Picking my own freight baby! My journey to & of being on Schneider choice, the Adventure & Numbers!

spyder7723 · May 17, 2016

freightwipper said: ↑

I was just joking about you starting it.
It did seem to start off this whole money debate currently though but that doesn't have anything to do with you. Multiple people at Schneider have debated about leaving here to do Flatbed work for more money, both on this thread and others so this just seemed to have stir that up again.
As far as me I mainly stay in the midwest and do mostly 2 loads a day, sometimes 3. Stay out weeks at a time where the money is at then take time off.
Normally am in the range of 2300-2800 miles a week in the $1.70s- $1.80s ranage all miles. If I really push myself i can do better but being I stay out weeks at a time I tend not run my clock out.
Last year I pulled off many $2+ weeks but thats extremely rarely ever happens anymore.
If I'd do flatbed I'd need to know with certainly I could pull say the same mileage range but $2.30+ consistently or else i dont think it would be worth it but thats just for me, everybody is dfferent.
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I couldn't guarantee you would be able to consistently do 2.30+ on 2500 miles. But i do know after the learning curve, you would do better. How much better? Sorry man i don't have a crystal ball but a best guess would be 20 percent. And on less miles.
Part of the reason i enjoy what i do so much is how it fits in the longterm view. I rack up so few miles that all the variable costs are very low. That makes everything cheaper in the long run. Tires, brakes, pms, everything becomes cheap cause it's spread out over so much time. Trucks last 10 years easy. This one i got new at the end of 02. My last truck payment was in 07. That's almost 10 years of no truck payment with no plans to need to replace it any time soon.

Anyway i didn't come here to try and convince you to switch over. I had just seen you mention how flats paid more so i gave you an example or two backing up your statement. But if i was you i would stay put. Doing 650 a day after expenses, in this market is pretty solid. Dont take any big risks in a down market.

freightwipper · May 17, 2016

RootHog said: ↑

Just to add to the post regarding the loads from Bear River City to Mehoopany. (By the way, I got a heads up on those loads, and they disappeared before I had a chance to log in, LOL)

Anyhow, I have (had) found myself an nice little niche that allowed me to run west instead of east. Been doing this for a while now, basically getting a load out to Casa Grande (TSC), then running some nice paying short loads, followed up with something longer out back towards the house. I was turning some nice money in the course of a week or so.

Then, loads got difficult to grab out of Casa Grande, other than mediocre loads that paid decent but went longer distance to crap areas. I managed by getting on a couple Solar farm loads out to Colorado, and finding my way home with a cheap load from there.

During this time, I spoke with drivers at the Phoenix yard (company drivers), literally complaining about having to do short haul loads out of TSC in Casa Grande. Absorbed that information and got it confirmed today by somebody else (protecting that source, but it is solid) who flat out told me that all the local (Arizona) and California loads are not released to the IC board unless they can't get company trucks to cover them. These are not dedicated loads, so they are supposed to be available to us.

I could literally drop a load out there in the afternoon, pick up one of these short loads and have it delivered early the next morning, be back in Casa Grande for maybe another short one for the following day, and then back to Casa Grande or the Phoenix area with something headed in the direction of home. The loads, if you can get them and time them right, pay great.

I guess that is just the price you pay for running your own truck where company trucks also run.

Sucks for company drivers as well, because nobody running by the mile at company driver pay wants to grab a load that goes 80-100 miles in the middle of the afternoon, that doesn't deliver until the following morning. For an IC, that 400-600 for a local load out in the less populated western United States is great!
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driverdriver said: ↑

This is the way it's always been, the board has always been leftovers there just used to be a lot more leftovers.
THE BOA5D HAS ALWAYS BEEN MANIPULATED BY CUSTOMER SERVICE.

It's just that since freight capacity is so low more of you are paying more attention.
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RootHog said: ↑

Oh, I get that. It is sometimes a good thing though to have slow freight expose activity like this.

And, it's not customer service. Customer Service simply wants their customers taken care of. This comes from the bean counters that want more money kept in house.

Customer service would clearly be better served by having every load made available to us, as that would help ensure loads were better covered.
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First of all Schneider would never have every load made available to us for multiple reasons.
The huge paying loads, espacially in a down market they try to more often keep on company trucks.
One example is last year when freight was good there was a load that posted multiple times per week from the midwest 400 miles to Pittsburgh, drop and hook at both ends and paid $1680.
My one week here that I cleared over $4000 after costs I did two of those babies.
Anyways eventually those loads disappeared BUT now I have seen company trucks in there (which is a very small consignee) around the same time that load dropped. I know this because we have another customer right past this one I still go to sometimes.
Go figure.
As far as out west and company trucks go, Schneider never had a lot of freight out there and certainly not a lot of good paying freight. As an IC it is on you to figure out how and when you go home BUT a company driver the company needs to serve that need. We all know company drivers get pissed if they dont get home on time and a part of this I'm sure is keeping whatever freight they have within a region to service their company trucks with limited freight. The shorter regional loads makes it easier for Schneider to get drivers home and they pay better, win win for team Schneider but for the IC not so much.
All of what we're seeing is because freight is in the tank, last year when freight was great there was more than enough for Schneider to do well with their company trucks that we had lots of good loads available to us as well.
Now it's slim pickings and you better stay in freight heavy lanes now or else you'll take a beating. I can't really blame them though, if you were running Schneider you'd probably do the same. Who would want to give up a huge % of a hot load when they have a company driver that can pull it for .35 a mile or whatever. As long as they provide ICs with enough freight to be competitive with carriers that's all they probably care about and even still theres a waiting list to get on which does say something in of itself.

