RATES

What I can never understand if you pull a flat and you already know nothing out of Florida for a flat pays anything WHY DID YOU GO THERE??? There are similar states or areas for other types of trailers. I just don't understand why some guys take a load going to point "A" then are surprised when they get stuck there. Then end up jumping on a POS load "to pay for fuel" then wonder why the rates out of those areas NEVER increase. Stop going to places you can't get out of unless the load paid enough to deadhead out. The whole idiotic idea of driving to break even just amazes me. If I can't find anything that pays I stay home. Sure I don't make any money that day but I didn't spend any either. I also have less miles on equipment, but some guys feel they MUST have a check coming in the mail and completely ignore all the ones going out.

 

You are right. You do not understand.

Sometimes you do what you have to do.

In the past I have hauled 'cheap freight ' [ as some call it ] , due to cicumstances. Did not want to, but I did. My situation is different,now I can refuse a load quicker.
Only load left on a Friday afternoon, needing to get home quickly, doing a good shipper a favor, weather considerations, getting to a better location, and so on are all reasons. Circumstances dictate procedure.
It is called trucking.

 

Please explain why you "have to do it". If the rate is cheap and your not going to make any money how are you benefiting from hauling it? By the time you take the cheap rate, subtract the wasted time and the wear and tear it doesn't make any sense. You said "My situation is different,now I can refuse a load quicker." Please explain how your situation is different. I could be wrong but I'm assuming you mean your doing better financially? I'm not picking on you directly, I know there are a lot of guys who think this way also. The problem is the guys who need the money the most should be the ones turning down the most loads. But instead they're the ones who'll haul anything, even if the profit margin is a burned out tail light away from being zero.

I see loads all the time posted that are so cheap they're laughable. I've seen loads of shingles from the east coast going to Ohio that paid $.75 per mile and I just wonder who's taking these loads. It's obvious who it is, it's the guys who took a load east then line up to eat these crap sandwich's to get back. These are the same guys calling the brokers crooks because the rates were that low, completely clueless to the fact that it's guys like them who keeps the rates low. Simply amazing.

 

Maybe if all trucks stopped for a few days rates might go up. That will not happen because as much as all of us want good rates, very few can sit waiting for the few and far between 3.00 a mile run. Truck payments, insurance, morgage, food, all need to be paid. So we look for the great loads but often settle for the best we can get. With that said I will not take a load under $1.50 a mile, but I have had to take some at a little more that 1.50. Not happy about it or with it but the kids gotta eat.

 

Friday at noon, 600 miles from home. I am offered a load going close to where I live,pays a buck fifty a mile, and am scheduled to load Monday night at my regular shipper. Several choices here. Deadhome home for Monday night load ? And decline the 900 $ ? I am already going anyway.Same fuel, time and wear & tear. Wait for Monday for a better return load and miss my regular outbound load ? I think not.
I take the load toward home, get paid for the same amount of work, and get loaded again.
I do draw a line on cheaper freight, and I have never bid or quoted a cheap price.I do not solicit freight based on under cutting the rate. Going back towards home 75 cents a mile ? No way. One and a quarter. Doubtful, only if I knew the shipper/ broker. Buck fifty ? Yeah, probably.
Now a days I load directly for shipper / buyer, all regional. Very few backhaul situations, outbound rate is very good. I averaged $2.36 per hub mile last year, but only ran about 50,000 miles. I let my truck set before hauling cut rate. But a buck fifty a mile for getting somewhere I need to go anyway, I will take it.

 

Quick question, if you don't mind.....
Do all O/O get the FSC and if not, why?
thanks

 

It depends on situation.
Most of the time I will just tell the shipper I need an extra { whatever] amount to help with fuel situation. They know when fuel is high. Others, with written contracts, will have it spelled out in writing.
I have friends who are leased to companies that will skim their percentage of the FSC from the rate charged to customer, then pay the driver what is left. And that ain't right.

 

Well I agree $1.50 isn't great but assuming they load fast, no tarp or at least easy to tarp and they unload fast it's acceptable. What I'm talking about is the $1.00 freight that guys take "to pay for fuel". Or even the $1.50 loads that take all day to pickup and unload. They take them and never consider what the actual profit was with all the wasted time.

 

Same here, I know companies who scalp detention pay. I get taking a percentage of the load pay but definitely not detention.