Finally got my own truck

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by BoyWander, Jan 1, 2017.

  1. DUNE-T

    DUNE-T Road Train Member

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    My last dry van Food Lion load had me sitting in the dock for 7 hours lol
    I only get food loads when there are no other options, I can only imagine dealing with it everyday
     
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  3. BoyWander

    BoyWander Road Train Member

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    .
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2017
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  4. Lepton1

    Lepton1 Road Train Member

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    Okay, I gotta thank this for brevity.
     
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  5. BoyWander

    BoyWander Road Train Member

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    I had typed something then deleted it.
     
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  6. BoyWander

    BoyWander Road Train Member

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    Had a crappy week last week. I made a whopping $450 profit.

    Sitting somewhere in the St. Paul, MN area to del Monday morning.

    I hope the markets start to get better. This is starting to get to be ridiculous.

    I look at the Hot Market Map and I end up in a white area, and everything is cheap. So I go to the red areas, and everything is cheap still, even to the white areas. $1350 from Birmingham, AL to Minnesota. 1,050 miles. Terrible.

    On the up side, I took a really nice route from Alabama. I-22 to Tupelo, US45 north through Jackson, TN up to 412/155 to I-55 up to STL area, I-64 to US61, up through Hannibal, from Wayland, MO took route 27 all the way up through Iowa, to Mason City and then up I-35. I guess this route is called Avenue of the Saints. It was a really nice ride. Spent like 480 miles? on non-interstate and I still averaged over 60mph on it. Nothing much but farmland, but I like being out in the open. It was 36,000 lbs of bricks and I averaged 7.1mpg.

    Thinking about taking something in Montana if it pops up, but not sure I'm going to be able to get out of there. Boss says I should focus on northern states through the rest of the winter instead of going down south, which I guess makes sense for now.
     
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  7. CaptainDaveG

    CaptainDaveG Road Train Member

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    No No No BW no Montana...run the Midwest it's the best....think about that 450.00 profit for a week....


    Be Safe Out There



    Captain Dave
     
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  8. LoJackDatHo

    LoJackDatHo Medium Load Member

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    I was going to say, stay in IL, IN, MO, WI, maybe OH, MI, KY, Kansas City has some good runs over to St Louis. I'll PM you a broker to call, after I talk to them and see if they are looking for any more carriers. They are pretty particular who they work with.
     
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  9. rollin coal

    rollin coal Road Train Member

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    Hot market maps are no good if volume is low. Very misleading. It might be March or even April before van freight gets better. Last year it seemed like it was June before it ever picked up
     
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  10. BoyWander

    BoyWander Road Train Member

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    Yeah I had a talk with my boss the other night and he pretty much said he ignores that map until spring starts to hit, and then he uses info from it, but this time of year he said it doesn't mean squat. But it's about all I had to work with.I feel like I'm floating around in the dark. LOL.

    At least I ended up in the black. It could have been in the red.
     
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  11. rollin coal

    rollin coal Road Train Member

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    I edited that after you quoted it. You need to know volumes. A 10 trucks to 1 load to truck ratio when there's only 100 loads is terrible. That will be a cheap market every time.

    A 10 trucks to 1 load with a 1,000 loads might be good. If you know your markets you'll know when 500 or 700 or 1,000 or 2,000 loads in a market is good. Around me now we're running about 150-300 van loads daily within a 100 miles radius now (reefer is vastly different). Sometimes worse. 600-700 and I can manage a decent rate. 1,000+ is smoking hot. Every market is different. In Chicago it's not hot until 3,000 loads or more. Volume always dictates rates....

    Learn what is a lot of volume versus what is not in any given market and then you'll know when to slap brokers around on rates. This is why it's best to learn smaller regions versus running nomadic 48 states and never really learning anything at all.

    You can learn the midwest region much quicker than you can running 48 states... don't waste your time on cross country nonsense. That's for losers who go broke. Focus on 2 or 3 regions over a few years time. Especially if you are solo. The money is in overnight loads...
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2017
    ki4wrd, Lite bug, CaptainDaveG and 6 others Thank this.
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