It is better to Deadhead than take cheap freight

My two loads to Denver this year was just icing on the cake because they were my weekend run. On the $3500 load to Denver from Memphis, my fuel was $750 on 1000 miles loaded (due to headwind around 4mpg), carrier takes 10%. Deadhead to Kansas City cost $250 on 600 miles. This load net me $2100 from Friday, SAT, Sunday, Monday ( I manage to squeeze a 34hr restart). I reloaded another $3500 from Kansas City to MA on Tuesday. Kansas City is not that great of an area because this load payed $2.15/ mile to northeast. I could of done better per mile if i took a load from KC to OH, then OH to MA, but time, and timming was a factor. I needed to gross $4k by thursday or friday and needed a weekend load.

Now, to explain the icing on the cake; previously during the week, I had already gross around $4500 from Monday to Thursday with over $3/mile loaded so I put around $800 on fuel on these loads and have net $3000 after deductions for the week. The Denver load is extra money (hence Icing on the cake), and it raised my overall earnings for the week to $8000 gross. After carrier's cut on 10% ($800), $200 weekly insurance (occupation, bobtail, physical, liability and cargo), roughly $1900 fuel , i netted over $5000 for the week before my truck, trailer payment, maintenance and tax. My truck payment is $925/ month, 36 months term. Trailer rental is $950/ month.

I deadheaded right after I delivered from Denver on Monday and picked up another load from Kansas City on Tuesday to MA. This beats messing around with brokers on monday and not being able to pickup next day if i deadhead. Time is money because I am on E-Log. I had timed the load perfectly because I was able to restart in Denver and reset my hours for new week. Picked up Tuesday in Kansas City (600 mile deadhead) Delivered on Thursday morning in Boston, MA area , did a short haul run, picked up another weekend run.

On the second Denver trip, I gross over $9,000 for the week. The way I plan my loads is to gross around $4k from Monday to Thursday, then decide if I want to go home or do a weekend run. My weekend run is icing on the cake because i already made good money and pay for all my bills with the $4k gross already.

I am on E-Log and every hour of my time means $$$$. Proper planning is a must. As soon as I book the Denver load on Wedensday or Thursday, i start calling on loads out of Denver. If I cant get a decent load out of Denver by Friday afternoon, I am going to plan on deadheading on Monday and start to look for the nearest load out of the bad area. I never go to bad areas unless they are my icing on the cake and doesnt cut into my next week's earnings by much.

 

The biggest mistake many inexperienced O/O's are making is just looking at rates per mile and not including the time involved on the load. Example of this is to take a load from Denver to east at $1.25/ mile on over 800 miles. This will take 2 to 3 days to complete depending if there are any delays in loading and unloading. It has been my experience that cheap freight are cheap commodities and shippers and consignee dont really need them right away, so time to load and unload are usually longer. So if you delivered in Denver on Monday, picked a cheap load to say Saint Louis, MO (850 miles) at $1.25/mile you would gross roughly $1050. What if the cheap load picks up on tuesday because it was too late to pickup the load on Monday since most likely, you booked the cheap load around noon on Monday, and didnt get setup with broker until a few hours later. Once you finally get rate sheet, you may not be able to pick up before shipper close. So, is it worth it to do the cheap $1.25/mile load and most likely end up with $1,000 gross by mid week ?

Now, the second biggest mistake inexperienced O/O's are making is proper timming of loads. It would be crazy to deliver in Denver on Thursday or Friday if you want to get back East because you may be sitting over the weekend with no load, or waiting for a cheap load to pickup on Monday. Also, delivering later in the day on Thursday or early friday will shrink your options because there is a long deadhead if you go that route. With E-Log, you cannot pretend to be super efficient anymore.

A good example of poor load planning was when my brother bragged to me how he got a load from NC to CT for over $3+/mile and only took him a day to complete the run. He picked up Thursday, Delivered Friday. Gross $2000 on 600 miles. He didnt do a cheap load and ending up deadhead out of CT to reload on Monday. So his good load, took Thursday, Friday, Sat, Sunday and required deadhead. If he had done this load earlier in the week like delivered by Wed, this would of been a decent load.

One more final note is that in bad areas like Denver, FL, NorthEast, etc.., good paying freight that is above average for the area being posted may cancel on you. I have had many good paying loads cancelled on me from Northeast, Denver, FL and other areas this year. Most likely, the broker wanted me as the backup guy and gave the load to someone else willing to haul for less. There have been many brokers who told me if I can beat a rate that someone else is willing to haul. I always say I need more. Since I planned my deliveries to bad areas early in the week, a load cancelling on me didn't affect me much.