Advice for Beginner

Well I hope yu find these suggestions usefull.
First YOU AND ONLY YOU have to determine what $$/mile rate it will take to run your trucks. What is good for you may not be good for the next guy, or vice versa. You should know what it takes to run your 2 trucks now, you should be able to calculate what fees your current carrier is charging you and so on. Make a simple spreadsheet and know your absolute bottom $ number. Add to that any potential problems you might encounter, example fuel costs rising, insurance premiums increasing, a driver having a medical issue, ect ect. Once you have determined that number then set yourself a target rate and add a percentage above that. Unfortunately there is no magic number.I wish there was.
Second spend as much time as necessary getting your trucks dispatched. ALL DAY IF NEEDED! You can easily find a cheap load or a bad load in the first 5 minutes and be done. However, it might take several hours sometimes to find the best pay, best load for your truck. With my one truck I may make 5 phone calls in a half an hour in one area or may make 40 phone calls and it take all day. Once you get some time under you belt you will be able to learn to avoid certian areas and certin brokers you will find out which are consitantly good or bad. NOT ALL BROKER COMPANIES ARE BAD! However there are ones out there that are better than others as well as there are good and bad individuals inside of the broker companies.
Lastly load boards vary by what you are looking for, many are specialized. Example Bulk Loads here is Mainly hopper, dump, pnematic type freight, the same with Hoploads. If you want to do van freight OOIDA has a member discount for Truckersedge which is a DAT website. As you will learn many companies have their owm private load boards that are free to use. Try a few see what you like discontinue the others. Also many brokers will offer you an email list for free.
Try to get dustomers directly but dont break your non compete clause in most broker contracts. I would suggest starting with somewhat local companies.
I hope you do well for yourself. I would suggest you start carrying a computer,a wifi connection, a simple printer with scanner and get a fax-to-email address for yourself . It will help you out in the long run.

Ihave loads out of nc. going to ia. for van or reefer and other places. Pay better than most if dependable? Give me a call 903-439-8556

Keith you should be closer to 2.25 if you load yourself. I got a guy that loads me all week and he takes 6%. and I average $2 all miles ( empty and loaded!) I think you can more if you don't care about being home. I'm home every weekend. good luck!

I got my authority 3 month ago , I have 99 Classic XL and 99 dry van , I have been doing good have learn few things about finding loads and factoring, for whole month I am averaging $2.09 for pass 3 month this include deadhead miles,we use 123loadboard and Truckers edge thru ooida those work the best for us, I have laptop and printer and scanner that I can hook to my smart phone to do business, I also have my wife doing paperwork and teaching my mother in-law to be dispatch which she love to talk to people that really help she get most money out of them ,B4 she accept she call me tell me what she has what rate is for the load I say yes or no ,one thing I will tell u what we learn Georgia, Florida, Texas and Colorado doesn't want to pay nothing so if plan go in those area the load going there need to cover the lost to come out of there or do short run to get in to different state then go elsewhere for example Indiana to Florida load need to pay close to 2.85 per mile and load from Florida to Indiana roughly pay 1.30 per miles so the extra .80 per miles will cover the lost back unless u find a load pay better it a Win deal ,good luck succeed in the business

I got my authority 3 month ago , I have 99 Classic XL and 99 dry van , I have been doing good have learn few things about finding loads and factoring, for whole month I am averaging $2.09 for pass 3 month this include deadhead miles,we use 123loadboard and Truckers edge thru ooida those work the best for us, I have laptop and printer and scanner that I can hook to my smart phone to do business, I also have my wife doing paperwork and teaching my mother in-law to be dispatch which she love to talk to people that really help she get most money out of them ,B4 she accept she call me tell me what she has what rate is for the load I say yes or no ,one thing I will tell u what we learn Georgia, Florida, Texas and Colorado doesn't want to pay nothing so if plan go in those area the load going there need to cover the lost to come out of there or do short run to get in to different state then go elsewhere for example Indiana to Florida load need to pay close to 2.85 per mile and load from Florida to Indiana roughly pay 1.30 per miles so the extra .80 per miles will cover the lost back unless u find a load pay better it a Win deal ,good luck succeed in the business

After 5% taking out it still above 2 a m I le I am home every weekend but my trailer stay loaded thru weekend

Factoring company does but I find my own load reason 5% I don't have to deal with waiting 30 or more days get my money plus don't worry that companies pay late or bankruptcy or close up it noncourse I use plus I can keep track what load been done and paid for

There is 2 type of factors one is course factors that is usually around 3 to 5% but only get 90% factor then in 30 days to 60 days u get the other % that they don't charge u for factoring but if customer is late paying to factor or bankruptcy or close up the factoring company take money out of your bank account and let u deal with customer the noncourse is flat % which is 5 % maybe 6% and u get all money except what they charge u for factoring and they handle all the problems if customer bankruptcy or close up or late on payment, I go thru TBS factors out of Oklahoma City, OK, they are very friendly and helpful and get ur money by next morning

John, when you call on a load on the load board, do you usually negotiate a higher rate? Just the little exp i have this past spring, is that the loads never offer anything above $2 a mile.

Am I looking at something wrong but most loads don't even post a price. Right?

When it comes to the broker contracts and the Non-Solicitation portion how do you prove you have had prior talks with a local business but never hauled a load for them. If one were to line up a load through a broker and sign their contract, and then the local business calles a month later and decides they want to give you a few loads are you screwed?

Kieth,
If your are looking for load boards for vans, your best bet is probably on Internet Truckstop or on DAT. I would give them a call to see if they have loads in the lanes you are running. This years report that came out on what you should be getting per mile stated that breakeven is $1.65 per mile based on a fuel effieciency of 6 miles per gallon, but now that fuel costs are down that is still going to be a good guide to start from. So take your break even, add your driver pay, and profit to find a rate that you can be comfortable with.
Bill