Flated rates suck!!!

Not in the short term, hopefully in November there will be some changes made and restored confidence in businesses will drive the economy forward.

 

Guntoter You are right a large fleet can certainly average out the bad loads with the good ones. Much of their profits are with dedicated fleets because although they do have a lower rate on those accounts. They typically have less dead head. Which for anyone is no profit only a expense. It is why most big fleets forgo irregular freight except for a small portion that they can profit on. I agree that the days of the single owner operator even when leased to a company are about over. Unless you like the freedom and will put up with the long hours just to make like you said $33,000 a year net. We all know that 70hours a week is just the half of it considering like you say you are living on the road.
Many of the health issues i think truckers face is that they do not eat the right things because they try and save money. The real costs of running a truck is labor,fuel, repairs. All a company like Swift provides you is a base plate,permits and freight. Needless to say they have invested only about maybe $4000 a year in a O/O truck. Its also all fixed expenses for Swift. Why would they not want you to haul their freight for .95 CPM?

 

I was making $1.89 a mile in 2000 fuel was $1.20 a gal and I made money 12 years later I'm making the same money and everything cost more. The problem is 12 years ago they didn't have the number of brokers they do today and they will cut anyone just to make money than another one comes in and cuts there ### it's never going to end

 

It's no different than any other small business really. I own a construction business as well, and it is no different than trucking. There is always someone who doesn't know how to properly price their service and drive prices down for those that do.

 

I've heard this all my life and I'm sure it's been the same old story every since there's been motor powered trucks with independant drivers. The independant driver will never just cease to exist. There will always be money to be made out here and guys willing to make a go of it. Some will make it and some won't. Those that can't adapt will surely fail. There is a key fact that OOIDA likes to point out about 90% or more of all the trucks and freight out here get covered by small operations 25 trucks or less. In other words megas are less than 10% of what happens out here. And they will never be able to meet every need in every segment. There will ALWAYS be independants. They are not going to just wither away. Where some or actually most seem to have the attidtude of the sky is falling and throw in the towel - there'll ALWAYS be a few who see opportunity everywhere.

 

Don't you just love the sky is falling misinformed crowd? I heard the same thing when I started driving, everyone said in less than ten years time owner ops would be a thing of the past. I think there are more owner ops now then there was thirteen years ago.

 

O/Os will never be a thing of the past. But the ATA does all that it can to tilt the scales in favor of the big fleets. I can see where a small fleet or single truck O/O simply cannot or will not be able to keep up with compliance as well as billing, collections, maintenance and all the other things that it takes to keep the business going. When I sit down and do the math - the proper math with ALL the costs and expenses involved in being independent - more and more it makes a good case for running as a lease operator to a Mercer, Admiral Merchants, Landstar, et al.

On topic of the thread, not only do RGN/specialized rates SUCK right now, but there are very few loads available on the spot market. What is available is mostly the crap destinations and loads with special requirements or rates so low no one wants them. Our step decks and flats are holding up OK for now but they usually follow the trend of the specialized loads.

 

I agree that Internet Truck Stop is one of the worst load boards I've used. I have found DAT to be one of the best. I run a dispatch company and work for many carriers. DAT has always had a solution for anything that has come up with technical issues AND they don't charge an arm and a leg to use it. All the loads are up to date and the software interface is great for what I do. Trucking is a hard enough job without hassles and out of date loads on the load board.

 

Way to revive an old thread mridontworkatdat