How is Flatbed Freight?
 

Anyone hauling flatbed loads seeing things getting any better? You guys any busier? Rates getting any better or are they still heading down? Just trying to understand what that market looks like right now, any examples and/or information you could provide would be great in terms of what it has been like the last 30-60 days.

Last thirty days......:thumbsdown:
Last fourty days.....:thumbsdown:
Last fifty days........:thumbsdown:
Last sixty days........:thumbsdown:

That about does it.

You could have just said consistent!!

I second that post

Our freight has been picking up, we have a few customers that are affected by the stimulus and other things that have picked up recently. We also have a deep freight base, as part of the mullen group, we tend to get a lot of freight from mullen, tenold, kleysen, etc.. etc..

here is consistency.

I wanted to give a more detailed post.

Round bales have been moving pretty good last two months @$1.70 mi. but thats starting to run out. don't know how busy the rest of the year will be.

Lngtaltxn

We are entering the slow time for flatbed freight. Rates tend to go down during slower times. I don't expect things to be any different this year. The problem with rates right now is that they were cheap during much of the year and now we are heading into the slow time of year.

I'm no expert, but we have been very successful hauling stone and boulders out of Northeast PA (The Bluestone capital of the world)
Most of the smaller quarrymen don't know or care about frieght rates moving up and down, so they pay well year round. They also generally give the driver a check when the load goes on the truck.
The downside is that it takes some getting used to running around on one lane dirt roads with a big truck, and you often have to take the stuff to really tight jobsites. (See my post about Long Island)

However, it is keeping us busy, so I have no complaints.

Jeff

good for you Jeff. glad to hear your freight lanes are busy.

I had a quarry that I used to haul out of until a couple of years ago. The owner and his wife divorced and that was the end of that. Rates were always good and I was paid upon delivery.

i brought a regular flatbed load to houston, tx on friday on my stepdeck and they told me the reload was in baton rouge, la on tuesday. load got canceled on monday because the consignee didn't tell the shipper i had a stepdeck, and the shipper refuses to load these long pipes on stepdecks. so, i'm getting something in the north of texas picking up tomorrow, wednesday :( will push them to pay me 75 bucks a day for the layover (after the first 24 hrs). a whole bunch of flatbeds are sitting here at pilot. there were a couple of loads on the dat load board inside the pilot and i emailed them to Dispatch. they replied that one of those loads was paying $1,200 to go from here to ... vancouver, bc!

I have no doubt that someone took that load. That is the problem. These owners and drivers are so scared to sit for a day or deadhead out to a decent load that they will take anything to keep moving, even it it costs them money to do so. :roll:

Seems like the number of loads posted on load boards is starting to roll over a little.. you guys seeing the same thing? Rates seem pretty low still, kinda status quo there.

Western Express just came in and cut the rate on one of our regular loads by 150.00.
We can have the leftovers at a 75.00 cut to the rate. :roll3: No thanks.
We'll see how long it lasts.

Rumours of TMC's demise have started up again. If it comes to fruition this time that might help some.

Yeah I've been hearing that too, it'd be nice but I wouldn't place a bet on it.

i would love to buy one of those petes if they do shut the doors!!

I hauled limestone curbing out of southern Indiana into NJ/NY for a little while. Except for the small roads and tight places that I delivered to it was a very positive experience.

Get real Rank. You have been hoping for years that TMC will fail. Our freight base is very strong and growing. I run Texas and the surrounding states and I stay as busy as ever. Matter of fact I made $15K this month and was home 3 full weekends and out 1 weekend with a good paying load to Cali.
TMC fail....not happening! Our freight base is too strong.

Huh? You must have me confused with someone else.
Personally TMC doesn't affect me much anyway. I don't own a single flat and I don't think I've ever seen TMC pull a step or a double drop. Drivers are probably too young.

Are you the accountant? How does freight base have anything to do with profit?

Glad to hear you had a good week though. Is that an average month? Are you % or mileage?

Most of those quarries can be a challenge to get to, especially in bad weather. I always enjoyed hauling rock, even though I was always heavy. It never took long to load or unload and people were always nice on both ends.

