So you want to "own " your own company

thank you gears, plenty of knowledge there! howdy from stormy TX

 

Quick question for the veterans here and maybe a few of the newbies can relate as well based on the above posts. After taking a couple months to jump through the hoops of getting my own authority, IFTA, Insurance, UCR, and everything else that goes with getting an outfit going I can proudly say I am now into week six of owning a small trucking company. A buddy of mine drives for me and gets 25% of what the load pays and occassionally a little more - i.e. I try and give him the detention pay if he is stuck waiting all day / night to get loaded or unloaded which has happened twice. To date he got home one Saturday night and stayed out one weekend....other than that he has been home the other 4 weekends. So far we have stuck primarily to the SE - a good bit of TX to FL and up to MD once. The average is $1.60 and have been fairly lucky to keep the deadhead down. Some loads have been far less and obvioulsy a few have been North of $2.00 per mile. It is a Dry Van 53'. Is someone wants to pay you $200 to take a load of 60 pallets 33 miles then that is there business and our keep! I have now come up with a marketing brochure and am working on getting a few direct clients. At any rate was curious what the veterans think of the $1.60 mile average off the load boards - am I going to make it or drown or somewhere in the middle. Thanks in advance for the knowledge that I have gotten off the board!

 

Your the only one that can answer that. You need to know your cost of operation to answer it.

 

Good answer...Good answer!!!

 

1.60 is pretty cheap these days. I wouldn't move for less than 1.75 unless it was getting me to a freight lane that was over 2 a mile. The guy I'm working for now gets me grain at a minimum of 17 a ton, which averages $3.50/mile, but his van freight sometimes averages only $1.54/mile. So you see which way I lean.

Just to give you an example, I need $1.50 to just break even. The question you have to ask yourself is, if you're not in it for the profit, why are you doing it? Get as much as you can. Leave the rest to the JB Hunts.

 

Wow. You travel 3,000 miles a week at $3.50 per mile? Wish I could do that. I average about $1.50 for all miles when all is said and done.

You gotta lot of balls for posting that Gears and I applaud you for really telling like it is. Every other forum would rip you apart cause ya know, they all get twice that amount....ya right.

 

This question is mainly aimed at Gears. I am in the process of getting own authority, but am having second thoughts on what to pull. My first choice is flatbed, but rates and consistency seem to be better on the reefer side. I pulled a reefer several years ago leased to a midwest company mostly hauling meat which i hated because of long waits, washouts every load, pallet exchanges,product rejected etc.. Just wanted to know what youre experience has been with pulling loads off of the load boards,and if all reefer freight is this bad cause if it is i think ill go with flatbed.

 

I don't do 3000 miles a week, but with grain I average $1300 a week take home vs. $870 this week running van. I could make the same on van if boss would pressure the brokers more.

 

I know you wanted Gears to answer this and I hope he will from his own perspective but from mine I would choose van simply because you can choose your freight and rates ate higher for vans right now if you consider wait times and other factors. Flatbed and reefer are both suffering because of horrible wait times and rates. Vans can negotiate higher rates in the long run. At least in my experience.

 

My point exactly. I was baiting you. Rate doesn't mean that much if your not getting the miles.

I do at least 3,000 a week with an average overall rate of $1.50 per mile for ALL miles. That's $4,500 gross. After fuel and other expenses I'm still taking home way more so it's all relative.

You can say you get $5.00 per mile but if you only do 25 mile runs 3 times per week your not going to do well.