How much do trucking companies charge for hauling freight?

That kind of information is sort of a secret. Not given out.

I once penetrated into the main printer room that kept track of debts and income paid or payable to the company which was a major flatbed outfit. They were showing a average of 2.40 a mile freight on decks shipped on our company trucks. I was shoo'ed out of there pronto and yelled at. It's their fault for leaving the door open. This was back in the 90's

 

Its simple. The last 2 years every scumbag 3pl brokerage firm has cut and cut and cuts rates so bad we have had to lower our prices just to get any business on a bid pack.
Then last fall it began to bite them in the ###. These brokers couldn't honor their cheap prices forcing shippers to put out spot bids to move their freight. So here we are now with a free for all spot bid market and its name your rate time. I love listening to theses weasel brokers cry about "only how much they have in the load" Well boys.... it was either you personally or your salesman in suits on the 50th floor that bit these lanes off way to cheap and now you get to bend over posting this on the load boards.
Being a grower-shipper-carrier-broker I get the pleasure of this coming full circle. Yes- it wont last forever and I know that. But, it makes work fun.

 

This is such a hard question to answer... freight from NJ to TX pays different than freight from TX to NJ.... and that’s simply stated!

 

When I bought my tractor back in the 90's we were fixing to see about a minimum break even of 1.10 and a profit of around 1.60 minimum haul, anything else is just too cheap to sustain business or maintain truck payments, fuel, payroll, insurance, parts, etc.

I don't know why in the world someone hungry enough to take .65 cent freight across the USA. It's unsustainable. At one time, we actually negotiated a rate to us our cost of about .55 from Fairbanks to Little Rock with a semi truck not too long ago. I don't know how in the world that company managed such a rate. At any rate, the total cost of the run would have exceeded the value of the household contents. We would do better spending half that rate quote in the furniture store retail across the street here at home for much nicer stuff.

We have seen it both ways, as a potential O/O and as a customer who ordered up a semi truck to run something across the Continent. Now at the time we were qouted something that low.. we asked them that I was expecting between say 1.50 and 2.50 or so and they told us that the number they gave us to consider is a solid one and that is that. Not allowed to talk about any other part of their company.

In a way I am glad we did not accept the qoute and hire them to haul it. At the same time I think that driver was in Fairbanks a little bit longer waiting on something coming back to the lower 48. Maybe I feel bad about it. Maybe not. I don't know yet. I aint decided.

 

$1,000,000,000 per month paid in advance!
I'm not sure what you are trying to get out of this. I can tell you that information is a tightly guarded secret for nearly all carriers. The amount of information and decision making that goes into it is crazy and varies by the day.

 

They bid it that low because rates were actually that low out in the common market. I was competing for customers spot loads during 2015 and 2016 and it was brutal. Margins at brokerages got smaller as gross sales went down. A lot of people went out of business.

Now that said a lot of people in your neck of the woods did VERY well if they were getting normal rates from customers in 2015 and 2016.

You're right though... what goes around comes around. Anyone who was bidding on 2017 in 3Q 2016 or later and hit it at 2015-2016 rates has long since cried uncle on that contract or has lost a TON of money.

Personally I float on top of the spot market prices like waterfowl. If the prices rise I rise with them. If the prices fall I fall with them. The only thing that stays constant is the price for MY service.

I've been trying to get away from that for a while now though... So it isn't THAT great.

 

Really?!? I have a copy of the current rate sheet for my customer (we only haul for 1) right on my phone. I know what every single load I hook up to will pay the truck. I'm also just the driver working for %.

 

He wasn't working for a % I'm guessing. Also big trucking companies guard this info very carefully.

 

I was paid percentage back in the 80's and understand what the truck made each week.

When I talked about that one company and it's protected printer room with the actual rates being paid to them by the MILE... it's information not given to drivers. To repeat, no one except high level staff was allowed in that room.

 

All the more reason to not get sucked into the cpm scam. Granted it took me several years to learn that lesson..............the hard way.