My September 2018 Numbers

I've developed a good relationship with a couple of good broker agents that come back to me now over and over. When they don't have what I need, I go to the board and start calling.

Yes, I do have my own trailer.

It takes a lot of work to develop this kind of gig. It's NOT a buy a truck & trailer, get your authority and join the load board and overnight start producing like this.

The main reason I posted this thread was to counter some of the doom & gloom threads out there lately, like, THE SKY IS FALLING...THE ECONOMY IS ABOUT TO CRASH...THERE'S NO MONEY IN TRUCKING...RUN FOR THE HILLS...LOL

 

I worked on the inside of a company with 150+ trucks, (company guys & lease ops) for a little over a year. I could see that the money was in the short haul side. However, bigger companies don't look at it that way. They are focused, (at least the owner was where I worked ) on contract work that consisted of 800 to 1,200 mile length of haul averages.

Short stuff, unless you have a division completely dedicated to it, is not profitable for them because there's a LOT of administrative and coordinating work that goes into keeping it flowing smoothly. Not to mention, the drivers who are dependent on miles (like @tucker was) start getting antsy and irritated.

So what I'm starting to see is this. Huge companies like SWIFT & others are shifting their short-haul work, which is part of their overall contract commitments, to brokers they've established good working relationships with, who in turn are working with smaller companies and independents like myself to get the job done.

In turn, they get their cut and keep the big customers happy...

Believe me, these are customers that someone like myself could NEVER get my foot in the door with because I don't have capacity.

What kills me though is the thought of the kind of money these MEGAS must be getting when it can be filtered downstream a couple of times before it gets to me and I'm still really happy with the rate! LOL

 

Yeah, I know what you mean and there is something to be said for that. However, I've been pretty lucky in that most of the places I go, I do so consistently. So, you start to develop a rapport and get taken care of pretty well.

In addition, for me at least, I REALLY value the home time. I like being around my wife of 40 years this December