Broker paperwork question

Here's how I look at it a simple formula. I have 11% coming off the top so I shoot for $3.30 or better per loaded mile. That leaves almost $3 per mile after the company's take off the top and purchases some deadhead miles. If deadhead pulls it down to $2 a mile by week's end I am ticked off. Anything between $2-2.25 a mile is ok. $2.25-2.50 is better, if the average is over $2.50 a mile that in my book is great. With your own authority you can underbid a guy like me and still get a better rate to the truck. But don't sell yourself short. Circumstance dictates everything. When you're always averaging over $3 a mile you get a good feel for markets and will know when you can command more. A guy running for average rates thinks they hit a lottery on your average rate and won't have a clue when they could get more. Above is just general guideline I use. If I'm offered a load to somewhere like OK or FL it's $5 or nothing. I don't get those often but when I do.... I'm not sitting in Florida or OK fretting that I came in on a cheap half rate. I'm looking at markets for a follow up reload with better rates far away or something convenient for me close by. I have those options whereas a truck suckered into a half rate only has the one, and it ain't pretty nor fun.

 

Doesn't hurt to ask, but don't hold your breath on that going NJ to CA. NJ outbound is cheap whether you go 300 miles or 2300 miles. That trip looks better in about 3 segments starting with something quick in the sub-$2 range to get to OH then two more profitable legs west. Or a big fat rate into NE, ID, or CO and empty the rest of the trip.

Edited to add: OK if you use the fuel surcharge method to gin up a rate, but don't mention it when talking to a broker. Nor should you let them make a big deal about offering it. FSC only matters on contract rates. Spot loads are all-in. The price is the price, excepting accessorials (pallets, lumpers, cranes, permits, etc) of course.

 

Gokiddogo. You are correct. Unless your house on the West Coast is on fire, Hop Scotch west and it will generate more revenue. I dispatch two refers out of Portland OR. And they generally go straight to East Coast/ SE, then Hop Scotch back to the West--usually 3 or 4 loads west bound.

 

These guys are spot on. Every market is different. I have a tendency to be living in my own world and comment accordingly. Must be nice to have the ability to land $9k 3,000 mile trips I never see anything like that but I work with what I know I can get. You have to know and you have to be hardnosed about dictating and patient enough to let things come to you. I know of one place I can always get $3 a mile out then sometimes $3 a mile right back on good miles. Wish every direction was like that... When it's much worse than $3 back you either hop scotch or triangulate back at a better rate. I don't know about triangulating cross country, anything is possible if you find those lanes keep it to yourself, but hop scotch would be simpler. The cheapest and easiest back should always be last resort and of course the rate that put you in that scenario had better make the round turn profitable, but really look for something better farther away first always. I figured out an occasional great out and back lane from info off this very forum. You read enough threads here you pick up useful nuggets like that now and again.