Beef Corp

They haul cows?

 

I've heard the owners an "#######" from several guys. They run spread axle double decker pots and I've never seen em hauling anything but cattle. Based out of MN iirc.

 

First things first what is your experience? if you have no experience as an O/O or as a bullhauler I would highly recommend against your current plans at least for the time being. Many are unable or unwilling to do what it takes to get this job done right. Make sure this is what you want before you sink a couple hundred grand into it unless you can afford to just blow that for fun.

1.I would highly recommend against buying a new Pete.
You will need a pre 2000 truck to dodge the E-log mandate which will cripple you in this industry. you can wait and see if that rule changes before buying a truck if you like. I have a 96' so I'm not concerned with it, but in your shoes I would wait. You will be paying twice as much in insurance as well as 5X or more on truck payments for that new Peterbilt over my old rig and you won't be getting more value.

2.Downtime costs you more than repairs in this business.
On a long haul you can gross over 4,000 dollars in one day. If your emissions systems decide to be uncooperative while your loaded nothing will costs you more than a repower. Nothing is more likely to need a repower than a new truck IMO if you properly maintain an old truck. You will pay full rate 4.00 per mile or more for a truck to deadhead to you god knows how far and then go deliver your load and depending on how long it takes for him to get there he may need to stop and feed/rest the animals to avoid losing them which you will also pay for. Then you need to pay a service truck and with a new truck most likely a tow truck to a dealer.

After you pay that then your looking at 2-5 business days before they even get you in because warranty work goes right to the bottom of the list. Then It takes them at least several days to get anything done and they normally won't even fix the problem because they don't really know what the problem is because these emissions systems are so new their full effect on the drivetrain has yet to be understood. After paying at least 3-5k for all this and losing 2 weeks of productivity your insanely high insurance and truck payments are still due and you will be wishing you could have just gotten a part swapped for a grand plus service truck fees like you could with a pre emission truck.

3.I don't know enough about their customer base to comment on whether they stay busy year round or not so I won't.

I will say however I do somewhat of a dedicated run pigs to TN and cattle back home one turn a week minimum 50 weeks a year. The pigs out are guaranteed. The cattle back are not, but never take long to find if you know the right people. I pad that with fat/feeder cattle and reefer work to stay busy, but no matter what I always have that one turn a week. I see a noticeable difference in the number of cattle pots out on the road given the time of year/cattle market prices which makes it reasonable to assume the majority of players in this industry do not stay busy year round. Feast or famine is the name of this game for most who don't have contracts like we do. 6000 miles one week and none the next is the norm.

The contract terms are good. I pay 22% for trailer rental and dispatch or 17% for trailer rental only. He fully pays for one trailer washout/steam/disinfect per week for the pig run and all trailer related costs.

All in I'm at 2.15 per running mile for july-September before he takes his cut. That's counting reefer work which dilutes the rate and fat cattle which inflates the rate per mile. I usually sit at 12-16k miles a month.

 

Also you don't need authority to run livestock. They are an exempt commodity. You can run with only a DOT #. You will still need URC,IFTA and IRP though.

 

my step dad was a cow hauler and it made an old man out of him quik ..i remember callin my mom back in the late 80s and tellin her i was gona go to work for kent oland in west fargo and she was clearly unhappy right off the bat !
when she was done explaining all it took to be a cattle hauler in the 70s and 80s i decided i needed more sleep than a cow hauler gets .

 

he was leased to H@R stewart in so. st paul ...good god ! lol