How often do you move a $200-$300 load?

Really no harm in them trying. Worst case scenario McClane just sends their own truck out last second. They probably save money if they get a sucker to pull it for them.

 

Never. Ive been offered $650 load to go 25 miles but my cousin snatched before me.
$200 is what company driver should make to move short loads.

 

Yeah, no way I'd consider it with a reefer.

 

These kinds of loads should be run by local trucking companies with cheap equipment (those old day cabs you see everywhere are these guys... they are actually a pretty big part of the industry.)

They usually know a lot about all the local shippers and can accurately handicap exactly how much time it's going to take and price it much more accurately. What makes no sense for you at 300 could be a gravy run for them. What makes tons of sense to you at 500 they might know to stay clear of.

 

If I am in town anyway, can knock it out in an hour or two before making a non-time-sensitive pickup? I'll do it every day. If it'll take all day or screw with my ability to haul better stuff, then I won't.

 

Yeah this. I think running some local stuff around your house isn't a bad way to make some easy money on late pickups.

 

When I'm around the house and not feeling hitting the road for the week I can actually do between $3500-$4500 M-F at around 900 - 1100 miles. the problem though comes in with the timing of it all and if you really feel like humping out that week for the money and the ability to be at home every night.

However, I don't care what it is or how far it has to go. Not going in my box for less than $400. I try to stick to $500 as my rate for any load since you never know what the load will end up being like unless you've done them before. In my case I do a lot of stock transfers for a local beer distributor so it's always easy in and out first priority. Usually can string two together per day unless they want the furthest (150 miles) done first.

Since there are a few grocery warehouses in my area, on those weeks when I'm in I usually can get at least 2 LTL loads out of the cold storage for $750-$900 a piece on 15-50 miles then tack on another $150-$250 for lumping it myself.

Just depends on your hustle I believe and your ability to say no when they offer BS rates.

 

200-300 dollar LTL shipments are the exclusive domain of big LTL carriers like XPO, Fedex, Old Dominion, and etc unless you're looking at Chicago or LA in my opinion. And Chicago and LA only have independent LTL haulers because there are so many partials in Chicago or LA that consolidating them is pretty trivial.