Authority Pros & Cons

[Waterloo]

(06-07-2018 )Chamberpains Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 )Otterinthewater Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 )Chamberpains Wrote:  Load boards aren't bad. You just have to know your operating costs and never operate under it. Leave loads that don't pay even if they are convenient or are gonna get you home.

Is the "leaving loads that don't pay even if they are convenient or gonna get you home" based on taking that load eventually drives the fair market rate down? When I first read this I stared at the computer like a dog turning it's head not understanding a new sound. In essence, eliminating poor route planing and not having a good pre-plan, available HOS hours, just strictly looking at cost. Lets say 600mi from my terminal/home and there was a load that paid $.95 per mile, after subtracting fuel cost that would be a meager $300 profit. Add the additional wear and tear for the weight .vs running empty and it's probably slightly better than breakeven. Factor in a an hourly wage for the roughly 12 hours to get back there and that $300 pays roughly $25 per hour. I'm not sure if this is the wrong way to look at this. I'm new so just looking for info.

thanks

Your not factoring in your daily operating costs (fixed) insurances, truck payment, authority and whatever elase. That'll chew up your $300 profit on that load long before you ever think about paying yourself. That was the point of knowing your operating costs. Just because it will get you home or its convenient doesn't mean it won't take all the profits out from under your whole week. Sometimes you have to say "well it won't pay going home with that crap load but if I take this load the other way and the following load will get me home 2 days later with better profit" well call the wife and kids and tell them they gotta stoke their own fires for another day or 2 cause dad needs to come home with everything he can because he's not doing this for fun. He's doing it to provide every last penny to his family from his hard work and refuses to donate any part of his life to someone that's not gonna pay for it. There load can sit and rot.
Or something like that.

That is how I ran, and that is why I made my comment on running off of the load boards. The load boards are the land of the lost and the place you go when all else fails and you have to be "somewhere". Sometimes dead heading is more cost effective and better for the bottom line than hauling some of the garbage out there.

My load board comment comes from experience. Sure you may get lucky and find that good paying load, but that was rare. I used a few brokers, sadly none are in business any longer, and they took care of me. The one place I did find the load boards helpful though, is when I would use them for LTL freight. That took a bit of planning to put it all together and normally went off without a hitch.

I would run solar panels to San Diego on my Conestoga wagon, from the Detroit area, which was great because I had family there. I would visit for a few days and would search for LTL freight. I would run up as far as Oxnard bagging skids heading towards Michigan. It may take two days to get it all loaded, but in the end that normally paid just as good as that load out, in many cases better. It was a game, I would LTL my way across the country. That is the only time I ever found "load boards" interesting, or profitable. But, that was over ten years ago, maybe things have changed.