged 6.1 mpg.. even after hitting PA and up i84 into Ct. The 40ft container paid $650 to go 137mi with a 110 mi dead head. The load I am on now paid $750 to go 91 mi with a 90 mi dead head.

All 3 of them are brokered loads that were posted on the DAT360 load board. So its nothing that anyone else couldnt have done also. I have a really fantastic goddess of a dispatcher, that I work really well with and she is a take no prisoners negotiator. Much better at it than I am.

Not all my loads pay this well. I am having a really good week. Next week I may end up sitting for a day or 2,.. or may continue the roll. I like this area because the short hauls pay well and I can deliver and get a reload the same day,.. (Usually).

I dont mind sharing my rates,.. I just dont want people to think that I dont know the difference between prime rib and cat food.

Hurst

 

Thanks for sharing. I appreciate it a lot.

 

@Hurst one thing that many forget is this is a business at the end of the day you have to take the best best load. Your carrier is right. Truck sitting over the weekend is not good. You're wasting home time, costing yourself money, and no one is making anything.

I think you're doing the right thing and don't stop!

 

Dude, of all the people to try to play mine is bigger with, hurst has got to be one of the worse.

How long have you owned a truck? A class 8. Pick up truck tonka toys dont count

 

Fliflops, that segment was one of the first to see rates get hammered. All the heavy equipment sitting idle from oil field job cuts. I know a guy who quit doing RGN work and went back to a regular flatbed because rates for legal loads are better. No segment in brokered freight has been immune to the downward trend.

 

Little explanation of the crash in the oilfields and areas affected.

http://www.ibtimes.com/hard-times-boomtown-usa-rise-fall-oil-williston-north-dakota-2224834

 

Open deck always gets hit first and hardest, but when this turn back around our rates go up first, and higher.

Hurst and flipflops are totally right here. We all want the homerun 4 dollar a mile load, some days we get it, other days we have to settle on a lesser paying, but still profitable load. It's better to make 500 after expenses on a slow day than zero plus still have all the fixed expenses.


Hey hurst. Those rates you posted, is thay before or after your carriers cut?

 

I agree 100%. For me the days of "I can sit out this month and make it up next month" are over. Next month isn't a given anymore. At a minimum even in a typical month when freight is slow or dead I need to at least hit my break even.