Somebody is hauling it ??

It goes the same way for the company drivers.

Companies are able to find people who will drive for slave wages, so they pay them slave wages.

 

Texas is pretty bad right now because of all the hay coming in. I stopped going in there when the drought came down as hauling cheap is the only way out, and the loads going in from where I'm at don't pay enough to come out for 1.40 pm.

I bounced out of Miami yesterday after my 8' LTL to Chicago paying $1.10 per mile turned into 30'+ of truck. They didn't want to up my rate, so the freight sat. The problem is, someone took that load.

 

Before going into an area that is cheap I make sure I have enough to come back MT. For me it is about making sure there is enough back to cover my fuel if I can't find a decent paying load. Loading right now to Omaha from Indy. I doubt I will find what I want coming back but I am far beyond what I need to come back.

But for my drivers we have to look at it differently. They have the rate they want to average on all miles. I can't tell them not to. So they accept that good rate out combined with cheap back will get them what they want.

Now look at it from a company that is paying mileage. If I paid on the high end of the going mileage rate, I could have one dispatcher running 20 trucks and make more per truck not counting labor. I could take $1.20 coming back and make much more than I am now.

The issue is less about the independent O/O and more about O/O's going into mileage leases or large carriers that have percentage with big broker business. With the mileage is hauling cheap freight 100% of the time. The second (percentage carrier) will bid to get the cheap freight because they know they can get it covered by an outside truck (and make more money).

How are we going to change this? Forget about "Don't haul cheap freight". Rather educate the shipper about the risks of carriers willing to run on thin margins. When the main concern is getting it hauled cheap, shipper gets carriers with high risk of crashes, poor insurance, mariginal equipment, drivers with bad safety ratings and drivers with sub-standard skills.

With the change over to CSA this put the shipper at risk of being pulled into a lawsuit after an accident. And a broker that isn't concerned about this is likely not to have contingent insurance in place. These discusssions are already being had with large shippers.

 

ORRRRRR, you can just have them watch an episode of Shipping Wars on A&E. One guy didn't even have commercial insurance or tags!!!

 

Yeah that's who it's sponsored by it seems and where all of them get their loads from.

 

I'm always dealing with cheap crapola out of Atlanta,GA. I suppose it doesn't help that we run dry vans. Seems ridiculous to run back north for buck amile freight that is heavy as you ca legally haul. But some how brokers down there post loads for that and it can be a feeding frenzy this time of year. I think some of it is that guys with air conditioned units are pulling great paying freight in, turn around and head north cause they made their money coming down. I've had enough interaction with shippers down there to KNOW that there are indeed decent rates coming out of there.But somewhere between the broker and me it kinda evaporates somewhere !??!

I won't even go down there unless I have a customer load out. I'm not going to make a broker rich by starving myself.......................