Nah, I'm just anal.:lol:

When I was still leased to Graebel, I'd call dispatch to get a load, and I'd make them tell me to the penny what everything paid. When I got paid on the load, I'd make them tell me to the penny what it actually paid me. I've submitted revenue disputes over a couple of pennies. :lol:

I agree - I have no idea how many miles I ran last week. I'd have to look at my ledger to find out.

 

I like the way Heavy Duty thinks.

I can't speak as an O/O, but I can say after running a construction business 20-some years, I learned a similar lesson. I started out bidding jobs to the penny, (free estimates) and taking jobs cut too close. Then I wised up. I learned to bid fat, and take only work that I knew from experience would profit me well beyond the penny counting. My clientele went from "stealing milk out of a babies mouth", to "money is no object" customers. It was part from learning costs, and part from learning to say no.

No doubt that first couple years is tough. You have to get past the freshman status, and find your confidence to choose contracts quickly. Mistakes in the beginning can hurt you more, because I think any new business counts the pennies, to learn what works for them. Learning to deal with the competition takes time too. As mentioned, the better loads get snapped up quickly.

 

What is my load break-even point per shipment?
What do I need to charge each customer to reach these points?

That was figured in the last thread according to rev it is $1.22/mi.

The customer needs to be charged $1.22/mi plus whatever it takes to make a decent living. I'd think a decent wage is around $0.50/mi which is approximately $4000/mo. Of course, more is always better.

 

Once you establish your TRUE operating costs and minimum profit you want to make it is easy to make a decision about a load. Of course, you also need to know something about the area where you plan on running. I have a minimum haul rate for which I will run my trucks. That rate will change according to area of the country based upon how difficult it is to get out of the destination. I will usually know that it is difficult to get out so I will take that in to consideration when taking a load. For instance, Florida and New England are two difficult areas to get loaded out with a decent rate. Sometimes there is little coming out, period. So when I take a load to those areas, my rate goes up considerably over what I would take a load to the Midwest or some areas of the Southeast.

It still seems to be a difficult concept for some owner operators to not equate miles with money. There is still a correlation, but when you have to worry about a few cents being the difference between making a profit or losing money, you are already in trouble. I think much of the problem lies in running at a too cheap rate. I have been doing more deadheading the last several months due to cheaper rates. When I look at taking a load, I also check the deadhead miles. If you take a load for $2/mile and you deadhead 25%, then you are actually running for $1.50/mile. If your deadhead is 10%, then you are running for $1.80/mile. There are a lot of owner operators who never give any thought to the cost of deadheading. When you look at what a load pays, you also need to look a the deadhead, on both ends.

 

I would imagine you also have to take in account how much extra work may be involved in a particular load, vs. another. How much time certain accounts spend to load or unload.

Even as a company driver, I immediately cringe when I hear I'm taking a certain account. I know how much harder I am going to work, and wait.

 

You are right, Roadhog. I charge extra for tarping a load. Some brokers don't want to pay extra, but it is an added service and should compensate the truck for the extra time. A few weeks ago, I turned down a good paying load because they didn't want to pay me to tarp it. Some owners will take a load for a cheap rate and tarp it for FREE. If you pull a flat bed you should be charging extra for tarping, unless you just like working for free. It can take 2-4 hours to tarp some loads. If it is a high load, there are also risks associated with standing 13' off the ground wrestling with tarps. There are also loads that can rip your tarps. I had one not long ago that ripped two of my tarps. It was an over-sized load and they wanted it tarped. We padded it as best we could, but still had damaged tarps before getting to our destination. Sometimes, you will damage tarps no matter how well you try to protect them. If you don't charge extra for the tarping you will be taking money away from your rate to either replace or repair your damaged tarps.

I do take my time into consideration when it comes to certain accounts. If I know that I will be waiting for a longer time than I should, then I will take that into consideration when I quote a rate. In fact, there are some shippers that I will not do business with because they don't value my time and don't want to pay detention.

 

Well, no. You're wrong again.


Just because my operating costs is one number doesn't mean daddy's operating cost is the same. You want to take other peoples numbers and call them your own. Get out a calculator and do the friggin math. If you don't know a number, call dad up and ask him. After all, you could easily find that the $1.22 is really $1.30, in which case you are short.

JEEZ. :roll:

 

Okay, so let's assume his break even is $1.30. The fact is he is making money if he averages $1.31/mi or $2.30/mi.

 

Why would we "assume" anything?

Of course he would. At $1.31 per mile, I, plus every other taxpayer, would end up paying him because he would be a welfare recipient.

$0.01 per mile X 108,000 miles per year = $1080 per year for wages, $0.00 per year profit.

Still sounds like you are trying to justify hauling cheap.

 

You Dad should be getting at least $2/mile in the areas where you stated that he is running. I have been getting a lot of calls in those areas the last couple of weeks, in the $2/mile range, without any negotiating.