Looking for freight, load board.

Just go on a free load board and get all the information that you seek.

 

I.have been doing alot of research on load boards. A question I have is are they (load board) expecting you to have a trailer to haul that load or are they ( the company that has the load) supplying the loaded trailer?

 

I seen on this tutorial I was watching as an example they were using a load paying 2.14 @793 miles. They were charging the customer $1700 than subtracting your fuel surcharge of$135 which equaled $1565 you got 65% of that $1565 plus the$135 fuel surcharge so if I figured it out right equals
$ 1,152.25 and if you take that number and divide it by the 793 miles your actually making 1.45 a mile. I seen elsewhere that it takes about $1.38 a mile to operate the truck so your really only making 0.07 a mile correct? It started out sounding like a good load but after breaking it down sounds like load only paying $55.51. I know that was a good bit to read but I was wondering if someone could tell me if I was breaking this down correctly.

 

The load board is only a place for the broker and truck to meet, the free boards care nothing about what you have. Paid boards want MC# / insurance, but that is primarily for the other party to see your credentials. Ideally the truck company supplies the trailer, but there are power only loads on boards as well.

Power only the truck goes and grabs the trailer and drops it at it's designation. Then there is the Power only where the truck has to deliver the trailer but is allowed to use the trailer for whatever the truck company wants for x amount of days. Example: "48 DRY VAN, SPRING RIDE, SW/DOORS LOAD OUT, CAN USE UP TO 4 DAYS!!" The PO load won't pay much at all so you have to find a load or two en route or the truck loses.

As for fuel surcharge it is for when you sign a dedicated contract and the the rate is set using the fuel price base line at that time (it is $2.50 at the moment). The surcharge is a matrix of additional cost set at higher fuel prices, example; http://www.national-delivery.com/Fuel_Surcharge.htm. So in the end the truck can get make more money with the rise of fuel prices. Without a fuel surcharge the signed contract rate at say $2.00 a gallon would break the truck at $.4.00 a gallon. There is no law or regulation mandating the pass through of the fuel surcharge. That is where a trucking company has this laid out in their rate tariff (now call rules circular, service agreement and many other names) and is made available for customers to view at all times via the trucking companies website.

If you are an independent trucking company and grabbing loads off of a load board the fuel surcharge is irrelevant because it is a one time contract for the agreed rate at the time. In your example, that $135 ($0.17 a mile) it is added to the $1700 not subtracted. As for the 65% I don't know where that came from, but OUCH must be from being under someone else's authority (leased on) same as $1.38 cpm. Each trucking company has their own cost and savings plan, so I suppose that might be an average but the cost per mile can change at any given moment some costs are fixed while others ma vary.

So in you example of $.2.14 @ 793 miles = $1697.02, the truck gets 65% of that plus 100% of the fuel surcharge. $1,103.06 + fuel surcharge = $1238.06

Load pay: $1238.06 = $1.56 a mile
Cost: $1.38@793m $1094.34
Profit: $143.72 or $0.18 a mile before DH
Deadhead: 100 miles @ 8 mpg = 12.5 gal @ $2.50 = $31.25
$143.72 - $31.25
Profit: $112.47 or $0.14 a mile


For arguments sake lets say that was the the same for 100,000 miles company profit = $14,000 of course ...was taxes figured into the cpm??? if not bye bye profit...

I wrote this just after waking up so it might all be wrong lol

 

I appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me. I honestly don't know where the taxes played in to that scenario it was just a popular company that leases on drivers they had a load board tutorial that I watched. I didn't think about adding the dead head in or the taxes

 

It is the not so obvious things that get ya. Example recently I went out to start my truck and the party was over in a blink of an eye, $18,000 in repairs later and I am rolling down the road. Now that my maintenance funds are low I gotta hope there is no other major issues in the near future or I could find myself filling out a McD's application...

 

Wow I could see if someone had not planned or planned enough for a situation like that how it could easily turn into a complete loss or worse a major debit.

 

So if I'm looking to hook up at point a drop drop at point B than move on to the next load I would be looking for power only loads if I.understand correctly. Otherwise I would have to have my own trailer which the companies would be loading and unloading.?

 

@dream$ power only (tow away) in the truest sense would be picking up a trailer loaded or empty and delivering it to the destination. Many call this drop and hook.

Load Out LDOT would be an empty trailer that you pick up and deliver but while you have it you can get a load on the side and deliver it before dropping off the trailer.

Now this being the world of trucking things get blurry like brokers think that they are a trucking company's (cause I guess they like liability) PO loads can be LDOT's and such but, not LDOT's be PO's.

As for load/unloading by companies yes that is true with a twist. The shipper and receiver might do it or they could use a lumper which your company (the driver there at the time) pays for the lumper. Which a smart company would get reimbursed for with fees. Or, the driver could be doing the work themselves.

Of course the loading situation should be known before accepting the load. Being the blurry trucking world, what you agreed on may not be reality.

 

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