Uber Freight?! What is this madness?!?!

i'm doing about 500 more a round on my gig. nice,for a change.

 

am no broker!! gz easy with the insults! ... just trying to learn more about the trade, @ $7/mile to me its just like wining the lotto. I have this idea that anything above $2/mile is already good but if i am missing something, please do share, i am all about making more $$

 

Let go of that $2 a mile anchor straight jacketing the way you think. That's exactly what brokers want you to think. So you'll never push for more even when you can easily get it. There's times out here when you might beg for $2 a mile and never get it. Then there's times when double that or more is what it takes to book trucks. I dunno how to explain it in such a way that a lightbulb goes off and you get it. I don't even know if explaining that is possible.

I always tell guys to learn a small handful of lanes or areas in a region or two then go from there. In a couple of or maybe 3 years time you'll know what going rates are in those areas and those rare occasions where you can charge $6 or $7 on a 500 mile run and get it. On the other hand if you randomly book loads going to anywhere in the lower 48 you're going to waste twice as many years, maybe a decade, before you pick up on any useful trends info from year to year. Running 48 states is, imo, just not a good way to operate out here as a solo on ad hoc freight.

 

What you are missing is simple supply and demand free market principles. There is a LOT more loads needing shipped than their are trucks. So we can get very good rates today. Two years ago the exact reverse was true so brokers and shippers had no problem moving their freight for just above operating costs. Markets like we have today is why we bought trucks, to make very good money now so we can survive when the market shifts.

Its really no different than any commodity market. Take produce farming for example, a melon farmer will have 3 or 4 harvest seasons where he makes just enough to cover expenses and then the stars will align and that 5th season he makes twice as much.

 

@Scott72 are you still using the app? Do you look for loads on regular bases there?
Tell us how it has been!

 

Yes, in fact I just booked one for Monday. Pretty solid rate going from WI to KC. Can't ask for anything any easier. Just look and click. Some will argue you shouldn't book this way, but it's a nice change of pace from making 20 calls to find a good load.

 

So, you book without knowing the details? Product, Shipper, Receiver, palletized, floor load, lumper.

I'm just curious how it works. I don't book anything without all the details.

 

No all the details are there, in fact Uber even tells you who the shipper and receiver are before you commit to the load. Tells you what the product is, palletized or not, etc... All info needed is there. Sign up with them..

 

@Scott72 it's a pain in the #### making that many calls to find a good load. Especially when the load you find is not so good... I think that one-click lets you plan better your trips and arrange your route easily.
Do you have some kind of planning with the App? Is it only for O/O right now?

 

I have to wonder what sort of magic uber brokerage has going on that makes their point and click any better than making 2 or 3 dozen calls to book a decent load? Sometimes you have to sift through a lot of garbage freight to get anything good that's just how it is. If you had direct customers for your outbound you could cut out a lot of that. Uber isn't going to magically,make sifting thru a lot of lousy loads suddenly stop. Most of what they push is cheap ####.