CaptainDaveG · May 17, 2016

freightwipper said: ↑

First of all Schneider would never have every load made available to us for multiple reasons.
The huge paying loads, espacially in a down market they try to more often keep on company trucks.
One example is last year when freight was good there was a load that posted multiple times per week from the midwest 400 miles to Pittsburgh, drop and hook at both ends and paid $1680.
My one week here that I cleared over $4000 after costs I did two of those babies.
Anyways eventually those loads disappeared BUT now I have seen company trucks in there (which is a very small consignee) around the same time that load dropped. I know this because we have another customer right past this one I still go to sometimes.
Go figure.
As far as out west and company trucks go, Schneider never had a lot of freight out there and certainly not a lot of good paying freight. As an IC it is on you to figure out how and when you go home BUT a company driver the company needs to serve that need. We all know company drivers get pissed if they dont get home on time and a part of this I'm sure is keeping whatever freight they have within a region to service their company trucks with limited freight. The shorter regional loads makes it easier for Schneider to get drivers home and they pay better, win win for team Schneider but for the IC not so much.
All of what we're seeing is because freight is in the tank, last year when freight was great there was more than enough for Schneider to do well with their company trucks that we had lots of good loads available to us as well.
Now it's slim pickings and you better stay in freight heavy lanes now or else you'll take a beating. I can't really blame them though, if you were running Schneider you'd probably do the same. Who would want to give up a huge % of a hot load when they have a company driver that can pull it for .35 a mile or whatever. As long as they provide ICs with enough freight to be competitive with carriers that's all they probably care about and even still theres a waiting list to get on which does say something in of itself.
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I agree completely to a point. But once we book it, that load should be ours period. No taking it away because you now have figured how to get a company truck to take it. Schneider has no problem charging us 400.00 if we cant "deliver" as agreed.

As far as people standing in line to sign on...yep but I know alot of them fail. Do they fail because of Schneider removing a load from them in a slow freight lane...probley not. But does it piss that IC off enough to start looking else where? I bet everyone of us would leave if we could find a stable shipper with our own authority.

I know I live in a horrid market, I know that market just got way way tougher because of those IC'S that live here in the Denver area that just got dumped on our board because of dropping IC dedicated from home depot. I hope they all do great I really do...I would do anything to help them why you ask because I hope with more of us, Schneider tries to get some new accounts around here.

Be Safe Out There

Captain Dave

stevep1977 · May 17, 2016

RootHog said: ↑

Oh, I get that. It is sometimes a good thing though to have slow freight expose activity like this.

And, it's not customer service. Customer Service simply wants their customers taken care of. This comes from the bean counters that want more money kept in house.

Customer service would clearly be better served by having every load made available to us, as that would help ensure loads were better covered.
Click to expand...

Customer service did make the loads available to ICs to help ensure the loads were covered. Once they knew they were covered and a company truck became available they no longer needed to be covered

ethos · May 17, 2016

I'm glad to see this thread has calmed down, let's keep it this way please.

drvrtech77 · May 17, 2016

The truckers coach has admitted on facebook this am by posting snapshots of posts from here about members complaining about his truckers coach and trying to use that against sni ic's...also if you say anything to him that about his site he comes unglued!.

ethos · May 17, 2016

drvrtech77 said: ↑

The truckers coach has admitted on facebook this am by posting snapshots of posts from here about members complaining about his truckers coach and trying to use that against sni ic's...also if you say anything to him that about his site he comes unglued!.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I don't follow.

ethos · May 17, 2016

This has been a really great thread for you IC guys. Lots of good info and a real value to the site in terms of knowledge. So, when people who don't even work for Big Orange come in and start the bashing crap, you guys just hit the report button and it will get handled.

drvrtech77 · May 17, 2016

ethos said: ↑

I'm sorry, I don't follow.
Click to expand...

He's taking snapshots of posts on here and going back on a facebook group page and stating he will send things to sni if anything he doesn't like said about his truckers coach...

Tx-Creep · May 17, 2016

drvrtech77 said: ↑

The truckers coach has admitted on facebook this am by posting snapshots of posts from here about members complaining about his truckers coach and trying to use that against sni ic's...also if you say anything to him that about his site he comes unglued!.
Click to expand...

The only way you would know that is if you follow his page as well...

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