Stepping Out With My Own Numbers

You're at a good company that can get as much of that business as they can handle and then some. Very little of it is filtering out from the usual suspects on the open market in my area. What little bit does is quickly covered. I think they actually have people begging for that work. They certainly aren't having to pay much more than their initial target rates.

 

Raney's finally has a winter cover for the LT. I ordered one just to have and I shipped another one to a company called Alaska Tent and Tarp and they are going to custom make one of theirs for me. The one from Raney's is the cheap white vinyl kind and these guys at Alaska Tarp make one that is much better. Looking forward to getting one of those. Really good quality.
If you run in really cold temps I'd suggest checking them out. Their grille covers are much better than most you'll see here in the "South."

 

Where are you running at? I'm in the midwest I'm struggling to keep over $2 a mile. I need to hang out with you a little bit.

 

I been doing mid West North East Out West and now back to the East Coast... I've only had a couple a loads below $2 a mile but the vast majority of my loads are lately have been anywhere from $1.90 a mile up to $2.60 a mile...

 

Pulling for FEdex and we're slow too. They were bellyaching that we had to work sundays because they had 4,000 load s to move. Truth is, it's a LOT slower than any other year. I'm really worried about the slow-down come mid-january-march. It's very strange. Economy is up, but the freight isn't there. I put it to that Fedex sucks and people went elsewhere, like Amazon. Then I see your post and it makes you wonder....

 

FedEx freight might be slow but freight in general is not slow.

 

I don't think its a slow holiday season. I've been pulling ups non stop this season. what they are telling me is that volume is way up, but everyone is more prepared this year. Amazon has finally gotten their own fleet grown to size, ups and fedex both have hired hundreds of full time drivers(the sorting center im running out of hired 85 new drivers this year) , and they got more outside trucks locked in for the season. All this adds up to not needing to put as much overage out on the spot market this year.

 

That was my best guess at what happened. That Amazon and the other players have gotten their arms wrapped around this. You could see the handwriting on the wall from one year to the next over the past 5 or 6 years.

 

Yup. When ups and amazon both started hiring their own owner operator fleet it was a big sign that the days of bending them over the barrel on those last minute got to go loads was coming to an end.

 

December was slow in the beginning but picked up at the end. I had several loads back to back that made it a great month. I ran 10818 miles earning 25,405 in revenue.
I ended the month on a sour note though. I run on a somewhat regular basis for a friend of mine that is also a broker. I got screwed twice by his customers in the same week and really put me in a bind. We had differing opinions on a load he was wanting me to stay on and I told him no. Working on patching things up with him. I could have handled it a little better but so could he. I'm hoping he'll get over it and not give me the cold shoulder for too long. I like the guy but some of his loads are a real PIA.