Really need help and advice.

Ok, I'm flabbergasted. I live in Florida, and when I leave the house I regularly get to the Cincinnati/Lexington/Louisville area and I don't leave it once I get there. I could spend an entire month running short half around there and make a #### fine paycheck. Some of my most profitable months have been doing just that. So much so that my wife and I have been searching for property there in order to permanently relocate.

The couple dozen or so I guys I know that live up there get through the house a couple times a week, plus every weekend. And they bank great money while paying for big shiny new trucks and trailers.
I'll say it again, I'm not knocking you down our anything, just constructive criticism. with all due respect, the problem wasn't being leased to Mercer, or a trailer payment. You need to figure out what you were doing wrong, and what you weren't doing right.

And please, do yourself a favor and forget everything you know about containers. When hauling those cheap ### cans, you don't dh cause they don't have enough on the rate to cover that. with flat bed, the rate has room for some dh, the better the freight pays, the farther you bounce for it. For an extreme example look at rgns and stretch double drops, those guys regularly bounce five, six hundred miles. Even over a thousand miles isn't unheard of.

 

Yeah I was going to say something about his deadhead comments. It's such a difficult thing to dicuss or post about in clear cut answers. Such a dynamic thing.

Seems like the guys who stress the most over deadhead are running at lower rates and have to book every load they can close by. I average around 25% deadhead a year with a van which is a lot for vans. When rates are good my deadhead percentage goes up. When they are down my deadhead goes down. I think the last few weeks I have been hovering around 15% but would have to check.

Here's the deal, if you're in the right lanes and commanding rates your deadhead is going to be a little up but you're covering it, they're paying for it, no problem. If rates are being dictated to you your deadhead is going to be down you'll be stressing over 50 miles or whatever. Several times this year I have deadheaded in the range of 200-400 miles most times just to get home. Sometimes you do it to reposition to a better area.

A buddy of mine pulled that off in an awesome manner a few short weeks ago deadheading about 200 miles then scored $6+ on a 525 mile run in the better area. One helluva a score. Now understand here, that was a lot of luck and some experience coming into play - for those who will read that and think it's time to go buy a truck, you will probably starve cause it ain't easy pulling a rate like that compared to years past.

 

I'm based out of Fla. I'm leased to a carrier based in Chicagoland area.

My carrier has 5 different direct shippers coming out of Chicago where I always get great rates. I dont always go where I want, but always more than enough to cover any dead head back into a better lane.

For me,.. the best (Profitable) lane is the i80 corridor between the Chicago (Area) as far east as Long Island or i287 Jersey area.. Trenton etc. I can run and stay between Cincinnati, Scranton PA, Allentown town, I81 up into north NY state I90 can be profitable at times,. that whole general area is usually loaded with decent paying flatbed loads. The catch is its mostly short hauls,.. 200 - 500mi. Rates can be anywhere from $2.20 - as much as $5-6mi. Yes,.. I have moved pallets of Salt rock 110mi to eastern Long Island for $800, ran down through Brooklyn to Trenton for a 20k lb load of galvanized steel pieces to a place up near Scranton for $650, ran down to Md/PA line for a load of rocks that went to Hubbard OH for $600,.. then ran down to Pittsburgh to pick up some kind of steal cradle for US steal in Gary that paid $1250. From Gary I dead headed over to Chicagoland for a weekend run to San Antonio for $3100. Then I ran 7 pipe loads back to back from San Antonio up to Watford City, ND,.. then taking cheap loads just to get back down near San Antonio,.. as the pipe loads were paying $4800. Couple of the other guys were just dead heading back to Tex to keep running the pipe.

Now while those rates sound like whoah,.. some are thinking "I need to get out there". Where is this? Its not like that all the time. I posted those because that was one of my better runs while out. I dont always run weeks like that. Lets be realistic about this. You take the bad with the good.

Hurst

 

Yeah so im late and only read the first couple of responses because ..... Well anyway I will keep that to myself..... Call Kaplan, Besl, (i heard CRST bought them tho) , High Hopes (Alco) Steel Transport, Bowling or any of the other 20 carriers that haul a couple hundred loads a day out of Middletown.....haul steel .... Haul heavy .... Watch your kids grow up everyday....

 

So,
You have been leased to CRST Malone and Mercer and live in OH and can't get home? You have a business plan issue and do not have a good mentor to learn from. Running all over the country will get you nothing. If you want to be home every week you have to find lanes to run. Out and back or run a triangle that puts you back to the house on a Friday and load out on Sunday. All the O/O flatbed Companies are about the same and the longer you stay leased the more you learn the freight lanes and may get offered a dedicated account. Looking for the greener grass will get you nowhere you never get a chance to build your reputation to even hear about some accounts or get offered the best loads. Admiral Merchants would not be a top pick they are not big enough to have a large freight base and lots of direct customers. Not to be rude but If you want to be home every night find something else to do.

 

I'm out of the southwest Ohio area, I'm home every weekend, and most times through the week. You have to wake up every day and want to win. It's that simple, if you have a goal then it's totally up to you to achieve that goal. Road blocks are just temporary stop signs deal with it and move on. Good luck

 

For crow, I prefer a good slow simmered orange sauce.

 

I hope you are real good at finding your own loads working the spot market. If you had a hard time making it work under Mercers system, how are you going to farewhen it's on you to negotiate the rate with brokers? I strongly advise you get in contact with rollin coal and see if he is willing to teach you how to manipulate the load boards and brokers to your gain.