[MommaKay]

Being a company driver, all loads pay bupkiss. I've hauled millions of dollars worth of freight over the past 9 months, and have earned a whopping $16k and change take-home. A reefer load of cheese, 43,000 pounds of it, is worth about $170,000, more or less. I don't know what it costs to haul the freight, but it pays me the same as if I'm hauling sailboat fuel.

Ya, I know. I'm paying my dues. But they're awfully high.

[NotSteve]

bupkiss? lol

[deep dixie blue]

Originally Posted by geomon

Geat post deep dixie...the fact that you watch your data flow and adjust based on what you measure means you can react to change and are many steps ahead of the non-business types. They are the ones that will get "surprised" and then wonder what happened (and often place blame somewhere else).

Do you look at the $120 per day to operate as a monthly number (ie $120 x 30 days) or based on the average number of days you operate per month? I've always wondered on per day costing methods whether time off is calculated into that or not.

One of the other things I had noticed was that in my best weeks (as measured by all-miles-average) it really wasn't the great paying loads, necessarily, that made my numbers good but it was when I had very low deadhead weeks. This seems obvious, I know, but when you're doing regional like myself, its more important than I realized. So I began looking a lot harder at loads that were close to me, even taking some that would have been below my take price before based on my loaded miles target but because of their proximity actually exceeded my all miles target. That's when I began to focus on the all miles average and I have done better because of it.

Yeah my fixed costs average out to about $2400/month, and I divide that by 20 working days per month to get my costs per day. I don't think its reasonable to average these costs over 30 or 31 days a month. That would give me an unrealistic number, in my opinion, of my true operating costs because I hardly ever operate on weekends.

[maximus12]

I just bought my own truck (2003) columbia for 24k and it has 534kmiles on it.
After reading several treads, I have decided to lease it to CRST Malone. I don't have any flat bed experience, however I use to work for CRST as company driver.
I have heard alots of good things about malone. I have outlined my questions at the bottom.
1. Malone works with dispatcher and agents. Can i access the available loads from online?
2. This question might seem simplistic but keep in mind that I m asking for AVERAGE (GOOD WEEKS AND BAD WEEKS AVERAGED) HOW MUCH CAN I TAKE HOME? MY TRUCK PAYMENT IS 270.00/WK.
3. My recruiter mentioned; whenever freights are slow, I can always get loads from other carriers by using Malones authority. How does that work out? For instance, I find a landstar load, what is the process?

Thats about it for now.
Thanks
Best regards.
marK

[Bandit102]

Originally Posted by Colts Fan

Ok, topic changed.

What is considered cheap freight? I assume that when I see a TMC flatbed hauling straw or hay, that is a cheap load. When I see flatbedders hauling oversize heavy equipment, my mind tells me that is probably a high dollar load. Break it down if you can. For each type of truck, what is considered good paying freight?

1. Flatbed
2. Reefer
3. Dry Van

What type of loads will you not touch with a 10-foot pole? What parts of the country have the highest paying freight?

I just pulled a load of hay out of Larned, KS for $3.30 a mile.

[NotSteve]

Originally Posted by Bandit102

I just pulled a load of hay out of Larned, KS for $3.30 a mile.

How many miles and where was your destination?

[GMAN]

Originally Posted by maximus12

[3. My recruiter mentioned; whenever freights are slow, I can always get loads from other carriers by using Malones authority. How does that work out? For instance, I find a landstar load, what is the process?

Thats about it for now.
Thanks
Best regards.
marK[/b]

I believe we answered this on another thread, but with CRST Malone, once you find a load you need to contact your dispatcher to get a number from him or her. They must approve any load you take before committing to it. You MUST write the number on the top of your bills in order to get paid. It usually doesn't take very long. They will need time to check the brokers credit if it is one they haven't used before.