How would you recommend finding O/O who want a Dedicated CA - NJ Lane?

This may sound like I'm either trying to recruit/advertise or look like a real novice - but I'm not! I have a big opportunity for a large account as a freight agent (yes, I know some of you hate me!) but they need 200 trucks per week. They will be shipping 40 loads daily from CAL to NJ, and have asked my company/agency to handle 10-15 loads daily. And even better is that they will accept solo and team.

My question is simple - how do you find 50 to 75 drivers who want a dedicated lane like that? ANY SUGGESTIONS? I can take team or solo. Obviously I can post it on load boards, which I have done, but I do not have enough solid commitments from drivers to accept responsibility for guaranteeing I would have as many drivers as they require.

Being a professional who works by Integrity first, I would not accept the account unless I could guarantee coverage. I would love to take it on, but am "stalled" since I don't know the best way to find drivers who want a dedicated lane. Should I advertise in newspaper or some other source? Or would I be better to just accept the fact that I don't know 50 drivers and tell them I can't take that lane? Though I've been in Transportation for 7 yrs, I'm newer to being a freght agent so still working to think outside the box of having been a Fleet Mgr that already had 30+ trucks!

Just FYI, not advertising - it is aprox 2800 mis for a little over $5000 of DRY freight, avg $1.85 which is half-way decent for dry freight. It's all preloaded, drop and hook, so a sweet deal. Wt is approx 30K lbs, not dreadfully heavy so fuel mpg should be decent as well. Having been an owner operator myself for 3 yrs, we would have taken that all day long because it was guaranteed miles and pay. It even has flexible schedule for home time since there are so many loads daily, so it's not a run that is so hard pressed for time that you can't breathe!

I would truly appreciate any one who could give their opinion and/or advice on this opportunity. Does it sound like a good run that many drivers would like if they knew, or is it too low pay? Is it possible that more drivers prefer shorter hauls instead of cross country? I would think that constantly looking for loads every day would be less desirable than having one nice long load for 4-1/2 to 5 days.


Anyway - enough rambling! Just trying to give all the info you need to evaluate and give me advice. Thanks for letting me post, and try not to be too brutal with replies if I'm way off in my thinking!! Thanks.

 

THANK YOU EVERYONE! I see 4 of you replied wth helpful comments, and 4 more voted in the poll - I so appreciate your help. To answer of couple of the same questions that most all of you asked, and I forgot to add, was - YES, most of the time they would have a backhaul as well. On times they didn't, I have a couple resources that were going to help me out on loads they regularly ship to CA and AZ. Or the driver could find their own load if they prefer.

The return load did pay less as everyone knows freight out of East pays lower. ver, the return paid $4000 (instead of $5k) so total round trip avg $1.62/mi - again fairly decent for dry freight on long haul. I agree team with reefer would get much better rate, even a solo would, but I know teams like longer runs so they don't have to keep stopping and reloading.

MastLLC Re: drop trailers - you are right, that would be a bit of an issue. I took it into consideration and wondered if it would be worth them renting another trl so they could leave it, but wasn't sure it would financially be worth it. I know Ryder rents Reefer for $125/wk, so I figured Van would be roughly $100/wk or $400/mo. However, if you were grossing $9K every 12 days, $18K a month - is it worth paying $400? Maybe, but probably not worth extra aggravation.

Anyway - hope I answered your questions. And again, I truly appreciate your helpful feedback. At least I know that the rate was in the approx ball park of what O/O would accept. I did quite abit of research and saw it was avg rate, some higher some better, but overall decent.

And if anyone has good ideas on how to reach/find drivers that are looking for a dedicated lane, please let me know. Obviously the big trucking companies like CR England, JB, Swift etc have no problem finding drvrs who want dedicated. But since I'm a freight agent, I can't send out a mass qualcom msg to drvrs letting them know it's available! LOL. Have a great nite, all.

BE SAFE out there, and remember: "Money pedal is on the right and keep the left door closed - because if those wheels aren't churnin', you aren't earnin'!

Jodi

 

Stranger: yes, it would be the O/O authority and insur. And mileage was was out system calculated from software, which I believe is HHG. Thank you.

Tourist: The fuel surcharge was included in price, but we break it out separately so you receive 100% instead of percentage if you lease to someone else. It was just outside LA, not a busy place at all! LOL. Thanks.

Coming Home: In Rochester, NY my previous company rented 2 trailers for the last 2 years. We were paying $125/week. They may have been giving discount since we leased 6 trucks and 2 other reefers, but that was the rate we received. Hope that helps. Thanks for question.