Why does "backhaul" refer to cheap freight?

Here in MA it just went up to $4.09 on Fri from 3.91 on Tues. Every where in New England is above $4 now.

I want to punch someones teeth in when they tell me my rate is too high this is a back haul for you, I then ask them where I can buy back haul tires and fuel because I must be missing something here for the past 6 years. My rates vary from what i have on the deck and where its goin but all of the freight I haul for MY customers is well above $3.00 / mile. Brokers are the ones killing rates and skimming off the top, most of the time the rates are there but when it gets to the carrier its been cut and skimmed 20-30 percent and yes sometimes even more.

 

Diesel is hovering at just below $4.00 a gallon locally in Texas as of last Friday...Dallas/Ft Worth area.

My company has fuel on the yard for us company drivers and our O/Os get to fuel there too. Not much in the way of savings...but it'll probably allow us to run a bit longer than those fueling outside at the truck stops.

The problem is that freight is so slow that we're not making any money either...no matter what the price of fuel is doing...we're still going broke.

My hopes and prayers go out to you guys and gals.

 

I think of a "backhaul" as being less expensive because (1) the truck that needs to return or go to a specific location can afford to take less to be sure they get the haul or (2) in the case of pneumatic truck rates (in our business) the rate is often based upon a round-trip (coming back empty), so the carrier can get additional revenue by bring something back, if it's possible.

 

A decent rate is $2.30 You can operate wit a decent profit margin and haul a load like that without feeling rushed or getting pissed that your working for a Flying J dinner.

 

backhaul i do it all the time i dont do cheap i go back home and do my heavyhaul freight thats what i call a backhaul!!!!! i have friends that dont even ask what a load pays they just haul it and have the mindset to say they are making good money. how the heck do they know?

 

Before, I shootdown your points, let me thank you for the work you do. I always remind my fellow shippers, trucks don't deliver your freight, PEOPLE DO.

But on Backhaul, I understand your point but it is naive.

So am I to assume you charge the same rate per mile (exclude short haul min charge shipments) in all directions just to cover your costs and some profit? If I asked you to go to Miami, FL from Charlotte,NC you would charge the same rate in both directions? Or would you charge a premium going in because you know there is a huge imbalance and nothing to get you out?

You don't have to answer because I know the answer. The reality is you would charge almost twice your one-way cost to go in because the likliehood of you getting a load out is slim. If you do get a load out it will most likely be below your one-way cost out. But you already planned for that on the way in. It is simple supply and demand, there are many lanes in this country like that.

So I would not say it is bottom feeders, shippers, large carriers small carriers driving this, it is the reality of supply and demand.

 

I have always said the same thing. my dispatcher, at times would offer me a load & say it pay's a dollar a mile. I would get irate, then calm down, before I spoke & say a Dollar a mile? that was a decent rate 15 years ago. I would tell her if I'm going to go broke, I am going to go broke sitting at the house. not running up & down the road, wearing my equip out. I understand the offer if I am 500 miles from home & nothing moving to my area, but she would offer cheap loads from where I live to start out with. I know it may not be her fault, but it does get me when she even offers it. a lil insulting & get's the blood pressure up a lil.

 

Couldn't find a load that paid diddly squat out of Dallas last week. So... I deadheaded all the way back to Wichita.

I will do that a million times in a row before I will take some cheap ### $1.20 mi load one time. If enough of those $1.20 loads are left sitting for long enough they'll bump them rates up. Maybe I wont get one that's been bumped up, but the next guy will, and eventually it will be my turn to get one at a fair rate...