Paid miles

I've never been an owner operator, but I currently work as a dispatcher/load planner for a 30 truck fleet that is about 75% o/o's. When I'm finding freight for my o/o's, I think more in terms of revenue per day or week than cpm.

 

You got this paid things exactly backwards: A load pays what it pays to a company or O/O. What a O/O (or any company does) is back that number out and divide by real miles (both dead and live) to figure out his expenses and therefore his profit margin on the load. Pay per mile is just a measure to figure out you profit margin and expenses.

Your thinking too much like a company driver not a contractor. The practical mile or HMG miles is just a scam trucking companies use to work over company drivers and short change their pay and thus increase their profit margin.

 

As an o/o I don't care about how much per mile I look at what the job pays and how much is my cost. Ie run pays $6300 to the truck and my cost is $1325 = $4975 profit for 3 days work. Now to be accurate the cost to me is just my fuel bill obviously you need to calculate insurance and maintainence cost.

 

Sounds like what you're considering is a mileage deal. Percentage is the most fair way to pay an OO. Mileage contracts always keep you behind.

 

Had an interesting conversation with another driver the other day.

According to him, his boss swears up and down the customer will only pay for a given set of miles. For example, on a 1500 mile run (real world trucker miles excluding things like stopping for fuel, breaks, etc.), the customer is only willing to pay for 1450.

This did not compute with me because I always thought a customer is willing pay a certain amount of money to the truck. Then it's the o/o's or company's responsibility to calculate the miles, expenses, then negotiate/accept/decline the price.

The driver who told me this was skeptical as well. Personally, I think his boss is putting him on about a customer quoting to pay for a given set of miles.

Any O/Os out there experience a customer like this?

 

Customers don't pay by the mile.

They pay one rate that the get from the company.

If an owner is saying they pay by the mile, I would tell him he's full of it.

 

If you think of an O/O more as a contractor who either bids on a job or is given offers to do a job. That is how it is in reality.

If you read a post where an O/O gave a rate with a CPM,.. all he did was to break it down to show he is on a profitable haul. Unless he/she is still learning,.. others will be quick to point out if the rate is good or not.

A true O/O does not get paid by the mile. None that I know of anyway.

Hurst

 

We have coustemers that pay by the mile. They deliver to job sites all over the country. They have a set mileage rate and a FSC and a multiple stop pay bump. They print out the directions and give them to the driver with his BOL. They pay on thoese miles.

We have another coustemers that just gives us a flat rate per load.