Backhauls
 

What does backhaul mean ? Why is it so unpalatable to so many truckers ?

Re: Backhauls
 

I'll give you a good example:
The company that I use to drive for did those. I would leave Pittsburgh with 7 stops on monday morning. Finish the stops by tuesday morning. Then I would start my BACKHAULS. I would make anywhere from 3-5 pickups on my way back to Pittsburgh. All the pick ups would come back to the place that I left(the warehouse).

Re: Backhauls
 

Fair enough....so then, why do some drivers and o/o's not like to do it ?

A load that is used to position a truck back into its normal shipping area or Distribution Center. It is used to keep the trucks Dead Head miles to a minumum. When this load is used as a "backhaul" it is possibly only producing enough revenue to break even or very little profit.

The load itself is not really a backhaul and the company is willing to move the load at a cheap rate, possibly taking away what could have been a profitable load for another truck.

Backhaul may also be used by trucks dedicated to retailers distribution centers, when the truck emptys at the actual retail store (the fronthaul), then picks up freight back to its own distributions center for restocking (the backhaul).

In the dweller world, a backhaul is a cut rate load to get the truck out of a low freight area back to a high freight area, or back to it's home base. Some genius long ago thought he was the $hit offering a cut rate going back to get the work, now it is the norm.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BACKHAUL. :twisted:

Really? According to Wikipedia there is:
WIKIPEDIA

The term back haul started several decades ago when companies hauling their own freight looked for anything that would defray some of their costs to get their trucks back to haul their products. They would haul anything they could get for whatever price just to cover costs. It really hurt the entire industry in some areas. Before they started this practice, rates were considerably higher. These companies can haul for fuel money but an owner operator or carrier can't afford to do that and stay in business. Unfortunately, once shippers and brokers found that they could get their products moved for peanuts, there was no need to pay a decent rate. Had carriers and owner operators held out for better rates in the beginning there would be no such thing as a back haul today. If I haul something it is done on it's own merit with a fair rate.

We haul back hauls. One of our guys goes to DFW twice a week. He delivers there, and he picks up at HB Meats in Dallas. On his 2nd trip to DFW, he delivers, and then he picks up at Ventura Foods in Ft Worth.

I pull his back hauls quite a bit back to our warehouse in Lubbock.

Interesting perspective, GMAN. For the biggest part of my career, I drove for a private carrier. The only back hauls we did were products coming back into our own warehouse, because we had no authority to carry freight for hire. We made our money on the products in the trucks, and we ran our trucks to ensure that our freight would arrive undamaged, and our customers would be happy with the service. We ran them just to cover costs, and made no profit on the trucking end of the business per se, although we did profit from happy customers and low claims. (Whenever people ordered extra stuff via common carrier, it almost always arrived trashed. Especially anything with glass in it.)

In that context, I hated backhauls, because it meant more work for the same salary, and commensurately less time at home. It was often a shuffling problem too, because I'd have to either double back, or shove several stops out of the way to load a backhaul before I had gotten all my stops off. (Some pillow place on the way to Altoona comes to mind, with stops in Altoona and Summerhill and Bedford and sometimes Cumberland still left.)

In the end, we did few backhauls because there were no more American manufacturers. The last one we dealt with closed in July of 2006. Then we shut down our trucking operation the following February, which might or might not have been related, but probably was in some way. (We speculated on the last day that the warehouse would be next, when they figure out how to ship stuff straight from China to the customer's doorstep.)

The rate cutting bastards who took my job run auto parts, carpet, any crazy thing they can get into a truck coming back somewhere close to the home terminal. It's OK if you want to shake your fists at those guys. I'll join you. I'll even moon them. I'm just saying not all backhauls are created equal.

The way if figure it is that it costs me just as much to run my truck one way as it does the other. I am in business to make a profit. I see no need to perpetuate cheap freight by taking something which doesn't pay a fair rate.

I heard the owner of our company tell a broker "there is no such thing as a backhaul. there is a load going one way and another load going the other way, you want me to haul it, it's regular rate" you gotta love that.

I like your boss's attitude. :lol:

me too since I get paid percentage 8)

If everyone in every type of trucking would adhere to that philosophy then things wouldn't be all @#&%$ up the way they are today.

Re: Backhauls
 

Well, you pretty much got one answer, maybe the other. What I've been told as to why so many truckers don't LIKE the idea is this. If you drive back empty, you use less fuel and less wear and tear on the truck. So.... IF you're going to LOAD it down and spend more on fuel and maintenance... you don't want to do it for peanuts. I've heard one or two tell me that the freight charges were so cheap, they actually lost money coming home loaded! Kind of doubt it, though.

However, those who get a PERCENTAGE of the freight charges, and especially O/O's who are responsible for all their expenses, REALLY feel that they are working for nothing on a cheap "backhaul." THEY would be better off getting paid by the mile, probably.

But, the part about how the shippers have abused the situation is very interesting, and true. I was not aware there was a time when nearly EVERYONE "deadheaded" home! I suspect the rise in fuel costs can be blamed for this MAJOR shift in the economics of our industry. And we all know who to blame for THAT! :roll: :lol:

For a different perspective though.... my company makes a pretty fair rate for what we haul out to the West, but we make MORE on the produce we haul back home (backhaul.) So, we've been known to deadhead FURTHER west from a drop in, say, Salt Lake City.... JUST to "backhaul" a higher profit load from Salinas!

The trucking industry is not a "one size fits all" type of game. What works for some, doesn't work for others. What some people hate, others love.

Some companies who hauled their own products would deadhead home. They would take anything that they could get, no matter the rate, just to cover some of their shipping costs. Once shippers found that they could get their freight hauled for next to nothing, they began trying to get common carriers to haul for the same rates. Things changed when deregulation occured. Our rates were mostly regulated until around the late 70's or early 80's when rates were deregulated. I don't remember exactly when it occured. When we talk about deregulation of trucking, it is the rates. We actually seem to have more regulations today than ever.