So what are you hauling today, Driver? where you going? An whats the pay??

Comment removed by member: reason, not intelligent enough to see the ill intentions of others wether they are members or guests.

 

Cableclown, I would not share customers, freight, or revenue with anyone as that is putting mine and others livelyhood at stake. it's not good business to share your sources......

 

I'll bite. Here is the last trip I started on. I am leaving out all the info except the dollars and the miles I ran.

Monday 3/11 deadhead to first load from house 100 miles
pickup frozen load, haul it 2800 miles for $6000. deliver it friday morning. Weighs 25,000 lbs

Friday 3/15 delivered load, deadheaded 165 miles to next load. I cannot deliver until Monday. Weighs 44,500 lbs. Haul this load, keep between 50-60, do not freeze, pays $2800 on 900 miles loaded. I have no problem sitting on this load over the weekend because I would have been out of hours to reload and go back home. Also the weather is warm enough the reefer isn't burning hardly any fuel.

Plan for monday 3/18: either deadhead out or grab a load to where the profit loads are for roughly 1.40 per mile. We will see how I feel monday about that.


So from 3/11 to 3/18, I have traveled about 4000 miles and grossed $8800. By the time I deliver 3/18 I will have burned roughly $3300 in fuel. I consider this a good trip.

 

I'm glad the driver pushed on that rate like he did. It was a great rate. Knowing who it came from though I know there was more money behind it - was a matter of the agent telling the customer here's your truck for $x,xxx. I did make a small negotiating mistake telling them I could match the rate.... Guess sitting around made me a tad weak in that moment. I should have kept my mouth shut about that and jacked it another $400 if the other truck had dropped off of it. That load was hot and they weren't shy about telling it either. I'm glad the other truck didn't drop off of it. I was perfectly content to sit tight after missing that one. As it is I'm on the road right now.

 

It only takes a little phone work to determine where the market is at on any given day.... and it's not really how much I got to haul, but rather, how I got it, (negotiation tactics and strategies), I mean it's not how much sausage you got, but rather, how you made it....

Now sure, if I'm at a crossdock warehouse reworking a load and the guys at the warehouse are wanting to know just what I picked up where, and where it's going, and for how much, then sure..... I'm not tellin'.... (well, sometimes I might feed them some misinformation, *grin*), but dude, you should know, as well as I do, that you can feel out the rates by talking to brokers on the phone... and if you do enough data mining on the phone you will have your finger firmly on the pulse of the market...

And I tend to talk about past loads, months and years old.... not what I might have just scored, which city, exactly what it was, exactly where it went, how much I got, what the broker started at, what I countered with, and any of the little tricks I employed to work some Jedi mind magic....

I'll discuss that stuff privately with people I know, the current rates, and yeah I get that if you reveal too much info on real time spot loads that some big carrier carnivore is going to come swoopin' in and try undercutting the rate and taking food off the table...

I'm feelin' ya there...

So, probably good to be deliberately vague in a public forum when talking about current up to the minute stuff, I think that's valid...

 

Mmmmm, I tend to be vague about specifics on a public forum. I might ask for specifics, but if you have something really gravy you might want to hold your cards tight to your chest.

I learned about keeping quiet at the crossdock after I once let slip a great partial I was getting and what it paid.....

It was fat too... two to four pallets shipping every friday out of MA going to MS and paying, I think it was $2,000... I never could get that load again after that, when I called on it the shipper said they were combining it with another load that they had already been doing coming down out of VT and no longer shipped it separately....

I don't "share" info at local crossdocks since that happened... Don't get into specifics with strangers either....

But I do also agree with cableclown that some info can be shared as a way of keeping each other informed.

Just how much info, I don't know.

It's a tough call.

 

Totally agree with you there.

I have found loads and get to point where others are more forthcoming and it really is best to just go sit in the truck. Especially when you suddenly realize you scored a load for about $400 more than the guy in the dock next to you.