Finally got my own truck

Lol.

Last 3 weeks I've done $6100, $6050, and $3000 and went home.

This week I picked up a sliding gate out of a metal fabrication shop 25 mins from home. Weighed 3200 lbs and went to DOT Foods in Ardmore, OK. Some driver ruined the fence gate to their truck entrance and they had to get a new one. They told me the customer paid $10,000 for the gate, not sure if the $2200 I got for it was included in that. I got 8.5mpg on that and unloaded early this morning. Immediately deadheaded to OKC and sat and sat. Got a couple of calls from to Tulsa to PA but they wouldn't pay even $2.50/mi. Plus $250 in tolls. No thanks.

There was one going 1400 mi to Norfolk, 20k on the weight, going to military base. Food product for emergency situation regarding blackouts. $2400 not a penny more. Figured I'd be there all day Friday. Told the guy I'd look for my SS card which was required as part of identification. Found it and called back, they wouldn't budge.

Ended up taking a TQL load a two dropper one in Longview tx at 7am and then Hope AR. Paid only $800. The agent assured me it was very quick unloading at both stops and to trust him on that. If he isn't lying, then I could be in little rock by noon or 1pm, in time for money loads. Not sure where to go from there though to set up for Friday. Would rather be in LR on Friday but I'll have to figure it out. Don't want to go to GA but western SC might work. I saw loads posted in LR going to Atlanta for $2.50+. Maybe I'll try to score $3.50/mi.to KC and get something decent there Friday. KC looked like it got a little busy. Haven't had the best luck out of there but i.keep that option in mind.

I'm not really burning out, maybe it's too much caffeine lately. Mostly coffee. Its the playing these chess games that I'm tired of. If they could just pay a decent rate in the morning instead of being stubborn and waiting until 2pm to pay anything, it would make my job easier. Lol. They keep hoping in the morning that the market sucks and theirs is the only load available. And then they don't get any calls on it. So after lunch they start trying to cover the ones they need covered. And if it doesn't ship, they can just do it all over again tomorrow. Until time runs out.

Brokers, you need to start raising your prices to your customers. The market is a couple marks hotter than what it should be at this point. December the crap is going to hit the fan. I hope thousands and thousands of Christmas gifts don't make their destination on time.

And I hope nobody takes anything to D.C.

 

What a crappy week.

The load out of OKC took me until 1pm the next day. Emptied in Hope, AR and started deadheading toward LR. Too late in the day and wasn't getting many calls. I don't understand it. AR is showing dark red on the map.

Ended up deadhead all the way to Palestine, AR for Friday. Tried to hold out for big money but it didn't come on a long run. About 1-130 got some interesting calls. Some lady who admitted she had seen me posting my truck all day for "$3/mi $3,000 min" and then after a while edited my post and lowered my standards, all of which was true, had a load to Lufkin to deliver Saturday morning. Offered like $1300 on I think 350 miles but I couldn't pull the trigger. I was at $3000 gross and had to get to at LEAST $5500. Lufkin is not the area to try and grab a load on a Saturday. I ended up offering to take the risk for $1800 but she couldn't.

Then coyote posted a load memphis to ft Smith for $1500 so I called my rep girl to find out about it. Deliver Saturday, picks in Jackson, though, and I was already 52 miles from Memphis, and Jackson is another 85-90 miles. Place would have closed before I could get there. They had accepted my $1600 bid as well. But it wasn't gonna work. Hope they covered it.

Then CHR called! Load 30mi away going to Indy 500 miles Sat delivery I offered $1600, he said he could, also said it was could so I asked if it had to be nailed braced to the floor. While he was finding out about it, someone booked it for $1000. Pffft. Whatever.

Then XPO posted memphis to Mt pleasant IA. I knew it was Wal Mart and I know they had to cover it. 510 miles posted $1275. I called, yup it was Wal Mart, yup delivery was Sat 0930. Countered my $1700 offer with $1600, since I was the one who called first, I accepted. Delivered this morning in time for a 30mi mt
320 mile $900 reload to KC Monday morning delivery. 840 miles over the weekend, $2500 revenue.

I turned a bad week into a halfway decent week.
$5500 on 2800 all miles or so. I should be doing better than this at this point and I'm beating myself up a little but I stay positive. It will be okay.

Since a giant spatula seems to be in the process of flipping the market back over, I'm gonna rethink my strategy of where to run.

I think sometimes I may be trying to be too greedy and hold out and end up losing out.
Maybe efficiency with time might work better in my favor. I set my standards so high that I'm afraid to take less than $1200 on anything 500+miles to somewhere like Ohio. The not knowing of what I could get from there, or anywhere, the uncertainty, I find myself freezing up on making a good decision and end up having to make any decision at all. It's incredibly difficult to keep up on the market dynamics.

I avoid runs more than 650 all miles and less than 1000 all miles. $2000 on 850 miles to Louisiana or PA or KC or whatever 2nd tier market sounds good until you realize you can't deliver the next day. So that's only $1000/day to an area where you can get $1000-1100 on 700-800 miles. Has to be a fair rate to a good area, or a great rate to a not great area, has to be time efficient, and has to go somewhere I won't refuse to go to. I guess one could say I'm pretty darn picky. But as picky as I am, I'm making it work.

Unless you're one of those who drive til 4am and get up at 8am and deliver. Cheap bass turds driving down rates, taking 2 day loads in one day to make the revenue. I'm hoping elogs cut you guys to pieces. Do I run legal? No, im not running 100% compliant, that's just about impossible to do working off load boards and still make decent money, but if I have to run over, my logs will look right if I was pulled over. Just as long as they don't look through my garbage bag. But I'm about 90% compliant. I don't drive more than 750 in a day except on rare occasions.

Rant over. Time to sleep.