"The almighty $2.00 a mile theory"

Are you sure about all that stuff? How sure? I will put an example on ya.
In this neck of the woods there are a lot of flybynite chicken haulers. We just gained a pretty good record for over night express where the truck gets loaded late at night and delivers somewhere in five hundred mile area in the morning. My customers seem to think the service is excellent but I'm well aware that there are others who can do it too. Those nasty competitors.
Today it was Arlington,Tx. The truck was empty by about eight thirty and loading back this evening about 10 miles from the delivery to be back over here on Monday morning. The best way to do it is a broker load back and since I do know the DFW market pretty well I just know that I won't be holding out for that elusive $3.00 amile. So, the broker throws out a number,I counter with a higher number and we meet in the middle. Done deal. The broker knows we have never failed him and I know he's never failed to pay. There are some brokers that we haul for regularly so no need to talk money. It's the same every time. The truck can be back and do the same thing tommorow night instead of sitting over there wasting time.
So,no need to tell me I can't measure up to your service. I'm just curious how you would manage to meet your customers needs while sitting around DFW waiting for that biggie to pop up.

 

The whole idea of getting a good reputation, which helps you get good rates, in the trucking business is doing favors, going the extra mile, helping someone out of a jam, whatever you want to call it.Good business folks remember when you help them out of a bind.Help me make money, and I'll do the same for you. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.
Whatever it takes to do a good job for a good shipper / broker.

 

And I'm all for it,willing to help them out if I can. Sometimes I find myself in the position to play the waiting game on a load and sometimes I win. I just won't leave a truck sitting somewhere when it needs to be back here to take care of business. Usually when the rates are sluggish and I'm a little slow to accept it I've noticed the loads get sucked up by somebody else and I get left holding the empty bag. That nasty competition.

 

Guess you misunderstood. I agree with what you're saying. I just know that there are folks out there who buy a truck and haul at $1.50 and think its great. They go out of business in a few months, but they're out there and they create downward market pressure. The company I haul for a lot has a good reputation for service, but we still get undercut sometimes. We don't know the service secret as well as Rollin Coal, I guess.

 

i average just a hair over 2 a mile for all miles with about 45% of my miles being empty miles

 

I don't know any federal marshall's or secret service. I do know how to market my services, make a lasting impression, leverage my unit and play the market for all it's worth - fairly good. If I was BS'ing about some of the exploits there are a number of members here who would call me out on it fairly quickly. I post tidbits of info how I do this all the time. Jbatmick, touches on an important point about providing value, that's a big part of what I do as well. You don't gouge everyone out here if you want repeat business, the flip of that is some of them really do and will pay fantastic rates repeatedly as though it is no big deal. You and/or others can go on all you want how it doesn't happen cause you never see it or you can look to yourself to figure out exactly how and why a few trucks out here do it all the time. As far as getting undercut goes, I could write a chapter on that one, happens all the time. Move on to the next gig, that's business.

Sent from my droid using Tapatalk 2

 

You can have Dallas. I've got my lanes and I know what I need to do to keep my truck in position, or get it back into position, for the regular stuff. My last trip to Dallas was actually my first foray into the world of spot ironically though. Contract load down there from IL, $3.30 a mile gross - before percentage off the top, on 800 some miles. Reload to Chicago area $1.40 gross, that after wading thru bunches of $1 a mile. Lesson #1 leave the long haul stuff for everyone else and let the drivers in Texas take care of Texas. I don't sit anywhere very long when I'm out there and I don't go to Texas.

Sent from my droid using Tapatalk 2

 

Why would anybody pay big money to move dry freight . The country has no shortage of dry vans and tractors to move them . And if it needs to move fast you get a team . Transportation , as they say , is a commodity. I think some people like to think they're special and can haul that freight like nobody else. Next time you're on the highway, look around. Plenty of company out there. I hear guys say ,"the fleets can't provide this level of service." Those companies do it day after day.

 

There is dry van freight that pays very well and no, bigger companies can't match the service. Spot market last minute stuff. They aren't nimble enough. Some of the things I do are so simple yet no one does them. Communication being first and foremost. Something learned as a company driver that at the time I didn't even know I knew... Right place at the right time, although not always.. I could tell you many of the whys but why would I? Do you really think all those dry vans out there, that none of them make good money? I never believed that and know there are others out there making good money pulling one. It's just a matter of applying one's self or their fleet to meeting needs out there.

Sent from my droid using Tapatalk 2

 

Let's see... I just went 744 miles with an O/D tow away. Then I bob tailed 744 miles home - because there was no tow away posted within 300 miles of where I delivered going anywhere close to home. According to some of the logic I'm reading in this thread I bob tailed for free??? Who thinks up this stuff??? The same guys that sit at the truck stop counters "educating" the rest of us???