Which of these 2 trips would you choose?
 

Which of these 2 trips would you choose and why, if your fixed costs were the same as mine?

MY FIXED COSTS PER MONTH

Truck & trailer: $3,000
Tires: $100
Maintenance: $200
Total: $3,300
Per day: $194.12
(17 work days in a month, as per advice by "Overdrive" mag)

............................
Trip 1
Ontario, Canada to Ohio; one-way

Deadhead: 40 miles
Loaded: 300 miles
Total distance: 340 miles
Days to complete: 1
Load: metal logs, 22 ft long, entire load is 4 ft high
PAY TO THE TRUCK: 668.25 (incl. fuel surcharge)

FIXED COSTS: $194.12

VARIABLE COSTS: $199.06
(Insurance (5.25% of freight): $29.06
Fuel at 6 MPG and $3/gal: $170)

TOTAL COSTS: $393.18

GROSS PROFIT: $275.07
GROSS PROFIT PER DAY: $275.07


Trip 2
Ontario, Canada to Kentucky and back; 2-way trip

Deadhead: 7 miles
Loaded: 1,000 miles
Total distance: 1,007 miles
Days to complete: 2.5 (long waiting time for the reload)
Load: hoppers with scrap metal plus steel coils on the way back
Note: this is a 2-way trip that ends at the same place where it starts

PAY TO THE TRUCK: $1,934.95 (incl. fuel surcharge)

FIXED COSTS: $485.30

VARIABLE COSTS: $581.26
(Insurance (5.25% of freight): $77.76
Fuel at 6 MPG and $3/gal: $503.50)

TOTAL COSTS: $1066.56

GROSS PROFIT: $868.39
GROSS PROFIT PER DAY: $347.36

The round trip. Give dispatch a day or so to get ya another trip together, perhaps?

The Kentucky load....unless they could offer something significantly better!

Trip 2 would be more profitable unless you had a much better paying load that you would be picking up in Ohio.

Yeah, you can't really say, w/o knowing a "bigger picture". Otherwise #2 is no brainer.....

10/4 :) From Ohio I usually pick up some wire going back to Ontario .. It pays exactly the same as the load coming in but I have to deadhead almost 100 miles to get to the shipper.

I said "no" to Trip #2 and we have a specialized shipper that usually sends out some equipment at the end of the month. So, now I'm doing a 8,500 lb load that goes 900 miles into MN at 3 bucks per mile :) :)

You get to cross the border for free? Or is there tolls to consider also?

Based on what you've posted, it's hard to argue against the round trip, but.....

If it were me (i.e. a carrier booking my own loads), I would be making some calls to see what I could get from OH to ON. A carrier that I know quite well says OH to ON is paying well enough that he's heading down there empty. I know you're leased and therefore not available to book your own freight, but I bet $3/mile or better could be had out of OH and.....probably get 2-3 of those a week.

LOL. I read this after I posted.....sorta what I was thinkin' Good job.

All tolls are paid by the carrier - not me. We have special cards to cross bridges, such as the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia, ON and Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, ON.

3 bucks per mile out of Ohio? Wow ... my carrier always gives me cheap freight. Let me look up at some recent trips (I have 2 last pay slips in the backpack as I'm typing this).

Here's a typical one

Lorain OH to Delhi ON
Freight: $675
Fuel surcharge: $100

To the truck: $653.50 (82% of $675 + $100)
Total Mileage: 385
Deadhead: 85 mi (from N.Jackson, OH)
Loaded: 300 mi

My pay per mile: $1.70 :(

$3 per mile would be fantastic!

Sometimes I get a feeling they just don't want to look too hard. There's only 1 (one) planner in our Flatbed division and when he sends you the LOAD OFFER, that's it. You piss him off in a big way if you decline the offer, even though technically we don't have forced dispatch for owner-operators.

And that's why I've been thinking of going on my own. Something tells me I"d be really motivated to find specialty freight that fits my sliding tarp super-low stepdeck with 10 feet usable height inside. These guys just don't care ...

I don't know brutha. I haven't moved anything out of OH lately, but that's what he told me. DH from Belleville, ON to OH, loaded to London, ON then it was OH-LON-OH-LON etc for the week.