Viable plan?

I would just jump right in and get your own authority. You'll be lucky to get around a $1.00 per mile leased on with someone. I think you know LS won't take you on yet due to not enough recent experience.

The only problem I see with most people starting out is working cash on hand. In my case it takes about $10,000. From the day you haul your first load it will be about 5 weeks before your first check arrives then maybe another week for the next one and so on. In the meantime you have to pay for your fuel, expenses and personal bills also.

One approach I saw someone do was to run hard for 2 solid months then they sat at home for about a month until all checks were in.

 

here is some info I read from some one else on here.


good mourning: id like to cpmment on your post...

 

This is too good, I just had to bite at it. So what if a company will only pay around $1 a mile? Most, like the carrier I am leased to, will pay a decent fuel surcharge, which for me right now is $.32 a mile on top of the mileage rate. Not to mention, the cheaper cost for physical damage, bobtail, and cargo insurance that one could get thru a carrier. What about if the carrier is picking up the cost of tags? Or what about negotiated discounts upwards of $.20 a gallon off the pump cash price? And you don't have to spend valuable time locating freight, or waiting for the broker or shipper to pay the bill. I don't have any "hidden" fees such as trailer fees or other junk. I only have a qualcomm fee of $10 a week. In my settlements, the only thing that comes out is for insurance (first week of the month), qualcomm and fuel (with no transaction fees to use their fuel card). I don't have to fiddle with IFTA taxes or get charged a fee for the company to do them. I can pay the $550 annual heavy use tax on my own or have them take it out of the settlement and file it for me with no fee to do it. And you can get these good deals at a small scale carrier like I do. No need to go to the mega carriers that treat you like dung. When all the costs of doing business are factored in to what it costs an independent to operate, the net may not be all that much better. And, after all, isn't the net amount you keep actually the goal?

If you are a real savvy independent and can juggle a lot of balls effectively, sure you can make more. But you are working for every penny more. But some will find that having a carrier do all the "backroom office" stuff and negotiating the freight works well to. And when it comes to the NET profit at the end of the year, don't make out much worse than an independent operator, so long as they run things like a business and not just a company driver that owns a truck. Especially in this economy.

After being in the trucking game for almost 30 years, I am not convinced that being a true independent is all that advantageous, unless you are catering to a niche market and have your own customer base. But if you get with the right carrier, and operate your end like you were an independent, you can sometimes do as well or even better than an independent. I do a lot of my own maintenance, buy my parts, oil, and filters at local commercial suppliers at costs substantially lower than dealer's and traditional parts stores charge, and other things to keep costs down. I pick loads that will put me in areas with good freight volume out and still get by the house once a week and off on the weekends and holidays. And at the same time am doing as well or better than many "independents" I know. I won't ever be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, but then, neither will any independent.

 

So, how much does your rate per mile work out to for all miles and how many miles do you get per week?

 

The rate is variable on length of haul. .95 - 1.08 a mile. $75 1st xtra stop, $100 for each other (stops xtra from p/u and del). $75 an hour for local work if my travel agent asks me to move some trailers around in town or go load something and bring it back to local yard. That only happened about 3 times in the last two years. I did about 138,000 average miles the last two years, with each weekend (except a couple of times) and holidays off and taking a couple of weeks off. Fuel surcharge is based on $1.25 a gallon base fuel cost and calculated using 6 mpg. Adjusted each week on Monday.

Sometimes they surprise me. I took a load to one of our customers in Lakeville, MN. Scheduled to deliver 1800. Was planning to take a break at the delivery. The customer could not get me unloaded for 11 hours. I took my break like I planned and when the settlement for the run showed up, I got $375 in detention. Not bad. Take a 10 hour break and get paid for detention. I never even asked for it. I just took my break while waiting.

 

I can turn down whatever I do not want. Only did that a couple of times in the last two years. Most of the runs are pretty good and I have not complaints. My travel agent usually will give me several choices of freight that is moving out of the area I am in, and will make a recommendation on a load that will put me in an area that has a good run, and she will let me know what is going on at the other end so I can know which choice would work better. If not really much for a choice, she just preplans me on something, but she looks out for me and doesn't stick me with bad loads. Most times she will preplan me so that there is zero sit time. I can turn it down if I don't like it, but again, she doesn't stick me with junk runs. To be honest, I have done a few loads for her that I would rather not have done, but she always makes it worth while in the long run. Her dad is a O/O here and she grew up in trucking and has been load planning for around 20 years. She knows her stuff. She virtually can predict what hours I will have to run and how to match up times so I don't have to play games. We are NOT on electronic logs. If a delivery does conflict, I just let her know early on so she has time to make a change. The outfit is Fremont Contract Carriers out of Fremont, NE. They have a few company trucks, but most of the outfit is O/O. Most of the stuff is solo runs, but there are a few couples that are teaming. I think there is a truck or two that the couple operate like a "driver and 1/2" instead of a full blown team. About 300 trucks total. I stay primarily in the Upper Midwest. The freight is consistent and I am usually only a day run from the house. A lot of trucks do operate 48 and with little Canada thrown in once in a while. Flat or dry van.

It's not a 'perfect' outfit, but there are one heck of a lot of things done right. Plus, it is a real friendly atmosphere and everybody knows your name. They treated me fantastic when my grandmother died last December and when my oldest son died a few weeks ago. They showed a real concern and called almost every day for a couple of weeks just to see how I was doing and handling my son's death and provided a real nice floral arraingment for the funeral. I was at another carrier before this one that treated me almost as well, but they sold out and it was fortunate that I came across these guys. Really good customer base that treats the drivers well also.