Companies closed their doors overnight.

[Evotrucker]

so while i was waiting for my container to get dropped on the yard for me to deliver the load, i called a random broker. He had a load from stl to around cleveland, oh for $3.25. My jaw dropped and he begged me to take the load, it was under 35k weight and same day delivery app.... we talked for 15 minutes and he told me drivers are asking for 4$-5$ a mile. well damn.... lol i mean some ppls heads are wayyy wayy way up in the clouds. i would have taken the load with out a problem but dont have my authority yet.

an acquaintance told me not to get my own authority, freight is to cheap and not abundant.... after doing my own research..... some ppl should just be company drivers and not business owners... a lot of people are winging it in this industry. Then again i know dozens of drivers who are absolutely KILLING IT!.

[Waterloo]

(04-29-2019 )Evotrucker Wrote:  so while i was waiting for my container to get dropped on the yard for me to deliver the load, i called a random broker. He had a load from stl to around cleveland, oh for $3.25. My jaw dropped and he begged me to take the load, it was under 35k weight and same day delivery app.... we talked for 15 minutes and he told me drivers are asking for 4$-5$ a mile. well damn.... lol i mean some ppls heads are wayyy wayy way up in the clouds. i would have taken the load with out a problem but dont have my authority yet.

an acquaintance told me not to get my own authority, freight is to cheap and not abundant.... after doing my own research..... some ppl should just be company drivers and not business owners... a lot of people are winging it in this industry. Then again i know dozens of drivers who are absolutely KILLING IT!.

LOL! $3.25 out of STL and these clowns want more? That is sad, and good money, especially heading up towards Cleveland.

The Authority? I have been kicking around the idea of turning it back on, but then I look at all of the headaches associated, I will pass... Right now, I think I found a decent carrier to lease on with, they have my juices flowing...

They have an account with Amazon, which they have had for 11 months, and only have two drivers that want to run this stuff. I saw both of their settlement sheets and was kind of floored. Amazon is supposed to be cheap freight? That is not what I saw, well above going market rates for a dry van and steady eddie. These guys were just banging it week after week. I have a buddy that is a company driver, he pulls this exact same freight out of the same DC, so I know something about this account, those settlements sealed the deal.

This is perfect for me, the Amazon DC is 16 miles from the house, I won't even count that as dead head. The loads are rarely over 10,000 lbs and the trailers are new. Routes are overnight, out and back, and very fast turns according to my friend, just drop, hook, go. Everything is done on a phone ap. No human contact in most cases, in and out. Routes are assigned two weeks out, so you have a schedule, no surprises.

Add up all the above and I can do pretty good here, without beating up the truck and or killing myself.

[ynot]

Amazon freight has always paid good they're one of the few places that will pay for dependable an professional companies. I've pulled it a few times, the general freight isn't too bad but when you get into the high dollar electronics loads they can get a little anal on security which I can understand when your pulling million dollar+ freight behind ya... making you install a phone tracking app, calls every hour too check progress no stopping for X amount of hours once you leave the depot, an of course there's multiple GPS trackers hidden in through out the load, so they know what your doing where your doing it an when your doing it, they don't screw around with their stuff.

[Evotrucker]

(04-30-2019 )Waterloo Wrote:  

(04-29-2019 )Evotrucker Wrote:  so while i was waiting for my container to get dropped on the yard for me to deliver the load, i called a random broker. He had a load from stl to around cleveland, oh for $3.25. My jaw dropped and he begged me to take the load, it was under 35k weight and same day delivery app.... we talked for 15 minutes and he told me drivers are asking for 4$-5$ a mile. well damn.... lol i mean some ppls heads are wayyy wayy way up in the clouds. i would have taken the load with out a problem but dont have my authority yet.

an acquaintance told me not to get my own authority, freight is to cheap and not abundant.... after doing my own research..... some ppl should just be company drivers and not business owners... a lot of people are winging it in this industry. Then again i know dozens of drivers who are absolutely KILLING IT!.

LOL! $3.25 out of STL and these clowns want more? That is sad, and good money, especially heading up towards Cleveland.

The Authority? I have been kicking around the idea of turning it back on, but then I look at all of the headaches associated, I will pass... Right now, I think I found a decent carrier to lease on with, they have my juices flowing...

They have an account with Amazon, which they have had for 11 months, and only have two drivers that want to run this stuff. I saw both of their settlement sheets and was kind of floored. Amazon is supposed to be cheap freight? That is not what I saw, well above going market rates for a dry van and steady eddie. These guys were just banging it week after week. I have a buddy that is a company driver, he pulls this exact same freight out of the same DC, so I know something about this account, those settlements sealed the deal.

This is perfect for me, the Amazon DC is 16 miles from the house, I won't even count that as dead head. The loads are rarely over 10,000 lbs and the trailers are new. Routes are overnight, out and back, and very fast turns according to my friend, just drop, hook, go. Everything is done on a phone ap. No human contact in most cases, in and out. Routes are assigned two weeks out, so you have a schedule, no surprises.

Add up all the above and I can do pretty good here, without beating up the truck and or killing myself.

Idk if you cant afford to take loads at $3.25 a mile then you might have a bigger issue other then taking " cheap freight ". A lot of people are up to their noses with debt.... brand new car and truck, refinanced house so on so forth. on the flip side of things, that could be any of us here on this forum in real life, im not judging them or nothing.

