To add to what GMAN has already stated, TO A POINT, “it’s a personal definition.” There are costs that all of us as truck owners (and operators) must bear. Everybody, unless they steal it, must purchase fuel. Certainly some of us get better fuel economy than others, but there is a limit to how many miles an 80k pound vehicle can travel on a gallon of diesel. All of us must mechanically maintain our equipment or it will fail us. Certainly some of us have learned tricks to reduce our maintenance costs (just this year, I have started installing and rotating my own tires, for example), but there is a limit to how low maintenance expenses can be keep. We all must pay drivers (or ourselves, if we drive the truck). Certainly one company may find drivers who are willing to run for ten cents a mile less than another company, but how reliable are the drivers who are willing to run for that much less than the industry standard? We all must purchase permits, plates, pay weight-distance taxes (if we run in those states) and IFTA, HUT, tolls, etc. Many of those items cost the same for all of us (unless we chose to run illegally). We must all pay income tax, unless we operate at a loss or lie on our tax filings.

My point is that there is an ABSOLUTE minimum that it takes to operate a truck. Eighty cents per mile does not cover all of the things I have mentioned above (and some I didn’t bother mentioning, like equipment cost and insurance). If a carrier is hauling freight continually for that rate, it is seriously sacrificing on one or more of the above listed expenses. Eventually, this will lead to a service failure. Abused and neglected equipment will break, or get put out of service in a roadside inspection. That driver running for twenty six cents per mile because he’s desperate for a job because no reputable carrier will hire him may decide to take a three day vacation to smoke crack cocaine or crystal meth somewhere and maybe sell part of your load to get the money, or maybe he’ll have a serious accident that will cost you your entire load.

Trucking is an industry that RUNS on cash. When the cash isn’t there to meet all the demands of this business, things start getting neglected one by one, and service will ultimately suffer.