Ridiculous rates

BigGee- Note you used "Big Brokers" as the bad guys. I am not a "Big Broker" I am telling you from my experience as a whole, not a few loads. The problem with the "Big Brokers" is that they will move loads at a loss to gain or keep business. To make up for that they have to screw the driver on other loads to make a profit. I choose to never screw the driver, and I have a very loyal driver base. I have more loads that I call drivers direct on and never post, because they were good drivers and we were all happy with the rates. CHR, TQL, LS on the other hand will post the load and squeeze the driver to get a better profit.

Another way to look at it is healthcare. The ER has to see everyone no matter what. So then someone comes in without health insurance and no money (the ####ty load) they still need to care for that person, but now they need to pass that cost on to the guy who comes in with insurance and the ability to pay (the good load).

See what I mean? If you want things to get better take the advice on this board. Don't haul cheap freight and don't go to the Walmart of brokers. Shop local, work with mom and pop shops who want to help the driver, but don't fault them for making a living. Stop blaming others. You can not make yourself better until you stop being a victim.

 

Not a victim just stating facts that's all no hard feelings to no one. Just call it like I see it and putting alil lil light on it that's all. I respect the good brokers out there like you that doing right out there by the drivers. But at the end of the day the old saying is a few bad apples can spoil the bunch.

 

Brokers are no different than carriers. Everyone will always push to get as much money as possible. There is no doubt some brokers are really raking it off the top right now. There's nothing you can do about that. It's how the game goes when there are just too many trucks available to cover scarce freight. When it swings the other way carriers will be pushing aggressively. Granted there are some brokers and carriers out there who have found some decent freight and found that right balance where everyone makes a little, the freight gets moved, and everyone is happy. But for the most part it goes from one extreme to another. Complaining about it does no good. You just have to roll with the punches. Make hay when the sun shines. Etc.

 

Good example today logistics company I move for sent out the blast emails two loads he
sent me special email about paid 675 on 226 miles but is OD 119inches wide .
I quote 880-900 for the load they offer 750 . The load board brokers are offering 55o on same load.
The shipper in this case is the cheap one. The logistics company gets 35 dollars to handle each load.
The shipper offered me the dedicated carrier spot cause the last one quit.
They'd buy annual permits but was only paying 1.38 a mile and surcharge requiring 50K worth of special equipment to haul this stuff.

 

You sound like a broker I worked with. He would tell me he has a shipper and what rates would I take his loads for and how many trucks can I put on it? Then he would add whatever to the top. If I didn't have a truck I would reference him with other guys that I know have fleets. Guy made money but retired.

 

That is exactly the concept I've tried to explain to a few drivers in here and in person and have been called stupid and I don't know anything about business and I'll go broke in a few months running like that. It's refreshing to see someone else that understands this concept and realizes that there is a difference in cost to run empty loaded. Thank you!

 

Thats 4000 miles a week.at 65mph the driver is spending over 60 hrs a week just driving,not counting fueling loading and unloading mandatory breaks.im not saying is not doable is just no way the driver gonna be home for the weekend or during the week.plus that truck aint gonna last long.

 

So it looks like you're not understanding what he was saying on how he operates his business. He won't be going broke anytime soon. If you go back and read his post, plus look at a map you'll see he's talking about 2000 total for the week not for each deadhead. So yes it's possible to do 2 to 3 of those loads a week.

On top of that if you look at this as a regular business and not the way oo or most drivers look at this, you see that what he does make sense and more profit then the almighty dollar per mile method everyone chases. For any other business outside of trucking they look at what is called the cost of goods sold and then what the profit is every time it's sold. So the way to look at that is this, it cost him $300 between fuel and tolls on an empty truck to go pick up a load paying him $3200. So you back out that $300 and now that load is paying him $2900. We don't know what his fixed cost per day is but let's assume it's $200, kind of a good average in the industry from what I've determined. We are assuming round trip transit time is 3 days so that's $600 in fixed costs. Now for fuel when loaded let's go with $400 and of course the $100 in tolls again while loaded. So the cost of goods sold would be $1400. His profit to his company/truck would be $1800 for that one load. Now he is doing 2-3 of those a week and if we were conservative and said he did 2 a week his profit to the company/truck is $3600. Not sure what he pays himself for a salary each week but even if that $1000 the company still is making a profit of $2600 a week on one truck. Tell me how he is going out of business with numbers like that?

Disclaimer: This was written within 30 minutes of waking up so it might come across as snarky, that is not the intention.

 

Im trying to understand what u saying:from chicago to lee Ma(Ny,Ma border)is 907 miles with fuel at $2 a gallon(good discount) he must get 9 miles to the gallon for the fuel to cost him $200 .to do two trips a week thats 3600 miles a week.thats a lot of ground to cover.he sure not going out of business anytime soon but he sure working hard for the money.

 

HaHa,,, I am definitely not any part of the problem their brother. You should ask more questions of someone before you lay judgement. I don't blame any one person on the way freight rates and freight volume are today but, that being said....illegal invader's are part of the problem, like it or not. Big carrier's are part of the problem as well, probably more so than illegal's. Again, neither are the whole problem since there are many factors that cause low freight volume and low freight rates. As a Veteran, I would think you would show a little more reserve, especially for a Marine....HOOAH!