Ive taken 2 loads that were amazon loads and they paid pretty damn well. everyone wanted it but only so many of them were available.

I'd keep that authority, i sorta wish i had got mine done and out of the way couple of months ago. I never anticipated that i'd be so slow with work this early into the year.I believe those amazon loads are only going to be available for a little while longer till bazos decides to build his amazon trucks :D lol.

[Waterloo]

(04-30-2019 )Evotrucker Wrote:  Idk if you cant afford to take loads at $3.25 a mile then you might have a bigger issue other then taking " cheap freight ". A lot of people are up to their noses with debt.... brand new car and truck, refinanced house so on so forth. on the flip side of things, that could be any of us here on this forum in real life, im not judging them or nothing.

Ive taken 2 loads that were amazon loads and they paid pretty damn well. everyone wanted it but only so many of them were available.

I'd keep that authority, i sorta wish i had got mine done and out of the way couple of months ago. I never anticipated that i'd be so slow with work this early into the year.I believe those amazon loads are only going to be available for a little while longer till bazos decides to build his amazon trucks :D lol.

Well, when you have a $4000 a month truck note... $2.50 a mile to the truck does not sound all that good, I guess. No payment here, thank GOD. As far as the Authority, it is a lot of work if you have no one at home to run the paperwork, and then we have getting paid. Most guys are going to have to factor, which is fine if you have the rest of the bases covered. Trying to run a trucking company out of the sleeper gets a bit long in the tooth after awhile, you really need someone at home to keep up on things. The reason I lease my truck to a carrier, I don't want the headache and have no one at home. And the house is paid for.

[Waterloo]

(04-30-2019 )ynot Wrote:  Amazon freight has always paid good they're one of the few places that will pay for dependable an professional companies. I've pulled it a few times, the general freight isn't too bad but when you get into the high dollar electronics loads they can get a little anal on security which I can understand when your pulling million dollar+ freight behind ya... making you install a phone tracking app, calls every hour too check progress no stopping for X amount of hours once you leave the depot, an of course there's multiple GPS trackers hidden in through out the load, so they know what your doing where your doing it an when your doing it, they don't screw around with their stuff.

Three of us signed on with this carrier, my one buddy started today, first Amazon load, $2 a mile to the truck ($1.97), 700 miles +/- AFTER fuel, two stops and we figured 6 miles to the gallon, load was 16,000 pounds, brand new trailer. Best part, main DC is close to the house, 16 miles, I can come home, shower and eat, and no trailer to try and park. This is a win win in my book. And no beating up the truck, light loads, easy on the tire wear, easy on the suspension, transmission and drivetrain... Again, win win.

I am actually kind of excited to go back to work.

[Lonestar10]

Running Midwest Flatbed SD, NE, KS, OK,TX, IA, IL, CO, WY, ND, MN, WI, MI, some Indiana/KY

We are usualy always between 70-80k unless we get PVC pipe or some other out of the blue load and i think my average is around 2.50-2.60 PMile along with getting home every friday leaving sunday afternoon. I enjoy the PVC pipe right now 25k LBs of Pipe 3 stops 2 in Salina 1 in Hutchinson KS 1053 for something like 330 miles at 2.60 PMile and 35c PMile Fuel Surcharge so 2.95. i get 88% of the 2.60 and 100% of 35c PMile.

the worst loads we do are out of Hill City and Spearfish South Dakota lumber mills 1.69 PMile but i still make money on it i think my set PM cost are around 1.00-1.10 till truck/trailer are paid off. which is about another 70k to go between the 2. I usualy hope for cardboard or some other offshoot load when out that way though.

[Waterloo]

(04-30-2019 )Lonestar10 Wrote:  Running Midwest Flatbed SD, NE, KS, OK,TX, IA, IL, CO, WY, ND, MN, WI, MI, some Indiana/KY

We are usualy always between 70-80k unless we get PVC pipe or some other out of the blue load and i think my average is around 2.50-2.60 PMile along with getting home every friday leaving sunday afternoon. I enjoy the PVC pipe right now 25k LBs of Pipe 3 stops 2 in Salina 1 in Hutchinson KS 1053 for something like 330 miles at 2.60 PMile and 35c PMile Fuel Surcharge so 2.95. i get 88% of the 2.60 and 100% of 35c PMile.

the worst loads we do are out of Hill City and Spearfish South Dakota lumber mills 1.69 PMile but i still make money on it i think my set PM cost are around 1.00-1.10 till truck/trailer are paid off. which is about another 70k to go between the 2. I usualy hope for cardboard or some other offshoot load when out that way though.

I have a buddy running those states, open flat bed, sounds about right.

[Chamberpains]

Looks like middle America is running some damn good rates. Anyone jumping in to the industry as an O/O had better be prepared for a down turn at some point. If things get better from here, great! But things look really good with these numbers you guys are posting. For guys buying in at this time, you should have your numbers run down in the $1.80-$2.00 average per mile. Rates have been there for over a decade so you should be prepared for them to settle there again so your not drowning if or when the markets may dip. You should realistically have your numbers ran all the way down to your bankruptcy point just so you know when your running to close to that number for too long and its time to bail and change strategies. Seeing the physical numbers will make you more aware of hard times happening and allow to adjust as its happening instead of after the fact the bank account is empty.