Grossing $5k Per Week

I agree with this.

Trucking is a small part of our overall business but if my truck/trailer can’t make $140 per hr, it stays parked.

We do a lot of local moves. On them, you can spend more time loading/unloading than you do actual driving, so everything is figured on a hourly rate. It’s $140 per hr of you want us to haul it.

 

Prime IS grossing 5k or more a week off of your truck most of the time. 3 to 4k is just your cut of the pie.

 

"So since I'm leased onto a mega, they are basically just another middleman for me?"

Pretty much...

 

Well, your starting to ask the right questions. The question I used to always myself, does this company really have my best interest in mind? Does any dispatched owner op really have control over their bottom line? Is it really smart to lease onto a company that has a large pool of company trucks? These questions will help guide you

 

This past week I grossed 6100 on 2500 miles. If I did not need to be home for the weekend, I was offered another 600 miles load for $2400 to Rochester, NY, so that would have been $8500 on 3100 dry van miles.
I always had 5k gross on 5 days goal since I started 2.5 years ago. Even though it has been hard to do that in 2015 and 2016, for the last 6 months grossing 5k on 2000-2500 weekly miles was very easy without working weekends.
IMHO, when you have weekly $$$ goal its much easier to plan, book and quote loads.

P.S. I do book my own loads. No dispatcher would ever do the same as I do for myself

 

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. The key to success is “You have to work for it”

 

You're about 3 years too late to make that kind of money as a company driver

 

Of course they are taking a cut of the pie. They don't work for free.

But you also need to be looking at what other benefits they are giving you, are they paying your insurance? Are they giving you reduced rates on insurance? Are they forcing you to pay for their own specific insurance? Reduced rates on fuel, or FSC? Are they paying your plates?

Gross means very little. Grossing 5k a week on 1700 miles is very different than Grossing 5k a week on 4000 miles. Leasing onto a company means that you might be only making a certain amount, but certain things are paid for them. I mean you get guys leasing trucks at 90 cpm and somehow scraping out a living. That wouldn't happen in they were paying full price for fuel and insurance and plates and everything.

 

You will be making company driver's salary or maybe even less. Sorry, but you got screwed

 

So Dune-T is it fair to say you may have been making company driver wages or worse during '15-'16 but now you're doing much better? If so, is that typical over the long term - to have 1 really good year & 3 or 4 lean years? I'd guess not given how many O/O drivers there are out there, certainly most are making good money most of the time no?

This has been a really good lesson learned the easy way for me; I mean I've gathered that you just don't lease, period. But also to make sure you've got a handle on the business well before making contractual obligations.