RGN average rates per mile?Advice to stay away from cheap freight!

I've always gotten a kick out of everyone talking about not hauling cheap freight. When they mention rates that they charge, sometimes those rates are so high, that either that rate happened because of desperation, or its some kind of specialty... Or... they are lying out their ###.

You have to know your costs, and that can be interesting to figure out just starting out. I like the way @Rontonio spelled that out.

@TripleSix and others have often talked about a daily rate, and that is more how I look at it (more like hourly instead of daily). I don't really do much truck driving, and certainly no heavy haul, but in my business, I always look at the time. Obviously all of the other costs have to come into play, but after they are considered, TIME is the key for me. Its the only thing that you lose, that you never get back. The few bigger things I have moved, that they needed a price per mile, I took all my costs, all the time involved, put that into a per mile price, and that was that.

PS Its easy to estimate your time wrong... I've lost my ### more than once.

 

@GeorgeB out of my personal experience (and I wouldn't say I'm a veteran of heavy haul) with 80000lb+ payload average is about $1 a mile fule, $1 a mile permits. The key word is average. We do run all 48 states, and there are some states with $30 permits and in some states, it cost $895 for 40 miles (Oklahoma us-287). Plus you need to know your depreciation, equipment getting older, tires need to be changed, oil etc, also as CharlieK said you need to know how much your time worth. Combine all this together and you will get your rate per mile. Don't worry about your MPG, if you want to haul heavy, wide, tall, long you will need to burn fuel. You can't get 8+ miles per gallon on 160000 gross. I would say everybody has his own business model. You need to figure out yours. Don't try to copy somebodies. It may work for them and not for you. How much time are you planning to spend on the road per run? week? month? few months?

 

I own trucks, and do machinery moving and scrap, but I try to stay out of "straight trucking business" because it is too cheap. Twice recently I ran a legal RGN load (telehandler), it was a full day of trucking according to HOS, and I charged $1,800 for such days. But it is rare. 98% of calls such as "can you move an excavator from this town to that town" end up in no deal because there are cheap truckers who do this sort of thing all day long and I do not care for this. I transport my own equipment or scrap etc.

 

What kind of truck do you have?

 

Just remember if weights or axle spacing is off it can get very expensive. Off route in some states can be costly too.