This is how you #!$! on brokers and shippers.

Yea I'm not hanging out for days waitin on a cheap ride.

 

Anymore, if I don’t have something lined up after I get empty I put it in the wind toward home and start looking for something on the way. Sitting around rarely pays off.

 

Ill tell you a good one. Dad had a load out of Cleveland that was 2 hot loads to a certain Uaw auto plant in Detroit. They were in a bad spot. Being him he puts the 4 coils on and heads there. Checks in and tells them this is there hot loads in one trip. Gives them 2 hours, tell the guard you have one more hour or Im going home because of my son's ballgame. They blew him off. Hour three he pulls the tarps and leaves. Here I am a little kid and thought dad wasn't gonna make a game he promised to. About that time comes that blue Freightliner and shinny wiggle wagons up and parks on the county road. Puts 4ways on and jumps up in the bleachers. Goes back at 6am. Guard said "Man you were not kidding, you shut a line down". He replied, "no you shut a line down". Pulled him in and unloaded in 15minutes. Nobody ever said anything. He was a to the point kinda guy. But Ill never forget that one.

 

I took a load of pipe to jobsite once and was told by broker they started at 6am. I get there and they told me 8am. 10am came around and nothing. I called broker and they told me $30 an hour after 4 hours. I told them if I'm not empty by 11am I was taking it back to where I got it. Come 11am I hauled it almost 500 miles back to the shipper where I got it.
I had another load once, load one deliver next by appointment . I get there bright and early and they tell me no deliveries, working on electric and plant is shut down. I show up next morning give them my unload number and they say that was yesterdays number and no good today. He knew I was there yesterday and says go sit in your truck and they would get me in. After 2 hours I walked back in and asked for my bills, he asks what for? I said I'm taking it back where I got it because obviously you don't want it. He said hold, and made a phone call and told whoever what I was doing. Hung up the phone and said bring it in now.

 

Atlanta is terrible. And everybody has a pissy attitude like they just hate life. I live about 120 miles from there in SC and won't go there unless the numbers make me overlook the negative.

 

I wonder what would have happened if you talked to the facility manager at the shipper? The shipper is the one that ultimately takes the hit when their customer doesn't get their order delivered on time. Find out who is responsible for that customer relationship, and let them know exactly why that customer isn't going to get their product when it was promised. Might help, might not, but worth a try.

 

When it paid over $6/mile loaded, and the round trip took less than 3 days coming home empty - why turn it into a 6 day excursion for little more revenue.

If an agent calls Monday and says he’s got another one, I’d have to tell him “Sorry, I’m still in Atlanta looking for a back haul, won’t be back till Wednesday “.

 

Amen.

I learned in a hurry that it isn't about minimizing deadhead miles, it's about maximizing revenue to the truck, better done with as few miles as possible. It's rare to get a "good" backhaul from the areas I go.

Outbound from OKC it's rare to be less than $3/mile, sometimes north of $5/mile. But what do you do if you deliver in Wyoming or ND on a Friday afternoon with a flatbed? You could wait until Monday to maybe get a load paying $1/mile (to pay for the fuel!) or you can deadhead back to OKC to get in line for another high dollar load.

I've deadheaded a day or two more times than I care to count. Sure, it would be nice to get a load back to OKC, but what if that low dollar load ties up your trailer until Monday morning?

 

This is music to my ears. Some people tell me to never deadhead. The furthest I go is VA (400 miles from SC) and I will deadhead home in a heartbeat when all brokers are offering is $400 for 200 miles and it's 44,000. Not worth my time. I'm getting over $4 a mile on 20,000 pounds to go up there so I will bring my butt home and have a good day!

 

Exactly what I do! Like to be headed home!