Hoppers DO love that, but you have offer a rate that it can be done. $3/mile ALL miles tends to be the magic number, but that also isn't sustainable if there is unpaid time sitting at a location. You offered us some beans going from Abilene to Emporia. This isn't far enough to offer a one-way rate, unless the truck needs to account for some empty miles. Another thing that has to be accounted for is Bunge unload time. Sometimes you get lucky & get in and out of there, but just as much of the time you spend the day unloading there. Knowledge of origin & destination in this industry is more important than most, because most grain doesn't pay detention for the time that the truck wasted there. So if you only get this load; spent 4 hours trying to get unloaded; and get your re-load loaded, then you still won't have enough time to unload & get reloaded. So you just made $600 gross that day, which isn't very productive and definitely not a living wage for the driver or the owner of the truck. Those loads will, probably, still move; but they will be picked up by desperate trucks that need to get to Emporia for a reload. All I'm saying is this industry isn't so cut & dry as: "This load is a 97 mile haul."

Keep that willingness to learn, and you'll be alright. Also if there isn't money to be made for the truck, then I'd stay away from it. That's a good way to get a bad name for yourself in the ag world, and unlike door swingers we all talk to each other. Usually when we are in line cursing our brokers, or on the cb driving 15 mph over the speed limit to make an unload whilst cursing our brokers lol. Keep the mutually beneficial mindset, and you'll do good things. A good truck will truck his heart out for you, and be with you during the hard-times; whilst most shippers won't (there are exceptions).

It is the lowest freight volumes in 9 years currently. When rates crumble in Van, Reefer, etc then they try to find different avenues of hauling. Hoppers are cheap to pick up or rent from a neighbor and try while you let another trailer sit. Direct freight rates have fallen huge in the last 6 months on bulk. It is the standard boom and bust cycle of trucking. I prefer to think of truck capacity as an overall pool and not devided into specific types of freight. If it gets bad enough on dry van people will install a wet kit and find a end dump carrier to pull for.

Part of the drop in bulk freight rates are companies and brokers entering the market with no experiance. They utilize spot rates from general freight to guide their bidding process on bulk commodities not fully understanding the complexities of issues such as food saftey, product density, and potential wait times. We will see these people driving rates down until their "normal" freight picks back up. Then they will disappear and we will have to work with shippers to get rates back to a profitable level. While I understand that some asset based busniess might have to do this just to survive, I dont agree with brokers entering a market for short periods then exiting, it benifits no one other then their bottom line.

Just because a door swinger will run for $2.00 a mile, that in now way indicates what bulk hauling is worth. You can't load or unload a hopper on every street corner like you can a box or open deck. If you think they are the same, you definitely shot yourself in the foot. Additionally, I think you need to remember if you come at us with ridiculous rates, we remember you too, and will not haul for you. You see, the street runs both directions. As I statrd before, you need to know when to tell your shipper, his rate is not doable and walk, just like we do. All business isn't good business.

not sure where the loads went ' was doing awesome till first of the year now cant do anything the rates are crap and no loads but you see alot of trucks rolling but im not hauling for dollar a mile i just let everything go before i do that; animals and people have to eat so what has happen

Probably a bit of a seasonal low.... Also noticed your profile says you are based in Tennessee. If you are going to make a living hauling bulk commodities you should really be located in the Midwest or Great Plains.

Again, why do you have to have a membership with Bulkloads, in order to login and look at available loads with Circle A brokers??? And when Levi from admin called me, he said he wasn't aware of this. Then after he looked into it, he explained that Circle A only post their loads on BL! Wrong! Wanna know where most of the loads went? I too lost all the loads I had with direct shippers. Glad BL was able to find a great amount of extra income, and take away more from paying members.

I remember a couple of years ago, JBHUNT came on here, asking for info and help for starting up a hopper division....and the popularity contest was like a torpedo!!! But with today's concerns...crime has open range.

And that's exactly why I feel Bulk loads is a bad place to work with.

I've been really transparent on this and how I've been going about it.

I'm not even trying to get that heavily into the market, a customer reached out to me about this, not the other way around.

Which says Waaaay to much about the relationships you have with them. After everyone told me how bad it was I gave the load up.

i think most people will agree it never pays enough

i doubt anyone on here will ever call and say i think you are offering too much for this load lets trim some off

i have been in the middle of nowhere hauling a higher paying load into a known dead spot ( have a soft spot for it )

but your last sentence if you have to haul a cheap one to get to a good one

1st its cost me the same either direction

2nd the broker or shipper doesnt care where you want or need to go your cheap one back to a good one could have been my good one out of where i was .. everyons cheap one home or back to good freight was somebodys good freight out

i am not being a smart ass either the question you asked is real the finding freight both ways is always a deal

but with your train of thought on cheap one back to a good one what if your good freight could be my cheap one back to my good one?

Bankruptcy Filings Drop 6.3 Percent

**NOTHING CAN STOP THIS.......(It's Really Bad) - YouTube

How do you define reliable source? For example when was the last time Jerome Powell or Janet Yellen were right about anything? They have missed the mark every step of the way, how do they have any credibility at this point? Fear mongoring, isn't that what the government and mainstrem media do on a daily basis? Isn't that what got us involved in Korea, vietnam, and the middle east? And now Ukraine?

I don't blame you for being skeptical, but some of these you tubers have had a 100% batting average for the past few years, interest rates, inflation, bond markets, did exactly what they said they would, leading me to believe the central bankers and government have been cooking the books the same way a trucker cooked his paper logbooks.

WHAAAAAAT? A truck driver cooked his paper log book? No way.. Fake news!! :)

A lot of it supply and demand issues right now, a short crop across the western corn belt has driven prices up and end users have cut production creating a lot of extra trucks, also it's always a little slower the first 3 months, once farmers deliver their March-April corn contracts and head back into the field I'm hoping things pick back up.