Rate Question

AKA

Member
May 19, 2011
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Today, I try to get a load out of NY state to IL. Most of them offer me the price of $900 for 850 miles or $600 for 800 miles.

What is going on here? I am surprised.
 
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You may want to change your service lanes. Long weekends can change rates drastically though.
 
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US domestic rates are all over the place. I do believe some companies think that you should be paid whatever rate that seems to be going for owner-operators in the latest copy of truck driving job magazines. Swift Transportation pays o/o's $0.94 US per loaded mile, for instance and this seems to be comparable with other companies in the U.S. McLeod Express in Decatur IL pays $1.02 per mile US and services a huge swath of states that also includes NY and IL. Celadon promises $1.179 per mile US average but their base pay for o/o's is $0.90/mile. By comparison, Laidlaw's van division pays o/o's $1.16 per loaded mile and $1.14 per empty mile. There is no comparison when you calculate what rates should be in the U.S. versus what you usually get paid for the same miles to/from a Canadian market.

Barr-Nunn Transportation (love that name!) has the most interesting rate scale and, remember, a lot of U.S. fleets structure their rates by regions. Notice the difference between the pay for hazmat versus non-hazmat for owner-operators who live in the northeast:

Trucking Jobs with a Premier Trucking Company - Barr-Nunn

Of course, that's what you have to pay the TRUCK. YOU have to get paid too so bumping that rate up 20% or so will make sure the company makes something too. If anything, it gives you a basis to negotiate if the other guy doesn't want to pay you your rate - you know your bottom-end number too and work toward a middle kind of rate. If it's too cheap, just say no. They'll call back in 15 minutes lol ;) (they always do)
 
Is there any tools that I could check the rates by area?
 
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LOL...well, I only pointed out Laidlaw to draw a comparison between what U.S. carriers advertise as pay for their o/o's versus Canadian companies. I did mention in my post that there really is no comparison in what you'd expect to be a fair rate in the U.S. versus what we Canadians expect, which is what the original poster was confused about. I only expressed a general suggestion that if you knew your cost and wanted to mark it up, 20% isn't a bad number if you needed to get out of dodge, depending on the length of haul. I don't suggest Laidlaw works for the kind of rates that U.S. carriers do domestically.
 
Which service lane should I run to be profitable? Outbound loads from Canada is not too many out there. Thanks again for all your input.
 
One guy called me twice today and offered me $900 for Montreal to Ohio (700 miles). Advised me I could also get back to Montreal for $1300 - therefore it would be $2 a mile.

And he also did not understand why I did not want to take his offer which he thought was a "FANTASTIC" deal.
 
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Is it fair to get 2 dollar per mile , running from Montreal to Buffalo, NY ?
 
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Aka

I would not do it.

Unfortunatly nobody can really answer theses questions for you?

What you need to know is what your costs are and what the return load will pay you.
Once you have a complete idea of your revenue including your pick up and delivery costs, you can make that decision.

Secondly,
There is only so much time in a week. Certainly the revenue from this short round trip will not be enough to generate a profit as your break even point will be around 2500 miles for the week.

Hence, you need to plan another load for that truck.

It is much easier to run one long trip , than several short ones.

Anyway, The best of luck to you!!
 
Yes, Alx . I have been struggle about the price for a week. I think I could do a load for 2 dollar a mile. But I am still not sure about the market price about different area.

I was looking for the longer run lane for weeks, but there is not a lot loads available on Link for long runs. Those ones on Link for above 700 miles pays too less.

Moderator: Sorry to keeping you edit my post all the time for my mistakes. I do not speak English very well. I will read it twice before I post it. Thank you.
 
Aka

Your English is good enough for us to understand.

If you have only one truck and are trying to get started, may I suggest you find a good Carrier to sign on with.

There are plenty of smaller carriers that could accomodate you.

This is really not the time to try and get a company started. The trucking industry is still in shambles due to the recession.

The carriers that have survived this without the Govt's assistance or having filed chapter 11, are pretty tough.
Theses carriers have figured out ways to make things work. Certainly one of the factors of their success has been their ability to acquire and retain good outbound freight. Most will be unwilling to part with their outbound freight.
 
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Hi Alx:

What is chapter 11 you mentioned in your message? I have already started our business, so it will not be an option for me to go back. For the past of couple weeks, I think we are doing fine to cover our expenses. But I think it will be better if we could get something from a good broker.

Most important thing for me now is gaining my experiences in this business to be well prepared in the future. By the way, this forum is really helpful for me, I will definitely show my support to our forum.
 
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What is chapter 11 you mentioned in your message? I have already started our business, so it will not be an option for me to go back. For the past of couple weeks, I think we are doing fine to cover our expenses. But I think it will be better if we could get something from a good broker.

AKA,
To answer your question on Chapter 11, it is a type of bankruptcy filing in the US. Usually when a company cannot pay its debts, it asks the court to protect it from its creditors (meaning it doesn't have to pay any bills issued before the filing) to give itself time to offer the best compromise. If that compromise is better than the liquidated value of the company's assets, it is accepted by creditors, otherwise the Chapter 11 filing becomes a liquidation (Chapter 7 filing).

As far as your English is concerned, either the moderator is doing a great job correcting you, or your English is very good.
 
Chapter 11

This refers to bankrupcy protection.

I am sure there is a good reason for it somewhere or it would not exist. Thus far I have not been shown how this works to the benefit of the general public.

Chapter 11 allows a company to re structure and continue operating while forgiving some of it's debt.

What it really does is allow a competitor to not pay suppliers and then come back mostly debt free and compete againts you. While your costs have now risen because your suppliers ( usually the same as the culprit's ) had to raise their prices to balance out the bad debt.

The terminology is somewhat different in the USA and Canada with the same end result.