Quote:
Originally Posted by no_worries
Private fleets generate revenue the same way for-hire carriers do...they haul freight. Just because s company manufactures its own product it doesn't mean they don't allocate a portion of their budget for shipping. Many times the fleet operates as a subsidiary and bills the parent company for the service. Rank would be a good one to ask as that's exactly what his trucks are. Although I get the sense that a small company like that probably just treats the fleet as a cost. My guess is that the revenue numbers for private fleets as a whole is skewed simply because different companies account for their fleets differently. But maybe the carrier census has taken that into account and uses a standardized metric.
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In our case, you're exactly right.......shipping is just a cost to us. We have hired carriers occasionally in the past but we do 300 - 500 outbound loads a year and have found that we are cheaper, better and more flexible than a carrier.
IIRC we did ~100 backhauls (yes they were backhauls, but they weren't cheap ones ) from Oct '06 to Oct '07 and that revenue represented 10% of our total revenue.
I must disagree with the notion that any backhaul rate is better than coming home empty. The $700 I get offered for 500 miles isn't worth the day I lose in delivering the backhaul. Next thing you know, my 1.5 day trip is 2.5 days and I have to buy another truck just so I can pull cheap backhauls. All they do is delay me from my next high paying outbound shipment. No thank you, we will continue to come home empty unless the load pays over $1,000. 8) |
