negotiating rates

Trying to get out of Atlanta area... I guess, I'll deadhead to Nashville or even further, if need be...It is not that much different at all. The want you to take 44 k lbs for 850 out of here to Chicago. You can get that out of TN or KY too. I came down here for 3000. I would not come down here for any less. 850 is just fuel cost for the loop. That's ok. But why bother go up the hills loaded when you can get the same thing past Chattanooga?

 

Louisville is paying 700 to Chicago today. Just a heads up.

 

It's all depending on the orgin of your location and where the load is going too.

 

Create a formula in your head and stick to it no matter what......you will lose many loads this way but will smile about the one you do get instead of begrudgingly running a crap load for a crap rate that you will never forget. Your formula should be known inside and out backwards and forward. Just .02 cents from a rookie O/O.

 

That formula better be incredibly complicated or I see lots of crying about deadheading out of MA/CO/FL in your future. And that's just one exception that can burn you.

You all need to learn the freight markets. There are no shortcuts. The game is large and complicated with an incredibly large number of moving parts. No simple formula based around how much you need per mile to be profitable is going to maximize revenue and minimize costs.

 

"based around how much you need per mile"

That would only be 1 part of a very simple formula.

And I imagine it would be different for most.

For me....dead head home is worked in as I have only had 3 "back hauls" in 3 years.

 

Back haul as a term gets a bad rap here and elsewhere because it was turned into a euphemism for 'cheap' years and years ago.

Many (most) profitable trucking companies have a customer who they run direct for. Part of this is that they have made commitments to haul those loads. Regardless they have to get back to their dedicated freight in a set amount of time. This dynamic is what causes the 'front haul' and 'back haul' parts of the cycle. People don't just arbitrarily take (slightly) cheaper rates to a place because they want to get home. If that were the case they'd be like you and 'back haul' once a year.

But none of this means that the back haul has to pay badly. In fact if your trucking company is based in FL, UT, CO, MA, ME, NH, VT, the empty parts of NM/AZ or any other weak market you HAVE to be making the vast majority of your revenue on the 'back haul'. The 'back' part is a direction not a price. Yes people will sometimes take back hauls a little bit cheaper than they otherwise would... but that's relative to the market and they don't just bend over and take it. They try as hard as they can to find the best possible rate going where they need to go.