What Is Considered Cheap Freight ?

That doesn't fly when there are just too many trucks. Everyone has differing priorities. The freight will move whether you book it or not. I laugh every time I hear someone say let's all shut down for a week. Where you been bro? I been shut down for months at a time "protesting" last year. When there's little to no freight for prolonged periods at some point you either get moving or quit altogether.

 

Problem is that a lot of guys have drivers, or are very small carriers. It's ok for an owner operator to say no cheap freight, and deadhead 400-500 miles to a good area and pay $150 in fuel. But if you had a driver you're looking at paying $150 in fuel, and at let's say.40 cpm for a driver, another $200. That's $350 negative. Mean while let's say your daily fixed cost is $400/day before the driver/fuel. Now you're in reality $750 in the negative. You just don't see it because it didn't come in a physical cash from your pocket form. Do this 4 times a month, and you're at a loss of $2,000 per month- 24k a year average. 5 year span, that's almost 100k on 10 truck a year let's say, that's a million dollars almost lost in 5 years.

But let's say on that 500 mile to a good area. That carrier took $800.
Expense $750 from $800 = $50
4 times a month that's $200 and yearly $2,400, and on 10 trucks, that's $24,000/year.

So what's better for those guys? Lose a 100k a year or gain 24k a year?

Driver can't be sitting too long, he will look for other companies, and so on so they have to keep moving the truck. They can't sit there 2-3 days or dead head drivers 400-500 mile all the time.

When a guy like me or you decides to say "no we refuse", trust me, we are the ones losing. I hate that it is that way, and I fully believe that every load should pay reasonable money, no matter what coast, or what time of the year. But this is how it is, and a guy like me or you sitting out isn't changing it. I completely agree that it's messed up how it is, but the reality is this is how this free market works, and it's better to understand it instead of trying to fight it.

Here is an example. I was in Northeast a week ago. Was offered $1300 back to Chicago area. It was about 960 miles. Reefer 43k 1p1d. I took it. That's cheap freight. But I took $4200 from Chicago area, to Northeast. Reefer, light load 1p1d. I spent $650 on fuel. Avoided tolls in NY. All together $5,500 in 4 days of works with $650 on fuel? Sadly that load got canceled. Instead I dead headed to Ohio, and picked up a light load for $1,000 back to WI. To be honest, it made the same amount of money. Original plan was to just dead head back. So instead of running 1900 miles for $4200, coming back either way, I added another an extra grand to it, which clearly covered the fuel and tolls. Personally the load back should've paid at least $1,900, but as you see even at $1,300 it was "canceled" aka someone did it for $1250. That's the sad market were in.

 

Lol what's your definition of cheap freight? If somebody undercuts you for 5c per mile all the time, will that guy be a cheap #######? Construction workers do bids on work too. In 2008 some construction people were sitting at home, because they had savings and others were working for cheap prices, because those guys bought houses, cars and got few kids, when times were good. The same now, Rollin Coal can sit at home for months at a time, but the guy with a brand new Pete gonna bust his ###, trying to do as many cheap miles as he can.
Even though shutting down operation sounds good, its not gonna happen. Truckers are not unionized workers who work at one factory

 

In 2008 my dad worked at a factory. The pay was so good that people who lived in Gary, IN traveled to Wheeling, IL everyday, any time of the year. Starting was $18/hr. No EXP, but had to be a referral from an existing employee. A lot of the guys were making between $30 - $40/ hr. Plus a lot of over time. There were 2 shifts. The company was a CNC machine type of company. Anyways the owner told them he will have to put people on lay off, or they all must take a pay cut to be around $20/hr. Guys who weren't too happy left. Guys who stayed and stuck it out still made money and when things got better their rates were increased. The guys who left tried to come back but the owner told them no.

 

Yes I do, and me not taking a load will do NOTHING to affect the price... The price is set by supply and demand. And so long as there are 1000's of people who think trucking driving is their answer to start a business, nothing will change.

 

So what should the rate be before we decide to haul it?

 

This we agree on. Where we disagree is I prefer to not be one of this 1000s pulling for cost.

 

This seems worse than 08...... But maybe it's just me.

 

Oh I fully understand how this works and why companies take cheap crap to keep rolling. However this is the "ask an owner operator" forum and what I'm saying applies to us Owner ops.

Also I understand that someone with a brand new rig with huge payments and more expensive insurance is going to be forced to keep rolling as well however IMO anyone that operates only off the loadboards and puts themselves in a position like that isn't very bright.

We could keep going all day on this but I stand by what I say that I refuse to be a part of the problem of driving down the rates and I wish more people would as well.

 

I agree I only ran 65k miles last year so I guess I did my fair amount of protesting as well lol