Yes, we have steps and dd. They are mostly used to haul John Deere tractors.

I keep my laptop beside me at all times. I put all of my load, fuel, and expenses into an open office spreadsheet that I designed. I am paid 70% of the gross and 100% off the fsc plus TMC matched DOE fsc rate even if the shipper doesn't pay it. I haul a company trailer that I don't have to pay rental fees for.
I also put my fuel into an app called road trip on my iPhone so that I can keep track of my fuel mileage all year. The past weekend I stayed out on a run to Cali and I am loaded going back into Texas and I've made $6100 this week to the truck in 7 days. It's definately a great week.

I thought TMC was 100% company drivers. Are o/o's a new thing for them?

Hey Shadowsknight,
Nice tractor,did you but it from TMC or buy it out right yourself?

I bought it from them last Sept. I've had it now for 14 months.

We've had OO's for quite a few years. I'm number 907 and there are many more that arenumbered differrent depending on division.

How is flatbed freight? I just did 10,800 miles in 3 weeks.

What do the TMC company drivers get for a percentage?

NEVER BETTER! EQUIPMENT IS CHEAP TOO:lol:

Anyone have any updates on flatbed activity? What are freight levels and flatbed rates looking like right now?

I'm kinda courious as well, given that Arrow went belly up.

Flat bed freight rates are still not where they need to be but there is freight. The problem is that it jumps off the boards regardless of the rate. I had hoped that rates might take a jump with the Arrow failure. It is still too early to tell if it will make any sort of impact. When you think about it, 1,000 trucks isn't much of a dent when you have 3-5 million trucks in the U.S. I don't have any idea how many of those are flats. If flats comprise 20% of the total that would mean that the Arrow closing will only take out a small percentage of trucks. Less than 1% capacity. With greater publicity it might have more of an impact. Of course, if one or more larger carriers also faltered then it might have a greater effect on rates.

Over capacity is still the problem. As long as there is so much excess capacity rates will continue to stay lower and freight availability will also be low. You can still make a living but owner operators and carriers are closing operations at record rates. You will still need to operate lean.

Flatbed freight must be pretty good. My dad is making more now than he did when he started. He always has a load planned and ready to go. He was in TX busy with Landstar making good money last week.

I dont think flatbed freight is up overall. I dont think arrow would of went out if it was. it may have went out but, it would of held on longer if freight was moving with good rates. I remember when eck miller went out. right now there are good day's & bad. good weeks & bad. for me anyway. it's not a.. freight is moving well again, it's more like, so far so good, considering... could be a false recovery too. ever have agreat 2 weeks or month & then all of a sudden, you got noth'in ? thats what I am afraid of. with me, I just dont see a GOOD reason for freight to be up. looking at all my indicators, I dont see steady feight. I see spurts of it. a good year would be great.

If I ever pull a flatbed or stepdeck again My main product will be Rock. Good pay in it.. I will not have to go far to load it from home, since it my home town main product.

I have seen the curbing being shipped out, and I hauled Tombstones for one of the Companies, and regret leaving that job.

But the rest of the Flatbed is dead for me. In the last 10 days I hauled one load. Sat in Sweet Water TX 6 days and been in Hutchinson KS now since Friday. Glad to get rolling, but will be leaving out empty for a 650 mile Deadhead, then sign on to a different Company, then more than likely have to deadhead back to Atlanta to turn in this step Deck.

Been very bad 2 months.... Let's see in 2 months less than 10 loads. Yikes

steps and DD freight seems to have dried up again in the Neast. Kinda typical for this time of year anyway I guess. January Blahs I figure. The year end rush is over. Will probably be dead until mid March with a little blip in the last week of Jan and Feb.

Flats also. This week is awful. I've done one load, a short one. Going to look for some drywall work to tie me over.

Copper used to be $1.80 to $2.15 per mile,.....and then the Arrow flats started rolling in and the rate went all the way down to less than a dollar. Glad to see that some cut throats get into trouble.

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JUST WHERE THE HECK HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING DAWG???? :angryblue: