1,300 dollar fine for a glider in California

I hope the tunnel has a glass top like those glass bottom boats, inverted.

 

Yup... An option to get back closer to your main lines or closer to better rates. Cheap freight has a place in back haul too. Doesn't work for all that is true.

 

Would love to take one load at some point!

In the summer that is... LOL

But I'm a company driver so less issues for me volunteering for such a load.

 

I'm pretty certain it's the big companies that are taking most of those loads that are under a dollar. I'm sure a few owners might pick up some to get to moving when they're desperate or can't stand sitting, but some of those loads are just going to another bad area. Has to be the big companies taking them.

 

Much nicer ride in the cold months. Packed snow makes for a very smooth ride.

 

Sorry but the publicly available numbers do not back that up. It's quite the opposite. Don't take my word for it, look it up yourself. It's very easy to figure out the average rate per mile for every publicly traded carrier. Another thing to consider.

The big carriers don't need to use public load boards very often. They have the capacity to get those shippers direct, and also have been dealing with the bigger brokerage firms for decades, so instead of paying a guy to search load boards, when they need to find a load they just send a blast email to the brokers they do business with.

 

Megas have contract freight that pays better than spot freight, that's their bread and butter. When they get trucks in areas with a high ratio to loads, no contract loads available, they'll go to the spot market. When they blast those emails, you think those brokers were sitting on those loads waiting for that? I'm pretty sure they have them on a board for .70 a mile. When they won't budge no matter what strategy you use, and that load disappears in the next hour, I'm pretty sure who took it. You're not going to argue me out of my own experience.

 

It isn't argueing, that's what people do when they lose control of their emotions. I don't know about where you are at, but down by me and in the areas i run i see a lot more cheap independents than large carriers. Obviously not every independent and small carrier runs cheap, but based on my conversations with 1 to 5 truck operations for every guy i meet that has a clue and can run a business i meet 99 more than are making 35k a year. And if you look at all the threads on ttr complaining about brokers and cheap rates, that seems to carry over nationwide.

 

To argue is to try to prove ones point. It's what trial attorneys do. You have your experience, I have mine. An independent is not going to just make a poor living at .70 or .80 a mile. He'll go out of business. Since large carriers self insure, and run their own shops, and other adantages, they can make a small profit on that. I don't know what a man does in reality, but every owner I know, says they'll run empty before they haul freight that cheap.

 

How can you think large carriers have lower costs than a small guy?

Look at it on a per truck basis. Sure werner and knight are self insured to a certain point, so that's 10k a year they save over the small 1 truck show IF that new driver has no claims for the year. Their shops save them money on pms and minor repairs such as replacing brakes alternators batteries and minor wiring problems. That's all the stuff every truck owner can do. They aren't rebuilding rear ends trannys and engines. But what about their additional costs that the small guy doesn't have? Drop yards and fully staffed terminals all over the country, huge office buildings with hundreds of full time employees. Salesmen, dispatchers, fleet managers, log auditors, etc etc. Do you really think all that money spent on real estate and employees not driving a truck is less than the 10k they save being self insured?

Back to your example of 70 cpm. Yep, no doubt any independent pulling that will be out of business soon. But that's a bit extreme of a figure even when discussing cheap freight. More realistic is the average loadboard cheap rates of 1.25 to 1.50 a mile. A large carrier can not haul for that and make a profit. Their overhead is just way too high. But a small guy, with today's fuel costs of 30 cpm, that's .95 to 1.20 after fuel. He can do it and eek out a living on it..for a while anyway.