Sit or bounce?

The worst case scenario is sitting for a day or two THEN bouncing. I have learned to bounce early, bounce often.

My situation is a little different, running oilfield loads. I will try to find brokered loads if I take a run from OKC to ND or WY to head back to OKC, but most of the time I deadhead all the way back to OKC if I don't get a backhaul from the customer I deliver to. I have 8' drops, but I have used them a grand total of three times in the last two years. I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of them.

 

My play book is pretty much a carbon copy of yours. I look for freight going to the dead spots where nobody else wants to go. Round trip money in and either empty or a quick/easy load back.
If nothing is shaking then there's always something to do on the farming side of things.
The truck doesn't leave the driveway unless the outbound pays for the whole trip or the odds are real good on a paying load home to average it out.
I'm right around 40% loaded miles this summer and an real happy about the average.
It's the "gotta run even if we're only breaking even" crowd that ends up with wore out equipment and no $ to fix it.
Better to go broke fishing every day than to work yourself broke.

 

I don't go far from the house to begin with. I'm usual not more than 300 miles. I will give it a half a day then I just head back. I know I can get decent freight from home 20 or just stay home.

I find with this attitude going in, freight seems to always pop up even when I just want to bounce.

I don't go 1000 miles anymore because I never find anything coming back worth my time. So now I just limit the risk and stick close to the house.

I can't remember the last time I couldn't get home from less than 300 miles out. I do remember lots of time waiting (sometimes a couple of days) to find something 1200 miles from the house.

Friday at noon is quitting time. If I don't have something booked, I'm in the wind!!!! Home in no more than 6 hours.

 

Sure wish I could operate like this but being leased to a carrier it's almost impossible. Very rarely is there every enough money on a load to pay for he round trip. Not hard to get money going both ways though.

 

When you don't seem to care if you get the freight or not it seems more people want you to haul it. Just my experience

 

It's a good feeling to truly not give a ####.

 

Hey, it works like that with women too

 

Where'd you think I came up with the idea?

 

You are correct, sir. That's when you only go where YOU know for a certainty that you can get freight every day of the week. You're better off pulling cheap freight than you are pulling to a dead zone for less than a round trip rate. The travel agent is just trying to sell you on a load. He doesn't care whether or not you make a dime. He may tell you about some freight in a dead zone. "Oh there are loads there, pulled one last week."

Pulled "O-N-E"

Are you going to bet the bank account that there will be a load coming out that will pay for you to haul it? And for some reason, it always goes to an even worse location. For cheap. You hear some schmuck take a load out to California for $2.25/mile and then take a load paying $.88/mile going to western Colorado. Just shot the following week to hell.

 

That's the problem with cheap freight, and haulin to dead zones. If you don't immediately pack up and leave. You end up with one good week and a crappy following week. Which in turn puts you in desperation mode, which sends you right back to the dead zone. Now you're in an endless downward spiral until you're broke or disgusted. Or both.