You were very LUCKY.If you are pulling a VAN i would have to see the ''confirmation'' on these RATES out of Northeast..Anyone can say anything on a COMPUTER FORUM...
Yes, I pull dry van. I'd think that I was 'lucky' if I got one of these per year. Once or twice per week is the norm. I like to think that I get these rates because I'm focused. When I'm working, I'm working. I get loaded, then drive to the receiver stopping only when I need fuel or a whizz break. Load delivers the next day at 9am? I pull into the receiver as soon as I get into town. Unless it's a grocery warehouse with strict appointment times, I usually get unloaded then and there. I post my truck and watch the boards on weekends. I post my truck when I'm on a 34, because I usually don't NEED a 34 but leave the option open when freight is slow on a Saturday through Monday. If a great load comes through, I'll run on recap or shift my 34 to a different period. When the forklift hits my deck, I hit the load boards and the phone. I post my truck available. I have a bottom line rate, and only compromise when I know I can do better than $2/mile to the truck on a round trip. Within a few hours of being unloaded, I have a good feel for what the local market is paying. If it's not to my liking, I decide then and there if I'm going to sit and wait for my rate to come to me, or if I'm going to move empty 200-300 miles to where I know the rates are or will be when I get there. Rinse and repeat. I don't care where I go, or how long I need to be away from home. I only care about whether or not I can maintain a minimum $2/hub mile average to the truck on all miles traveled. So far, since January 1, I have averaged $2.14/mile to the truck for every mile it's moved. Since January 1, the truck has logged 22,800 hub miles. I have been home twice during that time. Sometimes I take a calculated risk. Like the $3.24/mile load from Minnesota to Spokane, WA at the end of February (3,000 lbs in the trailer). Rates out of the Northwest are crap in the first quarter, but one can usually find something decent coming out of the Portland or Seattle markets coming back east. The rate that I got going out would cover my empty miles to either of those markets and still keep me above my minimum average. Turns out that I didn't even have to do that. I completed a 34 (I delivered in WA with 1.5 hours left on my 70), then picked up a load in Montana into Boston at $1.84/hub mile. Average for the two loads was $2.24/hub mile including empty miles. It's not called 'luck', it's called 'work'.
It's not called 'luck', it's called 'work' And SO many TODAY want the GRAVY $ but will not work at getting it
You know, I just now noticed that this is in the Landstar forum. And here I was thinking it was in the O/O forum. Maybe it's just the Landstar rates that are dropping?
I use a few different 'public' subscription based load boards. Each has a mechanism to post that I'm available. I get the best results from the OOIDA member's edge load board, so that's typically the only one that I post my truck to. My apologies if I've confused any BCOs. I'm not a Landstar BCO, but I'm an approved Landstar carrier. One of the loads that I've referenced in this thread was a Landstar load. The loads included in my annual average rate are a mixture of Landstar loads, broker loads and one occasional contract freight source that provides us with live unload preloaded trailers that we load with short hops to return to their origin. If it's any consolation, I never get the BCO rate on a load, and I typically only get the Landstar loads that BCOs don't want.
Thanks.I was gonna say... I ''work'' as much as 8 hours a day in the Northeast Freight leaving ''west''..I can only speak for Landstar.It is hell at times.The last 2 days i was all over it and worked 7 hours a day on the Landstar Board and the best ''rates'' were 1.79 going WEST. I am home and empty and this is where i will stay until i can find a $2.00 plus a mile leaving ''west''.If not i will just play my ''short hop'' game up here,to keep revenue rolling in.
And that speaks volumes about what Landstar has become. They've diluted their brand to the point where it doesn't seem that there's any advantage to becoming a BCO.
