Why oh why are you drivers taking this cheap freight????

Thought that's where you were going with it.....


So it's the agreed to price from the shipper or consignee (depending on who's paying the freight) and the broker (or carrier if it's direct).


NOT having anything to do with the carrier who loads it on the truck.


Which only confirms what was said here....

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr.../202819-are-we-gonna-learn-4.html#post3073701

 

This is where all the variables come into play now. Which load is heavier?, Which load will take more time to load and unload?, What kind of mileage does your truck get empty compared to loaded?.... all those things will play a factor in your decision making process.

If your truck gets 6mpg loaded and 8mpg empty, then the 300 miles empty will save you $50 in fuel figured at $4 a gallon. So now you have to factor in the weight of the load and time it takes to do the entire run. After that, it's just preference on where you want to go and how you want to do it.

I was in El Paso on Wednesday looking for a load (one I had lined up canceled) and all there was were short runs paying meager rates. I knew if I sat around, I'd eventually find something going where i wanted (back east) but instead of waiting around, I put it in the wind towards Dallas. I found a run loading the very next day in Ft. Worth paying the equivelant of $2.50 a mile IF I had hauled it from El Paso. Instead, I hauled it 275 miles into Oklahoma while getting an average of 8.2mpg for the entire trip and also saving a day worth of revenue.

That said, every trip, route and load is going to be different. A Cost Per-Mile formula does not really equate in the real world. Like most things, it looks great on paper, but is not pratical in real world use. You you just have to make the deciding factors for yourself.

 

You still don't get it. I know he's from Chicago and always works back to there he's mentioned that dozens of times. You're excusing hauling cheap to go home. He can deadhead farther out,going much closer to CHI and come out better off. Nobody said anything about sitting in a truckstop waiting for a rate. That's what happens when you don't know wtf about market in a 500 mile radius and haven't been getting a solid rate to start with..

 

fair enough, but I think your 6mpg loaded and 8mpg empty is probably pretty close to what my truck gets. (I avg 6.5mpg) So, on $4/gallon fuel that's 0.67/mile vs. 0.50/mile, and before I was figuring 0.62. So not accounting for wear and tear, just fuel wouldn't it be more accurate for me to figure .05/mile more for loaded miles and .12/mile less for deadhead ?

Maybe accuracy isn't for everyone, but with the wide variety of options I look at I need to find ways to be as accurate as possible.

 

As I stated, i don't operate on a CPM style system. i look at overall revenue and daily revenue.... i don't touch anything for under $2 mile to the truck, no matter where I'm at, It's just principal with me. I feel that by taking a load for $1.50 mile out of a bad area is just going to hurt the local drivers, as they are getting stuck pulling for that rate now as well. I know I'm just 1 truck, and I'm not really going to make a difference, but it helps my concince

As for your figures, why even bother figuring out the empty CPm figure?? just base your week/month/whatever on loaded MPG and go from there. Figure out your base operating cost and do not haul a single load for less than that. I don't care if you got $5 mile going to the area, stick to your base rate per mile figure.

Going by your theory, say you need $2.00 mile for all your miles. You get a load for $4 mile to point A, which means you just hit your $2 mile rate for the round trip, so does that mean you will bounce back to your starting point empty??? I sure hope not. Grab a load at your base operating rate. If there is not anything, then it's up to you to decide if you want to sit and wait, or head out to another load down the road....

 

So you average it out over the month.......

 

Basically, I try to make sure that when I'm working a load, i make $1,000 to the ruck before costs. Sometimes i hit that mark, sometimes i go over and sometimes under. Like I was explaining, there isn't really a black and white formula for this. What someone thinks is good, another will think is not. What works for you, doesn't for me. I have more going than just what i make per mile, or what i make per month. Sometimes I make a choice based on pricipals that i live by. i won't haul for under $2 mile, no matter what it is or where it's going unless it is a LTL (and that definition i have my own principals on) and I will not sit an entire day looking for a load. If I don't have something lined up (usually a day or two in advance) I will start the search at 6am and work the boards and phones till about 11am. After that, if i don't have anything, I get to rolling empty. Now I have only NOT had a load lined up 3 times in the last 2 years, and all 3 times i got something in the first few hours of the new day. Now sometimes I am finding the load right where I'm at, or it may be a day's drive away. But I got a load...... but the majority of my moves are planned out a few days in advance. For instance, this week's runs I had all booked by Thursday or last week.

 

That really is not a tariff. That's a contract. Tariff is a published rate,be it cwt/class or $/mile. Here is an example of a tariff.http://cretecarrier.com/customers/rules_tariff/index.htm

 

Before deregulation everything was under the tariff system. Shockingly the rates were much better you just couldn't get any permits to haul anything. A person had to lease out but you still made good money compared to today. i'm seeing rates the same or worse from thirty years ago.

 

Of course the rates were higher. Most of us used a rate agency which allowed us to "price-fix" the rate. We were exempt under Reed-Bulwinkle act. And before 48 IRR that load from CA to FL may have had 4-5 or more carriers on it. And it may have had to go through IL to get there.