Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/506679
Voices 6 | Overdrive | May 2015 There are brokers and agents out there posting loads at less than $0.88 per mile. We should force them to wear a giant red "A" on their shirts – and not as a symbol of their undying love for 'Bama or a reference to extramarital affairs. No, it's to call out the A-holes who continue to spout "cheap diesel" to sell their $0.88 loads. I don't know how anything ever gets out of Golden, Colo., a vortex of cheap loads. Don't be fooled by the great rate going in; you will be raped coming out with a load that requires you to wait 12 hours to load. The broker, meanwhile, is indignant. "Hey, a dollar a mile is a great rate! Diesel is cheap right now! Tell ya what – go ahead and take it, and we'll throw in a banana for your monkey! I'm feeling generous!" No. Way. FMCSA should implement a rule that says if anyone uses the "diesel is cheap" argument, they are rendered a swift and bru- tal throat punch. OK, that may be extreme. They can have to the count of three to run before the swift and brutal throat punch because I'm a fair person. These people can let me know when all this cheap diesel changes the cost of having our truck worked on, or putting new tires on it, or paying the ungodly tolls that just keep getting higher and higher, or putting groceries in it – and us. Let me know when having to factor in half the fuel surcharge we were getting six months ago "helps" my budget. Oh yeah – you also can let me know where I'm going to come up with the increase in all the insurance premiums. Or how I'm supposed to keep up with the sky- rocketing cost of health care, which we now are forced to pay for because we're small business owners who own virtually nothing, and we take it in the nuts harder than anyone. When you can equate cheap diesel to these things, you're allowed to say it. Until then, I hereby impose the throat punch rule. You've been warned. Colorado outbound rates Source: Truckstop.com paid rates on loads booked via the load board 2012 2013 2014 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 VAN FLAT REEFER $1.62 $1.79 $1.80 $1.54 $1.86 $1.84 $1.87 $1.93 $2.04 'Cheap diesel' makes my eye twitch Wendy Parker chronicles her journey on the road with her owner-operator husband, George, in the George and Wendy Show blog on OverdriveOnline.com. Scan the QR to read more from her on your phone or tablet. For all segments, the average rate on loads outbound from Colorado has been among the bottom 10 among all states 2012-14. For more on states with the lowest rates, search "Rates hall of shame" at OverdriveOnline.com. It was 10 o'clock, and I was right on time at the T-Junction Truck Stop in Imperial, Neb. I'd been sent there to meet two other cow truck drivers. I didn't know the name of the ranch where we were headed to load cattle. "Just follow them out," my boss said. However, the parking lot was empty. The cashier inside told me that those " You have to tell the brokers not every trip is a backhaul, and ask them if they would do their business for a loss. Before I haul to Denver, I make sure I have something out at a rate of better than $2-$2.50. … There are so many brokers, they are undercutting themselves and in turn creating a seemingly low-cost rate for the shippers. " — Commenter posting as Jim, via OverdriveOnline.com " If we stop hauling all the stuff that is below published and recorded rates, all of it has to come up. Stop being your broker's friend. We are here for business, not selling yourself short to keep an account. " — William McKelvie, via OverdriveOnline.com Lacking directions, new guy passes the test