Finally got my own truck

Time for a HUGE UPDATE for my millions of adoring fans who line up in the streets just to get my autograph. hahaha

JUICY NUMBERS in a little bit.

But first, I'll talk a little about my week.



Started in Jackson, TN where I spent the weekend with my friends.
Ended up getting a light load to MN $2500 on 900 loaded to somewhere an hour east of Sioux Falls, SD. Somewhere in BFE. Delivery appt was Wednesday morning. Tuesday morning I get up and I'm 4.5 hour drive away. Blizzard scheduled to come through there Wednesday morning. I email broker, asked him to beg customer to unload me Tuesday at 2-230 pm. They did offload me. Thanked the broker 3 times for his effort.
No freight in that area, I knew snow storm was coming, so I just hightailed it straight to Des Moines 325 miles. Got there and parked at the Casino at 830pm. Yeah I ran empty to get away from a blizzard and into a slightly better area anyway.

Des Moines, freezing rain from that storm in the morning but I just got a little bit of it. I needed a load back south. I finally got a call about 1pm, heavy load of weed killer going to either Albany, GA or Memphis, TN. I HATE Georgia. Hate Atlanta. Hate I-24 and Monteagle and Chattanooga. 600 miles to Memphis for $1000, 2pm appt Thursday, or $2200 to Albany, GA on 1100 miles delivery Friday morning.
If you know me at all, you'd know those rates don't work for me. So I countered. $1300 to Memphis and an earlier appointment at noon, or $2800 on the GA run. And really, I didn't want the Memphis run. I did, but I REALLY hate not being able to park close to the delivery point. I like to be empty by noon and park within an hour. So taking the Memphis load would have put me 3 hours from customer and probably 2pm anyways. Day wasted. So the 1100 mile run was actually the better schedule. He countered at $2400 to GA, and I said

"Look, you shouldn't have a hard time moving this load to Memphis. Everyone wants to go there. But to southern GA, I need more. $2600, and that is more than fair and I know you've gotten quotes much higher than that. That place is almost Florida."

So he took it. If I were in a good area, like if Des Moines was hopping with freight and no trucks, easy $3,500+. Easily. But I had made a promise to myself that I wouldn't just sit and go to bed like I have been doing for 6 months when I don't get my way. I have been playing the "Gimme my rate or I'll sit" game for too long and I needed to catch up on revenue. So I took the $2600. Put me at $5,100 on 2000 loaded miles.

Friday morning I deliver, and usually southern GA is complete crap, but freight starting to come out of there now. I got 35 calls outta there yesterday and nobody wanted to pay over the top. 1200 miles to MN, $2900 was laughed at. They called again 3 hours later, $3,500 was hung up on. And that was a "you're too #### cheap anyway, so I'll just throw an insult at you" rate.
Whatever.

I was offered $2500 to Fargo on 1550 miles by CHR. Whatever. Knight Trans had a tanker endorsed load 1450 to SD, $2500, then $3000, then $3100. They rejected my offer of $3900 when I called, then when they inevitably called on my truck posting 20 minutes later, $3650 was rejected. It was Tuesday delivery. Whatever. Cheap ########.

So I sat there 7 hours taking calls and nothing great to a destination I could live with.
I did take one call on a load to Trumann, AR, 550 loaded. Broker was nice, she was at $1100 which is normally not bad on that lane. But it was Friday and I was trying to hit a home run. She did offer me $1300. I took her number down. That was maybe 11am. She called again at 1pm and I was still at bases loaded with 1 out.
Funny thing about that load, was that it was the same stuff picking up at the same warehouse I had delivered to that morning. lol.
At 4pm, I had struck out, and so there were now 2 outs and I'm still down by 3 runs. Bases still loaded.

I called back Marie, and told her I didn't get my home run load. She was sorry to hear that. And then I told her that she hadn't moved her load either, it was still on the board. Well, customer stopped taking trucks at 3pm. (gahhhhhhhhhh) BUT, they need it moved. Lemme call them and see if they'll take you. She put me on hold for 5 minutes and gave me the good news. And she still gave me the $1300 she had offered me earlier that day, even though she claimed she still took a small loss. She kept her word. That really means something. So Monday I'm going to send her a nice thank-you email.
When you're down by 3, it's the bottom of the 9th and bases are loaded, and it's a full count, if you see any resemblance of a breaking ball coming, and you're not facing Justin Verlander, you take ball 4 and keep the game alive for another at bat. So I took the walk.

So I end up at $6400 on 2550 loaded miles. Not bad. But I was really trying to hit that $8000 mark. I'll try again this coming week.

Anyways.

JUICY NUMBERS




Bad news and good news.

Bad news is that I'm behind last year, by a good amount.

At this point last year, I was at $66,200 revenue.
ON 40,000 ALL MILES
(Good grief, Brandon, what was I DOING???)

At this time, after I deliver this load Monday morning, I'll be at $40,400 revenue.
Almost $26,000 behind.
Here's the silver lining - I've done this $40,400 on 17,700 all miles - and get this -
13,847 loaded miles. That's $2.91 per loaded mile.

I've calculated $.55 (55 cents) per mile for fuel and maintenance. That's a $12,250 value.
So comparable, I'm only $13,535 behind last year.

I plan on staying out until June 10th and then take time off, when I took time off last year at that time, for my and my dad's birthday (same day, June 13th.)

At that point last year, I was at $96,722 revenue on roughly 56,500 all miles.

I have 7 more weeks to be out. And I feel good, I don't feel depressed like I had been for a while, winter really gets to me, and I've grown accustomed to working with the ELog.

I've calculated that if I do roughly 3,200 all miles per week for 7 weeks, that will put me at 40,000 miles, compared to 56,500 miles last year. 16,500 miles x .55 for fuel and maintenance, = roughly $9,000 savings.

So at the end of the next 7 weeks, I'll need to be at $88,000 revenue to catch up to last year. And I'm at $40,400, so $47,600 in 7 weeks = $6,800 / week on 3200 all miles.
If I keep going at the rate per mile I've been doing, I'll be $3,500 ahead of last year comparatively from last year with fuel etc. savings.

If I want to be ahead in just plain gross revenue, I'll need to be making $8,100/week for 7 weeks straight, and that is actually my goal. Imagine if I end up at $97,000 revenue on 43,000 all miles, compared to 56,500 all miles last year. That's huge.

The savings in fuel and wear and tear alone are big.
Not to mention wear and tear on the mind and body. \
At this point last year I was running myself ragged for pennies.

This is why running your truck and body into the ground for the gross revenue doesn't exactly work. And this is why I've tried to take the advice of people like @rollin coal and keep a good rate per mile. Don't take that cheap crap.

You wanna be home every weekend and make a decent living, fine. But you don't gotta take these $800 150-300mile loads to do it.

Keep a goal of averaging $1200 a day on 500 miles or less. It's doable. One can feasibly, if you live in the right area, make $5000+ revenue and be home Friday night. I could do that living in Michigan, and Michigan is brutal right now on rates. Not Florida bad, but like $1100-1200 on 750 loaded miles to Memphis. I don't care how busy Memphis is, I'm not taking that kind of a rate. Knowing by the time I get unloaded the next day, half my clock will be gone, because ELogs. Paper logs, I'd just drive to West memphis, take a 6 hour break, and deliver, and my clock would be fresh after delivery. But nope, not no more.

This is why rates are going up. Do your part and keep pushing. Time = $ more than ever, don't short change yourself, even if you're in an ELog exempt truck, don't give in.