Direct customer

One of the larger local companies started with the new owner and his truck parked in front of a local shipper. He’d let them know he was there, and when an order came in, since he was already there……. Guess who got the load?
30 years later, there’s over 100 trucks, and they don’t do much for that plant anymore, relatively speaking.
Is it risky? Not as risky as running leftover loads off a board.

 

If you have one truck, and can find one customer to keep you busy, do it. Sure you’re putting all your eggs in one basket, but you always have the load board market to fall back on if that goes away. Never overextend yourself as a one truck guy more than the worst load board market can support. If your freight is just outbound, your next goal is to get inbound freight. This can be difficult if your outbound freight goes all over the place.
Your great freight can dry up anytime. Last year I had a direct customer that paid great on S FL to Baltimore almost weekly. I stopped getting tenders before Thanksgiving. They stopped using the FL supplier. I still get tenders for outbound MD, but we are rarely up there.

 

I haul for 1 direct customer. It has been very good for me over the last 4 years. Got close to loosing it during stupid lock down but fortunately we worked out a different plan. Like said before nothing is permanent and anything can end tomorrow always have a backup plan