Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

Had a pretty cool experience today with a broker. @PPDCT will appreciate this short story.

I posted my truck yesterday for N. California. Figured if I could get a decent rate, I'd just deadhead down there this Sunday, load on Monday and head back up. That would pad my numbers for November.

Anyways, this broker called me yesterday, said he had a load that needed to be covered on Monday. 11,000 lbs of snacks.

I asked him if he saw my posted rate of $3,000.00. He replied he hadn't and said he was hoping to get it moved for $2,500.00, but if that's what I wanted, he'd have to pay it.

Later he emailed me the BOL with the ratecon and his carrier packet. In his email he informed me the pick up town was different then what I had listed as the origination city.

No, it wasn't TQL

That kind of miffed me a little, even though the miles were virtually the same. I decided to sleep on it before I sent the signed packet & ratecon back. I decided to do it, and in my email, told him I was a little disappointed to discover the pick up city was different.

I received a reply from him within minutes as follows:

"Hey sorry about that, if you feel you need more for the load, let me know!"

Okay, in all the years I've been doing this, I've NEVER had that kind of response from a freight broker. I called him, we talked about it and I told him a couple of hundred extra dollars would work. He agreed instantly, and I wondered if I should of asked for $500 more! LOL

The loaded rate ended up being $4.50 a mile.

 

It was, I held a thought for to long

 

That’s outstanding Joe. Great job. A far cry from the crap talkin you received after your 1.13/mi turn back in the spring.

Great rate per mile. How many miles y’all average generally? Break 5k gross in a week per truck?

Most of the big boys are buying trailers and not teucks. They can’t fill the trucks they have so are looking to be more efficient with what trucks they do have. This is a good thing in regards to the area of trucking we all do.

I’m sure some are genuine but I bet quite a few have branched off from being leased on. That would skew things.

I’m very bullish through Jan 20. Through end of this year and the first two weeks of January, we are going to see earth shattering rates. It’ll continue unless there is a shut down.

Very nice. Amazing what happens when freight sits and they need it badly.

Love it, he didn’t realize you were DH down there. Or just stupid. But like I said above, it’s nice to be needed! Looks like you may have carved out a nice little new wave to ride.

 

1300-1500mi wk, lazy man's work. Since the start of Nov we've hardly had any empty miles. The one turn we do with both trucks reloads at the same place going back to shipper. Works out good because they're flexible with the schedule. If we can't can't cover it that day they just book it for the next. The other turn we do ends up 1 hour from house so we bounce back empty

 

This year my empty miles are record high. I do it on a premise that Time and Revenue is what matters at a dry van spot market AND perhaps wishful thinking that running empty has VERY significantly less impact on wear and tear, almost negligible. You calculate only fuel cost but I do realize that it may not be quite so exactly. I doubt there are any studies showing difference of the same two trucks wearing down mechanically as one of them is max loaded and the other empty or extremely light.
.

 

Well, in my mind, it's the ALL miles rate that is important.

For someone who runs, as an independent, or as a lease operator, on a per load rate contract, and not a mileage rate, which includes empty and loaded miles, it's important to know how many miles are in that load, loaded and empty.

For obvious reasons. However, I've talked to a lot of operators (especially lease) who either don't know, or would rather ignore the deadhead % of their average.

These principles are basic & fundamental, however, I know there's lots of lurking eyes out there who are considering taking the leap (especially after reading @TallJoe recently posted numbers) that may need this perspective

 

I mean after all, the operator is still paying for fuel, maintenance & all their fixed costs, whether loaded or empty. It's likely empty miles have some savings value on fuel average, but other than that, all other costs remain the same.

Oregon is still going to get their road tax out of me whether I'm empty or loaded LOL

Our Governor needs that money in order to enforce a 10 person limit at Thanksgiving gatherings today

 

Same here, I personally never count deadhead miles separately, it all goes together.
If load is 400 miles, but comes with 100 miles deadhead, in my book it simply goes as 500 miles load.

 

On the loaded vs DH miles “argument”. I never really understood why people figure anything other then all hub miles. I have no idea what my loaded mile would be. I still pay driver, I still pay fuel, the truck still gets wear, the miles still show on IFTA that my insurance bases off. On and on. I almost have the opposite view of you Joe in regards to wear. I feel like the truck is built to be loaded, so my wear isn’t much different when empty.

That’s just me. I think that only seeing all miles also helps a guy decrease his DH. When you track loaded it’s a false impression.