PAY TO WORK

When you spit out your break even rate to the rest of the world, do not be shocked if that is all you get offered. You should not let the other side know what your cards are at the poker table.

Lmfao ! It's called repo or bankruptcy, then some other dipshit will buy it and go and make the big bucks!!!!

That explains why they drug test anyone who wants to drive a truck.

You raise a valid point about reavealing your cards. If you were going to buy a car, and heard what the other party was willing to accept ahead of time, why would you offer them more? Freight rates often work the same way. If the shipper cannot get their product to market, then they will go broke. So who really holds the upper hand when it comes to negotiating rates? The problem is that too many people have no clue where the market really is. I had a neighbor who bought a truck and leased it on to a carrier. He was paid on a percentage, and did not realize that the carrier was skimming off the top. So when he left that carrier, he went out and started bidding on stuff, based off the numbers that the carrier had given him. He was supprised how eager these customers were to accept his rates, it seemed almost to easy. The previous carrier he worked for then had to cut his own rates, to get his old customers back. At this point, he got pissy with the customer, and pissed him off. He then lost that customer and complained to everyone, that my neighbor was running around cutting rates. My neighbor got wind of this, and started to figure out, that the carrier he had worked for was embezzling money from him. There is a lesson to be learned here.

Mike, I totally agree with you. However that was only one of the lessons to be learned here. We need to acknowledge that in a deregulated market, anyone can play. We are only as strong as the weakest among us, and knowledge is power. If my neighbor could have gotten a fair deal at the table, he would still be working for that carrier, and would not have ever left. It was because he couldn't feed his family that he went off on his own. This has become such a common story in today's market, that there are now law firms specializing in the truth in leasing act. If you go on YouTube and type in skimming off truckers, you will find a lawyer by the name of Paul Taylor, who owns such a law firm.

Me personally, I will just charge round trip money to go to the no zone. Then I bounce out to the go zone to find the good stuff. No sense in sitting around in a shit hole thinking it will get better. I have enough money to buy my own fuel don't need a load to just pay for it. Gotta make a profit on each and every load that goes on the back of my trucks. I would be willing to barter my services for some of the shippers widgets though. If they would sell me their widgets at let us say a 10% to 20% loss then I would haul them likewise. I then could sell their widgets and recoup my freight losses on the resale of their widgets.

I posted a post a long time ago about the shippers cost to run their own equipment. Just got rebuked by the majority of those that don't even know their own cost to operate their business. When I was the shipper and had six trucks of my own, the reason I farmed out my OTR stuff was because MS Carriers would do it for just a few cents cheaper than I could do it for myself. That is one of the main purposes for outsourcing the work in the first place.

You are right it is not rocket science it is just business. I will bet you that the majority of the shippers and brokers know exactly what it cost to operate a rig, it is the truckers themselves that lack this knowledge. I like you have found there to be less than a quarter per mile difference between operations. So explain this one for me, why in the hell do we still see freight being moved for the $1.00 - $1.35 per mile range? We both know that is not possible with all the cost associated with running a rig. A shipper can not move it for that themselves unless they are forgetting some line item allocations.

Supply and demand in trucking is bull shit and those of us that understand this know it. I can just move my rig to where there is a more profitable load, I don't have to take that cheap shit to just create some kind of bridge to the next load. If you failed to charge enough to bounce out then you failed in the first place.

The reason I was admonishing the gentleman for sticking his cost per mile out was that he has now told everybody else the minimum price that he can run for. We should be talking profit margins not cost per mile. There are many companies across this country that make similar widgets, do you see them tell each other what it cost them to make their widget? No, they talk about profit margins. It is not rocket science to make soda's but do the soda giants talk about their cost to make or their profit margins?

Your cost to operate your business is indeed a trade secret, and therfor this is why truckers continue to fail at the game that we are playing. Go ahead spit out your cost per mile and let everybody know what your bottom dollar is. Is that what you want to work for, your bottom dollar or a loss? Seems to me that most think this is acceptable in this business. Farmers and truckers are two of the few industries that have drank the Kool Aid and believe that this is ok.

Actually the correct title heading on youtube is, 'SKIMMING MONEY OFF TRUCKES', you need to put the money word in there, and it comes right up. It can also be found under TRUCKERS JUSTICE CENTER.

just because u know my cost doesnot give an advantage over me.if im making widgets and so are others,i dont need them to tell me their cost. i already have a good idea.
if u dont know your cost per mile then how do you know your profit margin?
we used to go to miami fl, reefer. 60 to 90 cents back out. ialways said no.talk to the o/o unloding next to me and theywould.on paper it makes cents. in life it doesn't. very few can grasp why. without experience the math says its a better profit model to take that than to bounce.
seriously,the rates on this board r usually rediculous. ihave my own so dont need to take these rates and i dont,but others may feel they have too.
gotta go

Dave, I completely understand your neighbor's position. Trucking is a tough business, especially when you're just getting started. You lay out some carefully saved money on a truck, try to find someone you can trust to do business with, and you jump in. Most of us have been burned by skimming, no-pays, half-truths, and big-talking plad jacketed used car salesmen who can easily mislead the unsuspecting. Not having the financial depth to hold to a business plan or some other level of profitable standards, will soon leave you in a state of making decisions out of desperation. I also know other truck owners who will say "any work is better than sitting", and I strongly disagree too. Brokers also love this position, especially in areas Alfred refers to as "no-go zones", and I agree with him, bid it round trip or don't do it at all.
Excessive debt is one of our worst enemies, it takes away your freedom. Manure spreader loads of bad decisions are made in the interest of making payments. I also concede the point that "if we don't haul it for that, someone else will". I say, let them. I won't feel left out missing out on a chance to lose money with them. Failure will be their teacher, and hopefully they'll learn from it. We must remember to serve our good customers well, and be paid well for that service. Let the "cheapest is better" shippers use the bottom feeders, I don't want to haul their stuff anyway. Just my .02 cents ($397.36 including f.e.t., sales tax, shop rags,diagnostic time, and disposal fees).