Can a one man operation really compete with the bigs

You want the medal, or chest to pin it on.

 

My question for owner/operators with their own authority are as follows: When negotiating rates, are you able to negotiate a rate plus fuel surcharge or is the rate "all in"? Do you negotiate for extra pay based on tarping, tolls and detention times. How successful are you in collecting the negotiated rates and extras? Does anyone have these rates posted on a webpage? Does anyone have a regular broker(s) that they call or calls them on a regular basis?

 

It's an "all in" rate.

I tell them what I want to do it. They either pay it or they don't.

Took me about 10 minutes to get the rate tonight I wanted out of BNSF. Rather surprised too. They had always been $1.20 or less on my prior to today.


I have a distribution list in my email of all the brokers I have worked with in the past. I email them regularly my status, times, locations and where I am headed.

More than not lately, it gets me loaded prior to getting me to my destination.

 

What is BNSF?? A rail yard?? I mean i know it's a train company like Union Pacific or UP i should know i deliver cans mainly to the BNSF railyard in Los Angeles. I ask this cuz i see it on TTR once in a while

 

The have a brokerage side too.

http://www.bnsflogistics.com/carriers.html

 

Aaahh i see

 

I don't normally call them because I rarely was getting rates out of them to even talk about.

Not sure what happened that I got the rate I wanted this time.

 

It probably had to move asap.... That's how i usually get the better rates from my dispatcher. Last week i got a load from Compton to Henderson NV 590 mile round trip (cans) for $2000 all in... picked up the can in the companies yard dropped the empty back in the yard.. didn't have to deal with the port on that one...

 

Nice.....

It was 5 PM tonight when I booked the load for an 8 AM load time. We were already set up for them with a carrier packet so that helped out a lot.


There are times during the day it's not worth calling on loads, and other times it's worth it to hit the phones hard.

 

This dispatcher I'm talking about only calls me when he has no other choice cuz most drivers don't wanna leave the county much less the state lol..