Car Hauling in Florida

My Central Dispatch account just went live today.. and I'm in FL.. but holy hell the rates are absolute ####.. I mean I wasn't planning to haul around in FL, I'm doing OTR but #### there are cars these fools have listed to go 100 miles and they want to pay $50.. Who would actually waste their time?

The average rate is about .60-.70 cent/mile on loads going 150-350 miles in state.. Which translates to about $125-$250 on average.. I mean I guess it's maybe slim pickings due to end of the week.. but still not very good rates. With that in mind there are also tons of .30/mile cars as well. Who the hell runs those I have no clue...

Keep in mind though if you are trying to run local, you probably wouldn't run off the load board long term.. It would be more filler content.. You'd want to hook up with dealers at the auctions so you could take several cars to one place. Trying to run off the load board I think you'd have a hard time keeping even a 3 car full most of the time. It's a lot of bouncing around..

With that said, right now is a bad market, so rates everywhere are down. Yes if you hustle you can make money, but not if you are lazy. Also there is absolute ton of car hauling hotshots in FL, so a lot of competition and guys who will take crap rates.

Also before you even think about buying get a insurance quote.. Insurance cost is very high in FL..

 

I always surprised who grabbed 100-200miles units for .50cpm ...local towing companies do 25 miles for 150-200$ ... But on the other hand my buddy pays hot shotters in Chicago to bring copart and iaai units for $50 a pop all day long and they are pretty happy considering all of them running beat up to death 20years old fords and falling apart trailers

 

####.. I had to pay a towing company $600 to tow my Truck & trailer from Lake Alferd to Deltona. Was 90 miles..

Honestly, though I can't believe anyone is running them at those rates. I was honestly shocked to see they were that bad, because I've been watching the DAT board for freight for the last month but couldn't get access to Central for cars until now. Hell even Uship has better rates for cars than Central does, so really what the hell..

I mean even the longer loads are crap. Try to look up a car going from FL to IL or MI and they want to pay $400-500.. for 1,100 miles.. Will the car brokers negotiate with you like freight brokers will?

 

50/50 on car brokers negotiating. I always negotiate and almost never haul at listed rate unless it pays enough and goes straight in my direction. Again - ALWAYS negotiate !!

 

Most i've dealt with were open to negotiating. But i also ran the same lane every week so they were kind of use to dealing with me. And i know alot of them on the 1st name basis. That was one of the perks of working for someone who was to cheap to hire a dispatcher and to "busy" to do it himself. I still have access to central and yes the rates do suck. But you can still make good money stringing together some decent paying loads.

 

I've been watching Central like a hawk the last few days since I got it and I just don't see the money TBH.. It's nothing compared to what you can make with freight. I mean there are brokers putting $50&60 dollar loads on the board wanting you to haul it into Tampa or Orlando and a 100 miles on top of that..

I mean FFS I'm not going to waste my time loading a $50 dollar load much less driving to it or dealing with Tampa and or Orlando traffic.. WTF crack are these guys smoking?

Then you have other brokers trying to pawn off 2 car loads for .50/mile.. Try to get an OTR load say up to Illinois or Michigan or Texas or anywhere they want to pay you $600 a car to go 1k miles.. Cars going from FL to Cali are paying $650-700... yeah.. .25/mile.. I mean yeah maybe if you are carrying 10 cars picking them all up at the same place and dropping them at another but these are single pick up single delivery..

I was hoping to run some car loads in FL maybe some regional to get past my 90 days with my new numbers but man.. to put together a $500 load for a day I gotta run to AL, GA, SC or NC.. just to make $500-600..

I think I now know the reason none of the car load boards will let you on them until after the insurance is active even for a demo is because if you saw the rates ahead of time you wouldn't buy a car trailer nor pay all that money extra for insurance..

Honestly, I'm glad I didn't buy a dedicated car trailer now, but instead bought a flatbed low boy.. because I can see I will be doing mostly freight and just using cars for filler.. Unless they are paying $1/mile even for a 3 car it's not worth it and it better be at least a 300-500 mile run at that price..

I mean I can see a big 10 car hauler not making as much per mile, but when you are pretty much expediting a car to their doorstep as a hotshot they need to pay better than .25-.60 mile. I dunno what is wrong with the car hauling industry but the rates look like what they were paying in the early 00s when I had my used car dealers license... I'd pay guys $40-50 to haul a car to the auction or back and they are paying the same now 15 years later..

I dunno what happened but you car guys are getting screwed.. compared to freight.. You guys are carrying heavy loads and the brokers are paying peanuts.. It's no wonder I see so many hotshot car trailers and even big rig car haulers for sale cheap here in FL.

 

FL is a bad market. Especially to run local in. Unless you're moving cars in volume. I know alot of 4-10 car drivers who make #### good money running out of miami. At about .50 cpm per unit. 7-10 of those to orlando isn't bad. It's good enough that often dead head back to miami from where they are. But 10 a $125 a piece isn't bad for 230-260 miles

 

And alot of those cheap trucks and trailers are cheap for a reason and it's not the market. I spent 95% of my life in fla. Alot of the trucks and trailers are run down POS. Or just old as hell

 

It's not just FL though, I mean yes I know FL is bad, but I looked at rates in other states too and see the same .30/mile cars cross county in other states as well. Example like say you take a short hop out of FL to GA, AL or NC then look at those areas for cars and it's just as bad there too.

Then I jump up to IL to look there and it's a tiny bit better but still well below the $1/mile that a hotshot truck should get for what is essentially door to door expedited service .. Hell right now there is a 2017 Bentley Bentayga going from Chicago to San Diego they are requiring an enclosed trailer and only paying .82/mile but of course that's not even including any dead head just loaded miles..

IL to FL there is a car that is inoperable and they are only paying .73/mile I mean this is just example you can see them yourself but these rates are ridiculous.. $750 to load/unload a car that doesn't run and haul it over 1,000 miles. So it's not just FL.. it's cars in general everywhere that I'm seeing.. I simply can't believe guys are hauling for these rates..

You shouldn't have to haul 4 or 5 cars just to make $2 or 3/mile..