BIG COMPANY OTR solo drivers don't get long runs - do you agree!?

I can't believe people are averaging less than 500 miles per load! If I get a sub 500 mile load its usually headed twords aurora il or newberry sc where I can get a longer load. Of course, I get a bonus for hauls under 600 miles, so they have an incentive to keep me on longer loads.

 

Houston to Chicago or Beaumont to Chicago was pretty common in my time with PAM.
New Jersey to Laredo or almost anywhere to Laredo also common.

BEST deal I had was a dedicated Shreveport, LA on Monday morning to Lockport, NY on Thursday afternoon. SWEET!

By the end of my time with PAM two kinds of Loads were common. Pickup 2AM at Conway and deliver 400-500 miles away by 10AM at a different Conway. Or pickup on Thursday and deliver on Monday 300-500 miles away (most often 250 -300 miles).

I drive hotshot in Houston and like it better than anything but that dedicated!

 

I've done 151 loads this year ... 10% are over 1200 miles, 30% are over 800 miles, 30% are between 500 and 800 miles and the other 40% are under ... Doesn't inlcude empty miles ... including MT miles I've run 115000 miles ytd, with 7% of those mile as MT.

Nothing sweet about delivering a load on Thursday afternoon that you can get there on Tuesday night.

 

It worked for me man! Compared to the usual it was decent miles and time to smell the roses!

 

Transam still runs over 1000 mile runs pretty consistently Delivered Lewiston Maine from Olathe Ks this week 1650 miles
then 400 miles empty to Baldwinsville NY to Amarillo TX another 1600 miles
2 small weeks total but i took 4 days off in Portsmouth Nh

 

Who do you work for and what's the bonus? US Xpress pays on a sliding scale, depending on the length of the run... I don't think I would consider that a bonus though?

 

Interesting that you know these stats... pretty cool... are you using some kind of software to keep track of that information, or a spreadsheet, or ?
(Just curious) Do you get paid for being loaded or MT?

 

Excel ... I'm an L/O ... anybody who's in any business has to be able to put thier fingers on any metric they want, whenever they want ... if you can't, you will never truely understand your business and what you don't understand costs you money.

I get some compensation, but no profit on MT miles.

 

It's based on a sliding scale, but paid out as a bonus. I don't remember the scale off the top of my head, but it slides from +.02 near 600 miles to +.12 down near 100 miles. I work for central refrigerated.

 

You're so right about all this. I use a self-made database that gives me all sorts of stats from the obvious like cpm, to things people never think about, like DEF cost/mile. I talk to other l/o's who think they're doing ok, only to find out they ran 17000 miles in two months (CPM, not PCT pay). They're barely making it and don't even know it yet.

I tried to set up a table to give me net revenue by mileage bracket (example loads 300-600 average $.xx/mi) but couldn't get it to give me any reasonable information because many short loads either have high nets because I use fuel purchased during the last load, or negative nets because I purchase fuel to get me well into the next load (like if im taking a load through VA and delivering in PA. I never go to PA without enough fuel to get back to a cheeper state) Any tips on how to put your finger on that number by prorating fuel used? I'm always looking to improve my overall picture of where the money is made.