Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

I pushed to Monday and covered for 57 and the customer was understanding. However, These people don’t play games and expect things NOW!

Something felt really fishy and my gut said be honest and take your time. Rather have a customer disappointed then a load stolen or never make it. God knows what these people’s true intentions were.

When Nor Cal to north East is paying 12k then what is a guy to do? There just flat out isn’t any trucks for any price.

Long story short we do a lot of business and it’s more important for me to disappoint them then potentially ruin a relationship.

I’d like to think that’s why they always come back to me. Because their freight matters.

 

I'd worry about a no-name new authority carrier willing to take it for well below the spot market rate. It seems to me that a newb with very little skin in the game won't care much about mechanical problems or delivering on time.Even at 6k it seems a little low for the current spot market. Keep the customer happy and find somebody reliable if you can. If not, it may cost them another grand if you're talking about 2,000 to 2,500 miles. And don't discount finding a good carrier on the weekend. We get plenty of weekend loads out of NorCal. I'm picking one up early Sunday morning in Sacramento heading to Seattle.

 

It’s definitely hard sometimes or actually all the time finding legit carriers in CA. I have a similar load that is 2 to 3 skids and 5000 lbs that has to go as a dedicated truck.

It’s hard to believe for some but certain loads have to go dedicated and are high value.

We mostly won’t even work with a CA based carrier because it’s 90% fraud. There are some threads here onTTR broker section that explains why.

 

Putting medical loads in generic looking trucks is actually a good idea. The new authority though. Ouch.

I would call the customer, explain the situation, and ask if they want to have that specific product delivered by an unproven company, or delay the shipment a bit.

Different medical loads have different degrees of criticality. They know how badly they need the product, and how much they are willing to risk to get it there.

 

I can understand that. You probably saw my thread from last weekend about the guy who tried to pass me on the shoulder and hit my truck, and then didn't speak much English when we finally pulled over. There is a ton of that out here, and these people seem to not know the first thing about driving a truck, and all just got their licenses.

Part of the reason I wanted to become an O/O in NorCal was because there are so few O/O's who live here. These fly by night outfits are all from the southern central valley like Fresno and Modesto where it's a lot cheaper to live. Where I'm at it costs too much for them to own a home and to park their trucks. There must be some scam truck driving schools cranking out these licensees for a few thousand each without them having to take a road test.

The odd thing now is that some of the best paying loads aren't even high value loads. Walmart and Starbucks have been paying crazy prices to have small loads of cheap items moved from my area to Washington State. Last week I took 3 pallets of frozen ham and cheese sandwiches to a Starbucks DC for a little over $6 per mile on 1,000 miles. The week before that it was two half loads of bottled water to Walmart in the same area for about the same price to me. My Oregon mileage tax for this month is going to be a monster.

 

This wasn’t the highest degree of importance ever but ranked up pretty good. Aka wasn’t covid tests themselves but material used to distribute to other locations to make such things if you will.

It’s all #### important.

Somehow I just got the impression of a too good to be true and this is a front to haul with a load of dope or something.

Call me crazy but I’ve learned to go with my gut. The Monday carrier gets empty early and wants to burn back to the Chicago area. Something that makes sense.

Knock on wood Monday goes well but the long game is what I play and seems to pay the best.

 

I saw that. Should have responded to back you up.

You have the right idea man. If only every company had someone at the helm that has respect and integrity.

There is a market out there, it’s just hard for us to get together sometimes with as broad as things can be.

 

One of my ex's brothers was a delivery driver for high value meds. They used plain white cargo vans. Only one van would have the actual cargo and the others would be decoys. They don't mess around. Almost like the armored truck services

 

That's right, never has been, never will be. All these guys on here joking around about these high rates aren't serious, they're just kidding. People buying trucks now will be in bankruptcy by Christmas.

 

edited:

The situation is definitely going to get worse from what it is now. We all should agree about that. No doubt.