Why does "backhaul" refer to cheap freight?

Yea, I thought that seemed cheap... but thats just on the back-haul. With our customers in the area they usually take our quotes without too much of a hassel... and when we're going to a location that we know we're going to have a hard time getting out of we tag on a little extra. It used to be just hard for us to get out of the west/south west... but lately it's been a familiar thing everywhere we go.

 

That's what I was thinking but I don't know allot about heavy haul

 

I imagine they will be giving trucks away within a year. There won't be nyone to buy them

 

We won't even entertain an RGN load for someone other than our customer base for less than $3.00/mile + fuel.

But that was before frost laws came on in Michigan. Now you need to be one of the big boys to haul heavy up here...

If anyone is looking at coming into Michigan and venturing off state highways for anything, you might find this site useful...

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ah yes. Seasonal weight limits. Ran up against them all the time loading bulk spuds.

 

I have 2 of our best drivers in here in the office today, I pulled up that MI frost chart... I was like "I dont even know where to start on this thing or how to understand it"

Their reply: "When you get stopped up there, they'll make you understand it"

lol, is it really that bad??

 

yes, they are seriouse about it. Most of the county roads are nothing but chip seal which is basically just layer on top of layer on top of layer of oil and gravel that they put down and let the cars drive it down. In the spring when the ground starts to thaw on top but is still frozen underneath the water can't drain through the ice and a big truck can tear them up pretty bad. I've actually seen them sunk up the the axle when they hit a soft spot.

 

It's a massive deal. It's difficult for a lot of our customers to understand other than most all of them with 3 axle RGN's can't haul over 28,000 lb. Excavators until the frost laws come off.

Thankfully, we have specialty trailers with specialty rates.

Don't forget though- it's about the money anymore- they make a fortune on tickets for the next 6 or so weeks.

As for the 'backhaul' thing, I think a lot of it came form the loadboards- most people look on them for backhauls, unless they have limited customer base to build good outbound loads with.