Cheap freight ... Or manipulating prices?

Burghardt, I'm a new O/O too and I've got to tell you this is a great place to get advice on everything about this business except rates. Why? So many of us do different things in different areas. Pretty much impossible to find a guy just like you running the same lanes as you to compare to, and then you've got to decide if he's lying. You know, everything you read on the internet is not true contrary to popular belief. We are all competing for the same work too so smoke and mirrors are a bit of an expectation.

Plus, several of the guys here have been doing it forever and have lots of dedicated customers and here's the big one, they have capitol! I do not have capitol. I have a great emergency fund and a paid for trailer but a note on the truck, huge insurance bills and a head full of worry....all the time. They can turn down $3 a mile because they know they have gotten 5 before in a similar situation.

I'm pretty happy to average better than $2/mile on all miles. That's my goal. Sure, some are going to respond that this is crap and I'll be broke in a year. But, I learned a lot from the guy I used to drive for. He's been an owner op living where I do (same cost of living) for many years and he makes a great living shooting for anything $2/mile or better, all miles of course. He does much better than that most of the time. He isn't on the internet, we talk face to face.
Not calling anyone a liar because on here you really don't know anyone personally so how do you call them anything?

 

@86scotty that's right.
If $2/mile keeps you moving to a better lane, and keeps your income stream active, it's a no brainer.

If you can keep your operating costs low, $2/m can be just fine.
If you're ripping down the road at 80mph, idling all the time, and generally not controlling your costs, you'll make less than a company driver.
That's where it's up to YOU to make it profitable.

 

@OP It doesn’t really matter what the company or the broker is making off the loads, if you are satisfied with the rate offered.

If you feel like the company is skimming of the top, you can test them out by asking for more money. If they agree immediately then they probably are skimming

 

I understand you did this just to get back home but isn't this also a reason for cheap freight. If truckers said no to cheap freight, freight wouldn't be cheap. If the majority of drivers stopped hauling cheap loads out of Florida the prices would go up. Right?

 

That is true.
But, that area is a very limited lane.
We make our money going OUT.
We could sit and wait for something that pays $3+/m... but with all of the competition out there doing the same thing, it's a better business model for US to just move the equipment without delay, while paying the driver, paying for the fuel out and back, and still turned a small profit.
I might still be sitting out there.
But, I'm home in NC.
I'll go back Sat and do it again.

High $$ out. Get something to pay for all of the fuel and cover driver wages on the way back.

But, were it not for the rates outbound, it would be a different story altogether.

 

What you say is true, however cheap freight is everybodys problem. That cheap back haul that got you back to nc. Is also someone else's head haul to get them out the house. At some point people taking cheap back haul. Will make it more cost efficeint, for your company to broker out thier freight, rather than run thier own trucks.

 

I've dead headed about 1,200 home after sitting for 34 hours and being told nothing more than $1.
My thinking was 8d rather take a loss than be part of the bottom feeders. Or part of the problem.
From Vero Beach, Florida to home in Upper Michigan.

 

That's insane, I'd pick something up in Atlanta to get me there. And I wouldn't sit for 34 hrs waiting on a load either.

 

I am wondering why you didn't pick up a load on the way back. Surely along the way someone had something that paid decent.

I totally agree with not hauling for $1, after reading these forums and talking to folks who are very successful I saw the light about the dangers of hauling cheap freight.

 

I think I would deadhead to a better lane.