Lane Rate per mile check?

same deal with me. i'm home an easy 3 days a week. i could make a lot more if i wanted. i have 5 kids 5 to 13 yrs old. the 7 yr old daughter finally decided she doesn't need the training wheels on the suzuki 70 anymore,like i told her last year. i took em off and we cruise the field together,with the other kids.

i'll give up some income for the time off.

 

Last year I just did what the guy I'm leased to told me to do. After learning and tracking every load.

Starting in January this year I told him I would only do certain rates and lanes. I told him we will both make more. He went on and on about how we will never make more than we are and he has been doing this for years and years. He finally agreed that I could try what I want but it would never work.

Well I'm up over %20 in gross revinue and down %23 in miles. %3 less deadhead. I also almost compleatly stoped using his coustemers . Almost all loadboard freight.

Point being that you can't put limits on your expectations or you just might meet your expectations. I am beating his company trucks this year so far on a lot less miles.

He still keeps telling me that he could never get his drivers to do what I do. I don't do anything I didn't do when I drove HIS truck except push my logs to the limit and be out more (driving his truck). Lol

Don't limit yourself!!!

 

I see that a lot in this industry. People are very set in their ways and refuse to or are scared to try something new. I know a few guys that have their own authority but only haul for 1 or 2 brokers the entire year on dedicated lanes. It's steady freight but it pays very low, 30-40% less than the market usually. One guy was complaining that the rates were low so I asked why he doesn't get freight on load boards and try some other lanes. He didn't want to hear it and said it's not worth his time. Yeah, you have to put some work into it, but it pays off. One week we were running the same lane, just Seattle to Portland and back. I was getting $800-$1200 a trip while he was getting $450-$600. All I had to do was check the load board and make a few calls. I tried to show him a few times but he refuses to learn so I gave up.

 

I know right? I got a discount fuel card and track my savings. I'm saving over $200 a month over pump prices. I showed him but he won't do it. That would be the same savings times 5 trucks!!!!!! Nope tells the drivers "just put it on the discover card." I asked why? He said he gets %3 back. I said just pay the fuel card with your discover. Lol

That's a good idea, he said but still hasnt done it a year later.

I see waste everywhere I look in this industry. Most are compleatly blind to it.

Pull into a recover the other day and a line of 4 trucks....... drivers all pissed they have been there all morning and only unloaded 2 trucks. Moaning and complaining about how the guy unloading said he wouldn't get to us all before quiting time. I see the guy unloading is a sloth after about an hour. I went to the Guy I checked in with in the little booth and asked to speak with the plant manager. Manager never came out but the guy unloaded all of us in an hour.

All you got to do sometimes is just try.

I don't know what I would have said to the manager if he came out but apparently the manager didn't want to know?

 

Anyway, I am sure that the op wanted some info or advice where he could find some reference such as:
how much do I need to be paid if I take a load from Dallas, TX to Jacksonville, FL, or San Bernardino, CA - Atlanta, GA, etc. as if there was a table showing rates and lanes. Once, I thought that that info existed and I was looking for it too. Unfortunately, this info is completely unavailable in any more or less formal way by which brokers or carries would adhere to. Today, you can go from LA area to Atlanta for 4000 up. Two months ago they would not want to pay you more than 2500. This is something that needs to be determined on your own.

 

It's market dependant. You're not going to get 2/mile on every load in every market. Stick to flatbed rates. I don't go running around claiming I know what flatbedders should be running for and if they don't they're failures.