Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Hey Wheathauler, Dairyman and others. Hope everyone is surviving with high fuel prices, cheap rates and idiot grain merchandisers. I am to the point of parking the hopper and going back on the road. My regular merchandiser is not doing anything because the ADM elevators are full here and so I hauled some for ADM and after three weeks I want to cut my wrist, lol. Dealing with three college educated boys trained at ADM worldwide and think they know everything about trucking, well I have been educating them at the same time I tell them they are to cheap and I won't haul it. They think $1.70 to $1.80 is good rates while telling me they think it averages out to $2.00 a mile when it don't even do that. I took a load of fertilizer to Great Bend one week and two weeks later it was $2 a ton cheaper because the round they put together didn't have much deadhead miles. They also think running for less then $500 a day in revenue is good and you load at any of their facilities you don't leave over 80k which is fine but the rates are not there. The icing on the cake is when I told him I just not going to haul there freight for free and he said free we pay you to haul it well my response was when I break even I am hauling it free.

ADM guy called me Friday and offered me corn loads everyday this next week going 120 miles one way paying .48 bu and I took it, I called another merchandiser that has wheat in the area for .28 bu coming right back home, not bad deal. Well ADM calls a few hours later and said the rate has dropped to .35 bu because we got you wheat to haul back for .17 bu. I told them good luck and when they can't find anyone to haul it call me back but my rate for hauling the corn down will be .52 bu and I don't need your wheat load.

I got hooked up with another merchandiser Consolidated Grain & Bardge because they have a lot of wheat moving to the port for decent rates and I had a few loads of fertilizer coming back home for a customer so I did real good but those urea loads are done so I contacted CGB for some urea loads coming back to the house and they have several loads but only want to pay $10 a ton to go 130 to 150 miles when I get $17 from my customers. The problem is guys are hauling it and with CGB they require the extra million dollar general liabilty insurance to haul for them which I have but they need to get the rates up there if they want that type of insurance.

I hope these guys that take the cheap stuff go broke and loose everything they have because that is what will happen. Have one local guy that went from one truck to five trucks within a year all working for ADM and leased purchased all of them. Well he owes lots of money to fuel stops and tire places that let him charge, couldn't afford to repair his equipment, never serviced or washed his equipment, got behind in his payments and the other day lost it all plus his wife filed for divorce. That is what happens when you haul cheap and I don't feel a bit sorry for him.

Had another local hauler tell me well I took that load (cheap load) because it beats sitting at the house and I have to pay my bills. I told him he doesn't deserve to be in business for himself and he needs to sell out and go get a regular job. I am just so tired of hearing this crap.

Well I have vented enough friends and tomorrow I will make some calls and see what is going on. I am sure I will be saying a lot of No thanks I don't run my truck for those rates. I just renewed my insurance Friday and it went up and I have never had any claims, fuel is knocking on $4 a gallon, just put 10 new tires on my truck and they have went up big time so when they throw those cheap rates at me just makes me want to slap somebody.

 

This is not related to hopper, but when I came off the road I leased onto a big container carrier. I had a good lane that went by my house, and there was a pretty good surcharge for pu and delivery to the plant up my way because no one wanted to come into the foothills. Occasionally they tried to get me to pick up at a place east of me. I kept telling them no. I had ran the actual miles compared to what they paid for that route. It came up as a net loss to me to haul that freight. I was told by the terminal manager that the guy that lived out that way hauled it all the time and was happy.

I told them this guy was losing money and didn't know it because he was able to meet his bills every week, but to wait until he had a breakdown, needed tires, or his tags were due. A few months later a guy offered me a price for my truck I couldn't turn down. While I was in the office turning in my final paperwork, the phone rang. The terminal manger told me when he hung up that I was right, and that run couldn't be ran for what the company was paying. The driver that did that run had just called in and quit. His tags were due, he had an engine problem, and he needed to replace a couple tires, and couldn't afford any of those things, so the truck was going back. You have to know your cost of operations, and not haul for less than that, or you may pay your bills, but when something comes up, you are out in the cold.

I am so glad I sold my truck when I did, ran company for a while, and finally quit all together. In the past I have always wanted back driving when I would stop for a while, but with the way things are now, I don't have that feeling anymore. That is saying a lot, as I started in 1975.

 

Finally a hopper thread! While I don't pull a hopper often I pull a live bottom and move alot of corn, wheat and wet cake. Grew up around the company I work for being a 3rd generation driver I figured I would start out where my father did.

 

I work for a elevator but I prefer the live bottom over a hopper.

 

Do these clowns really think you guys are going to haul that at $1.20 with diesel pushing the $4.00 a gallon? I'm glad you declined than wonderful offer too so maybe these rates will have to go up if they want to get them moved..