negotiating rates

That's why it's called the law of averages. Some days, weeks, months you kick arse. Others not as much.

In the end, you're shooting for a profitable margin that fits your lifestyle and the way you want to operate.

 

I’ve found it’s easier to pull bigger rates on a van than a flat.

 

I know I've been paying bigger rates on van freight the last month than I have for flat/step deck. FEMA ate van capacity right up.

 

TallJoe- Working off Boards (assuming thats what you do) Here's a lil friendly advice-

MONDAYS suck for money.........Everyone and their brother wants the weekend off and Load Up on Monday- Borkers know this

Good Money Days are Friday and 600-800 mile runs loading up on a thursday afternnon.

Mondays have always been the "I can get a cheaper truck" mentality from the Borkers And it works.

 

That's conventional wisdom but the truth on my lanes in the southeast for reefer has mostly been Mondays and Tuesdays are big money and the end of the week dies off. That's been the trend for over a year. My buddy in Chicago see's the same. Goes against everything I thought and makes no sense but that's how crazy this year has been.

 

Ain't that the truth... it has been a crazy year. Mostly for me, my really busy days are Wednesday through Friday. My two biggest customers slam me with stuff those days. When I have something from either of them on a Monday, though, it's gotta go quick, fast, and in a hurry. Call usually goes something like this:
"Dude, I need a truck to pick up today and go to X. Can you get me someone?"

"Well, yeah, give me a few to find you someone. I'll call you back, and let you know what they're asking."

And the hell of it is, if you're not asking for the moon, there's usually a pretty good chance you'll get what you're asking. Sure, I'll start with a ballpark of what I think it should be, usually based on the lane averages for the past week, and negotiate from there. When you get a convo like that, there's usually a pretty good chance you can swing a bigger chunk, depending on the lane. I'm just glad I don't do reefer for you to gank me, @rollin coal

 

Curious what your's and boredsocial's opinion is this week. Has it balanced out any?

 

Well, I had a van load out of the Chicago market that I struggled to cover last week because my usual carrier didn't have any capacity to cover. Same lane, and it melted my line for the same rate I started at last week. Though, to be fair, yesterday I still paid $3.50/mi out to Boston from that shipper, so it's hard to say for sure. Feels like it's starting to balance a bit, though. Are you guys still seeing tons of FEMA loads or no?

 

I never really saw any of those. Was only seeing the impact they had on other freight. I try to avoid them really.

 

Also - since I'm back at my desk from lunch here: I think it's also dependent on market segment and location. Buffalo is still weirding me out, I still hate everything about Pennsylvania, and Houston has been remarkably consistent even through the storms. Granted, that's almost all open deck freight for me, out of those locales. My Minnesota stuff spiked up a little, but has settled back down.