Made the jump and booked my 1st load

I thought you would say just that since you mentioned farming before and it's in your handle. Nothing wrong with doing this gig part time. What I think you'll find is that as you go along you'll realize that the time and trouble to load up and leave the house means you want to be making more per load, or per day/load. This comes with learning your lanes, what customers you can work with repeatedly and learning to negotiate with brokers.

 

Cool, van rates are absolutely on fire in your area right now just so you know. But heck if you already have a flat then I understand. If your having to rent the flat then switch it out. You could do double the rate.

 

You can go as far as it takes. Tell them you want $1200. If they are in a bind they may take it. If they say man there’s just no way I can do that. Then say, my rule is $1000 a day in revenue and just can’t go below that. When you settle on $950 they think the won but really you did. Just remember chances are they have $1200 in it so who really won? I suppose you both did but neither were screwed.

This is no game out here. You have to play hard because they’ll straight up steam roll you if your not ready for it.

Edit: Trust me when rates are bad, they will have no problem being “insulting” to you when they try and make you take it for below cost.

 

The straight up truth about trucking, right there, brought to you in 2 sentences by Mr. Midwest.

That's what I was meaning above by knowing your lanes. You'll learn what you can get away with asking for. You gotta know the floor and the ceiling or you'll always leave money on the table. I hate that feeling, and you know when you just screwed yourself, but it happens. Happens to everyone, brokers too.

 

I don't have to deal with brokers or negotiate rates ever so maybe I'm way off.. but from listening here and a few guys I watch on YouTube, don't ask broker how much more they can do. Know what you want and offer that or a little more. If you want 1000 Tell them you will do the load for 1200. If they say no we are at 800 say no thanks and have a nice day. If they offer 1000 great. Think you have to learn to be okay with being told no. YouTube guy I've been watching lately, while i don't love his content. Seems like there's a lot of click bait, including his smoking hot wife but one thing he says a lot and i think more people need to learn Is "know your worth" don't work for scraps. Granted he seems to be pretty comfortable in life I 100% agree with him

 

Man, you can't do that. You gotta show us the smokin' hot wife. Link needed!

I only remember two times when I couldn't get at least $50 more out of a broker. Always feels good if I forgot about a toll along the way.

 

What loadboard do you have? Most people recommend ITS for flatbed freight. They say it seems to have more of it. For vans and reefers it seems like DAT is the way to go. You can get by with the cheaper $40 a month versions but I'd recommend getting ITS Pro $150 a month or DAT Power that's also $150 a month. You can call their customer service and suspend the account - not having to pay for it if you're going to take off from trucking a month, or many months. The $150 a month subscriptions have better features and one good home run $$$$ load will cover a whole year's worth subscription cost and then some.

DAT shows the 15 days average pay on a given lane. Now it's not always a given but is a rough guide. Generally speaking right now brokers will be happy to pay that number. In a down market they might not be willing to. I think there is even a level of DAT that shows the 7 day average. But things change out here quickly. Like I said its a rough guide when you're just learning or if you're occasionally running unfamiliar areas.

Here's a nice one posted up for tonight that's well over the 15 day average on the lane although the broker's credit looks sketchy. This is the DAT power app on my phone. Not sure what exactly what ITS offers or looks like as I haven't had a subscription to it in about 6 or 7 years now.