Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

Those two were both standard van, non haz.

 

My strategy of going down to FL used to be to get enough revenue to have at the very least $2500 after fuel and tolls after going down there and back home on empty, if I had to deadhead back home. That's up to 2800 total miles/4 - 5 days.
Having that rate secured was the prerequisite.
This way, anything I was able to get on my way back, was like a bonus. Most of the time, I did not even bother to hunt for anything in FL and the minute I got unloaded, my direction was Nothbound. Often enough, I was able to get something out of Pooler, GA, Sometimes Atlanta and quite often Nashville or even Indianapolis. It's been awhile since I went down to FL. Now, I am more careful about wasting mileage as I can get the same results staying within 300-500 radius from home.
There is that winter aspect too. I kind of enjoyed a little bit of sunshine and 80+ F weather while the Midwest was all Winter. Just give me a little bit of summer time in January....

 

Washington to IA would be a gem for. a lot of the people running out of that area. Not a lot of freight going back to midwest it seems like.

 

Only regret I have in selling my van was that I didn't wait another year when it would have sold for a nice profit instead of a loss. Doubtful we'll ever see crazy used equipment prices like that again.

 

I had a call this morning from one of my old contract clients in Oregon and they're having trouble finding carriers to bring freight south into California on LTL loads. It turns out in the 10 months since I retired, they've been holding out for full loads and using the spot market and paying less than half what they were paying me last year. So I asked what the problem was and he said that most of the jobs are booked by Canadian carriers heading south into California and AZ, and they rarely speak good English, are always late and frequently don't show up at all without cancelling. It's a winery, and they said there have been some huge breakage claims as well. In the 4 years they had me, there was never a breakage claim, not even a single bottle of wine. I gave him the name of an old friend who still runs in the same lanes as I did, but I told him it would cost close to my old rate, and he didn't care, he just needed a reliable carrier at any price.

It pays to do a good job when you own your own business.

 

So they’re illegally loading Canadian carriers for cheap and then complaining about poor service.

 

Yeah pretty much. I always knew Canadian carriers were getting illegal loads in the PNW, but I think it's a huge problem on the west coast which is why it's always so difficult to get loads out of Oregon and Washington. A lot of them haul freight for a small fraction of what US carriers charge. You would think the feds would set up a sting. I don't blame shippers, they probably aren't even aware that it's illegal.

 

Shippers get the kind of carrier they deserve. Cheaper is very seldom better but sometimes they have to discover that themselves. It can be fun to watch.
If the Canadians are picking up and delivering within the United States somebody needs to make a phone call. Now.

 

Well one truck is booked out until Thursday. $2.99 per mile on 2,479 miles and that's including 450 for deadhead. Sign me up for that every week.

I had a driver quit last week and I'm not really in a hurry to fill the truck. Driver was getting 3,000 miles a week and making $0.72 per mile plus full benefits and driving a brand new OO specd 389. Not sure what more as an employer you can do to keep a driver. Anyways, I see this as an opportunity to lower my costs and not sacrifice the quality of driver I want in my truck.

 

. So you think you can play the waiting game for a cheap high quality driver? I sincerely wish you good luck with that. Did you have a conversation with the driver about retention?