Direct Contract Freight or Spot Freight?

A one truck operation should NEVER try to compete with large carriers. You can't compete with them on their level, you have one truck and they have hundreds or thousands. Where they can't compete with YOU is service.

Get your own customers, yes the little one truck operations like you, me, and many others on here can do that, its not just for the big guys.

 

all mine is direct from shipper, i have never dealt with a broker.

 

Flipflops has some great advice on here concerning this very thing and he tells you how to get your own shippers.

 

It's pretty basic, really. You have one truck to make your money. You need to net a buck a mile (or whatever) to earn your living, so your per-mile rate has to reflect that. The big company (and these are just random, illustrative numbers) has 1000 trucks netting a dime a mile. Or whatever. Economies of scale. What you said, too. Bulk buying. It all plays in. Oscars advice above is spot on, forget about competing with price and focus on service. Make it your every waking thought.

 

You cannot compete with them on price, they can run a small percentage of their fleet at break even, or even at a loss. But they then can run the larger percentage of their fleet at a profit and overall for the miles driven for the entire fleet they can still make money. A small 1 truck carrier cannot do that, you run at a loss or break even for a day and you cannot make that up like they can.

Big carriers need volume to survive, we don't. Large shippers need large carriers, as they have a large volume of freight to move, and the large carriers have the trucks to move it. So trying to go after the same freight that a large carrier is pulling is typically pointless. What you want to go after is the small shippers, these people are most often shopping for service, not price.

 

Most of the big boys have 3 trailers for every truck. You can't afford to spot trailers at all your customers.

 

Very Good advice from the folks above Carol..........

Concentrate on a niche, A particular Lane traffic point..(aka your outbound/inbound moves)

SERVICE is your #1 tool..DON"T EVER FORGET THAT! Service your customer(s) No matter what
If you want success..Excuses will not work, Zero excuses, And top notch service.

And Lastly..Don't let anyone in the industry try bringing you down with negativity....probably the number 1 worst thing in the business..Others want you to suffer....Sad, But very true.