How are they doing it???

Who writes off peanut butter? When you find out how let me know.

I said household expenses are expenses that almost every one truck operator has along with truck expenses. Profit is what's left over after ALL expenses have been covered. You can do with it what you please. Save it, go on vacation, roll it back into the business if you want (but don't have to) but it's free and clear money.

If you have a pile of money left over after all truck expenses BUT it has to go to household expenses then that AIN'T pure profit driver because obviously you forgot driver wages in your expenses.

 

Yes the gross rates are above $2/mile but after the broker takes his cut you will be lucky to get $1.75/mile..you are also competing with the rail roads that haul loads generally over 500 miles and do it for less than a dollar/mile.

You need to get freight direct from the shipper and cut out the broker,,at the loading docks ask if you can haul direct ..

Short hauls do pay better per miles but even if they pay $3/mile you still need lots of miles.

Go after shippers that do not use the rails and ones that the big mega carriers do not haul for,,
Loads with multiple drops are also good.

Try FedEx ground they are hiring O/Os and paying about $1.95/mile drop and hook, their trailers and insurance.

Or go find specialty freight that require special handling,or build LTL loads

 

Your insurance is $13,000 a year?

 

I pay less then half of that.

 

Wow, expensive but I've seen numbers all over the place depending where you live and other factors.

 

Maybe we had DIRECT, well paying lanes, and had our niche market figured out BEFORE we bought our big chromed out trucks. We didn't have to rely on load boards.

 

That number jumped out at me too. If he keeps his nose clean he should be able to almost cut that in half when he gets some accident free years under his belt. Might have to change brokers to do it though. We were paying $14,000/truck for years until we found another broker that dealt with an ins co that we didn't know about.

To the OP, if you have a clean record, you may want to call several brokers at every renewal and make sure you are getting quotes from ALL the ins companies.

 

When I started I think I was around $7,800. It kept going down every year down to $5,800. Now I'm back up to $6,800. I was one of the lucky ones last renewal time that mine didn't go up 25%. Northland had to notify all their clients by law warning of the increase. I was told by the agent it's due to the price of new trucks and the cost to repair them as opposed to an older truck. They said it's very easy to total a new truck.

My insurance could be lower but I have a fixed $35,000 price if my truck is totaled, not what book price is. They sent an adjuster out to inspect it before they agreed.

I think Canada is really high in insurance costs? Rank?

 

who's you insurance agent and how is the customer service?