Is it harder to get freight into California, or out of California?

don't need a reefer to haul onions. LOL.

 

My experience has been going out pays 2 to 3 times better than coming in. We are based in L.A. and ran primarily Western 13. The only way we could make decent money coming back from East coast runs was by stitching together a bunch of good lane runs, up to Ohio valley, down to Texas, up to Colorado, back to L.A. (or some other convoluted run like that). If we tried to come straight back, it paid dirt. Why? Because there are so many CA based trucks that know they can get good rates headed east and will take cheap crap just to hurry back to the good east bound freight. We were running dry vans and load boards.

You might want to shift your schedule to improve your freight rates. Everyone wants a load on Monday leaving CA. If you leave later in the week, the rates are better but the loads fewer. You also have to know the inbound seasons. X-Mas trees in Nov & Dec, potatoes until spring, etc. Dry van is tough but you can make it work.

 

That is your answer. He hit the nail on the head. I run out there 90% of the time from OHIO and going out will pay around $4,000 more compared to the pay coming out.

 

Having spent decades in the import side of the transportation business this might be because many shipping lines get into port either just before or during the weekend. Depending on how quickly customs can clear the freight, much of the freight becomes available early in the week.

I'm based in LA area. I'd rather take freight outbound on a Friday, have all weekend to get to EC destination and deliver Monday morning (with a team), then take my time picking loads inbound during the week. Most trucking teams want to get out on Monday and return for the weekend. Go contrarian for better rates.

 

I get better pay OUT of CA than going in. I run east to west weeky and west to east pays more than east to west. always go to CA always come out.