Cheap Freight... What would you do?

If you own the truck then that all fine and dandy, but if you don't, you can call and ask if they'd like to go there...LOL.

Sounds like you're trying to run an operation like Swift...? That's what they do, they tell their drivers where to go.

 

It's all about your bottom line. You have some truckers with one truck (very little overhead) compared to someone with multiple units may be willing to stomach the cheap haul where as the other wouldn't. In a perfect world everyone would stick together and become supply and demand dictators, instead we give all the power to the brokers and shippers.

 

I will not haul cheap freight to cover truck expence, you encourage the broker to take advantage of you and others, i always move my truck to a better paying area and it almost always workout to arrownd a buck or better for a back haul but, no out of pocket and i keep them from taking advantage of us, and everyone is happy. I beleive taking cheap rate are wrong by all means cuz you are not only hurting yourself but also herting others, we should control the rate by standing our grounds and demanding fair rate and they will follow. Thank you.

 

I broke up your quote intentionally.


YOU sir, haul cheap freight.

If you aren't at least at $1.50 or better, that is cheap ### freight.


There is also part of your problem.

You say you are on a backhaul. That is a brokers dream when you tell them that and you give all your power to them.

You may be on a 3rd, or return leg, but there is no back haul. Just cheap ### freight.

 

You are reading it wrong, he is saying that it always works out to a buck or better MORE than if he had stayed in the area and taken the $1.10 freight etc...

EX. Freight in Dallas is a $1.10, instead of taking it, he goes to Fort Smith and grabs a $2.10 or better haul.

 

Thank you sjma, that is exactly what i'm doing, i dont mind the deadhead as long as i get were i want with a good rate , 90% of the loads i do they are above $2, last week average was $2.65 includind deadhead, you have to make sure you are getting extra on the load to cover deadhead to next one. My loads are not short either, i call them backhaul but they dont know that. Sometimes a partial load with a good rate does it for me, no cheap freight no matter what.

 

Why dont we just have the Federal Government come in and mandate that all freight only pay $1 a mile no matter the lane. Because if everyone wants to haul it one way for a $1 a mile sooner or later that will be down to $.90 a mile and someone will find a reason to haul it the other way for $.85 a mile they just need to get the driver home. at lease if it locked in by the Feds we will only have to pay brokers and shippers around $.40 a mile to haul their freight. If we dont protect the rates who do you think will

 

The cheap rate does not start where it's actually posted. It starts as a deceptively good rate going into that location. You can get $2/mile going to Miami from Chicago. There is no freight, however, coming out of Miami. If you didn't plan on that and grabbed the $2/mile, you've lost money. We don't need the government to regulate trucking rates anymore than fuel prices or airline ticket prices. If dispatchers want to make dumb decisions, the company will go under. Choose routes that pay based on complete route and you will be OK.

If I did get a good rate to Miami, the nearest place where I can get the next good rate is GA, which is 500 miles away. You bet I will take a load of pallets to Jacksonville at $1/mile instead of going empty. I also have a choice to take a load at $1/mile to MN, where I eventually need to go, but that would be stupid. I will take the shortest haul at cheap rate instead of going empty, but will maximize my profit from the good location.

 

i think it boils down to principle

because if drivers would uniformly stop pulling cheap freight, then there would be no cheap freight, but as with everything else in this industry, every man is for himself and that being the case, if you dont haul it, someone else will, who may be happy making $50 for a day's work, compared to their $0 for sitting still

if the japanese can make cheaper cars better, why cant the americans? its a mentality all of us have and we have to constantly re-evaluate our living standards and our work ethics

i would take a $1/mile out of miami but i wont take $.90/mile out of miami, $1 is my lowest rate and it better be under 30k lbs

thats me

i have also deadheaded out of miami after bringing in a $3/mi load and refused to sit and wait for another load

we all have to make business decisions, what is good for one is not good for everyone, but until drivers establish a bottom line (defining cheap loads) we have to deal with the reality of this business

 

i wholeheartedly agree............to a point

my friends tell me i am crazy to deadhead from miami to savannah, i say its the principle (ie, if we all start hauling their cheap freight, the freight will become cheaper and hurt all of us)