Why do you keep pulling for cheap rates???!!!

The only thing I do not like about Cheap and Heavy is their pay time frame. I'm a get paid in one day kinda guy and they usually take like 3. I have 4 brokers I deal with that will pay me next day.

 

I made a thread about 2 months ago talking about how things were tightening up. Everyone said they were still killing it and I was crazy. lol.

Still averaging around $2.55/mi on all miles but that is down from a peak of $3.15 about 5 months ago. It’s about the same as this time a year ago except we’re trending down now vs up. Still better then 15 and 16 when we were happy to hit 2.20 to 2.30 all miles. We have always ran legal but one big difference is many didn’t run legal before, so they will go out of business much faster now which is good for the rest of us.

Oh, and if you think your not hauling for cheap but are happy with 2/mi then your part of the problem. Just got as bad as the guys even lower. I figure my break even at 2.15/mi.

 

So at $2.55 per mile, you're profiting .40 cpm?

You guys get all my respect. Hard life, sometimes.

 

The company my dad was leased to used ch quite a bit and even after the carriers cut it was still a good rate.

 

I have structured my finances so I can haul for $2 a mile easy and survive and make money.
If your brake even is $2.15 and your happy with $2.20 that leaves $.05 a mile. Or your not telling it all.
Now I'm not your enemy because I will do less and sit at home this week or next before I haul $2 but I can do it. I can go even lower if I'm willing to make $.05. There does come a point when its not worth it though. Call me part of the problem if you want but I will be here when it is all settled out. I have survived this long I can survive longer.

Diesel is still coming down in price so we are not at the bottom yet.

 

Sorry ramo..... we way outnumbered!!! If everyone was like you we would all make a great living. They just dont get it... and never will.....

 

I can't remember that 2 dol per mile was ever declared cheap on this forum. It is cheap with this year averages that everyone was getting but I remember reading threads of people asking what it cheap or not and it was much lower than that. I'll be all right with 2.00 per mile but at this rate I need to run at least 80K - 100K miles a year to sustain my living aspirations so it had better not be much lower than that because I don't want to run as much. I've been sitting the last 2 weeks home too and I can do so until Spring If I wanted to, so I am not in the desperado mode yet but sooner or later I'll take 2.0 dol per mile...what else can I do? Wait another 2 years for the next cycle?

Don't get me wrong: 2.00 per mile is pretty cheap on all Chicago outbound lanes except maybe Cal where you can't compete with rails. I am talking about all mile average. In other words, going below 2 dol per mile on all miles (including deadhead) means that someones has been hauling for not very lucrative rates - to put it mildly.
One more edit:
What I don't understand is that some people including OP think that the rates are in their hands as if they could control the market. They can chose not to go for a lower pay and stay home but there is no chance for any solidarity and silent agreement for not hauling below a certain rate. It is market that dictates what the rates are, not the other way. Everyone wants to make as much as possible, if the national average was 5 dol per mile, not even an idiot would agree to haul for 2 dol a mile...

 

I'm on a brokered load right now at $4.25 per mile and I just filled up in Oregon for $2.55 per gallon. I'm not complaining.

 

What country?

I am seeing declining fuel and steady rates.

I don't know who we is, but brother the we here are not seeing the problem.

Well then don't buy from truck stops, everyone knows they rape us.

Maybe we should start buying up truck stop stock and become a voice.

Well then become a broker, offer loads to owners with no fee. They are in business to make money just like we all are.

YOU do.

There is no 'we' here.

No they stop with owners.

OK write me a check for $7,500,000 and I will have the drivers part a few of my trucks.

NO the consumer does, they keep us working.

Easy, make money, pay bills.

Again give me the money and I will join you but you won't. this isn't the 70's, we don't have a brotherhood of truckers any more, that die with deregulation and the open market which we all work in. Hell dude, we can't even agree on what the number one issue we are facing, everyone has different opinions and we need one person to step up, spend their own money and speak about one issue.

 

I’m not sure if you are saying 40 cpm is good or bad? A $1 per mile profit sounds better to me. The truck should never make less then what the driver is making. That doesn’t make any sense.

Honestly, I’m overestimating my expenses by a good bit but that’s just how I roll. When I started out I figured my expenses 20% higher then I thought and my income 20% lower then I thought. That way it accounted for the unknown which was extremely high in those early days.

I have high overhead though so although I’m probably closer to 2 then 2.15, it’s still higher then single operators. However I have other income streams to offset these higher operating costs like a warehouse and small brokerage, but I choose to put it all on my trucks so the other is actual profit. Aka.. I don’t rely on either to be successful but when they prosper it’s pure profit.

So with a warehouse/yard, 3 office staff, 8 drivers, 1 owner op, and a small brokerage everything gets way more complex and skewed. This is before my wife and I taking any kind of wage.

One reason to figure your expenses much higher is due to a mindset myself and my office use which is called reality distortion field. It was created by Steve Jobs and it’s where something in the masses minds think can’t be done, but you yourself think there is no other option, so you just make it happen. You make the unrealistic, realistic. But you can’t get into the mindset or way of doing things that every other sheep do it or it won’t work.

$2/mi was a “narrative” essentially on this board some years back on what was acceptable. I refuse to to believe this and will not believe it. People need to quit being ok with the norms and mediocre, and start pushing boundries.

That is how you not only succeed but exceed everyone else.