A really good question was raised by easyrider2697 in a topic entitled "How Low Will You Go?" Unfortunately, the thread went south and was locked. Patrick House presented a hypothetical situation:
"I know everyone situation is different, so the answers will vary on this, so please tell us the type unit you drive......no need for company you are leased on to that don't matter..........ok here are the events leading up to this.
1. You have already delivered into a slow area.
2. You have already been sitting for 2-3 days and no good load offer.
3. You are bored to death sitting not moving.
4. How cheap will you allow someone to load you unit?
"Now I know some will say you should have gotten more money to go in and then deadhead out.....others will say you should not have taken it....but all aside you have already done it now just waiting on th QC to ping and it not doing its thing and you have made your mind up to run a backhaul.....so whats your bottom dollar to run?"
Back on topic, my reply is:
If the freight does not come to us, we go to it. Our practice is to sit for up to 24 hours (give or take, depending on time of day) after a delivery. If an acceptable offer is not received in that time frame, we deadhead to a more promising express center (not always the closest express center).
That is not a hard and fast rule. If we can make productive use of the time (truck maintenance, business paperwork, sleep if needed), we may stay longer in the delivery area. But most of the time, we will move toward the freight. If we can get relocation help from our carrier, that is fine. If not, we deadhead anyway.
If there is a recreational or tourist reason to stay in the area, we pass it up until we know what our next-load schedule permits. Part of being in service and ready to run is being in service and ready to run. While waiting for freight, we stay close to the truck and ready to roll at a moment's notice.
We do not use third-party load boards or brokers to find freight. The downside of that is while we are on a cheap back-haul load, a very good load might pop up from our carrier that we would miss because cheap freight is already on the truck. As often as not, when we are deadheading to a better freight area, a good offer comes in.
Now for the ironic part. I write this as we are in service, ready to roll, waiting for freight with 28 hours of dwell time...sitting at home!
Home for us is in the Minneapolis express center, which is a very good express center. We have never waited more than a few hours to get a load after we have been home and gone back in service. But today, here we sit! Ha!
When we were first researching the industry, a number of experienced drivers said we would get bored with the work after the novelty wore off. While that may be true for some folks, it is not true for us. It's been four years now and every day feels fresh. You want to see bored? Look at us after we have been home for a few days. The truck is already clean. I'm starting to think about waxing the Webber grill.
The next-best express center is Chicago but I doubt we will go there. Minneapolis is very good. By the time we got to Chicago, a Minneapolis load would probably have popped up. Some neighbors are keeping their State Fair pig entry in the barn. Maybe I'll go make friends with it.
There is that stack of trucking magazines to go through that build up at home when we are gone. But golly, you can only take those in small doses. They read like a broken record....fuel prices, driver shortage, trucker of the month, manufacturer offers new product, hours of service, home time...yawn.
Dwell time now 29 hours....dum, dum, deedle, deedle, dum, dum, deedle....
"I know everyone situation is different, so the answers will vary on this, so please tell us the type unit you drive......no need for company you are leased on to that don't matter..........ok here are the events leading up to this.
1. You have already delivered into a slow area.
2. You have already been sitting for 2-3 days and no good load offer.
3. You are bored to death sitting not moving.
4. How cheap will you allow someone to load you unit?
"Now I know some will say you should have gotten more money to go in and then deadhead out.....others will say you should not have taken it....but all aside you have already done it now just waiting on th QC to ping and it not doing its thing and you have made your mind up to run a backhaul.....so whats your bottom dollar to run?"
Back on topic, my reply is:
If the freight does not come to us, we go to it. Our practice is to sit for up to 24 hours (give or take, depending on time of day) after a delivery. If an acceptable offer is not received in that time frame, we deadhead to a more promising express center (not always the closest express center).
That is not a hard and fast rule. If we can make productive use of the time (truck maintenance, business paperwork, sleep if needed), we may stay longer in the delivery area. But most of the time, we will move toward the freight. If we can get relocation help from our carrier, that is fine. If not, we deadhead anyway.
If there is a recreational or tourist reason to stay in the area, we pass it up until we know what our next-load schedule permits. Part of being in service and ready to run is being in service and ready to run. While waiting for freight, we stay close to the truck and ready to roll at a moment's notice.
We do not use third-party load boards or brokers to find freight. The downside of that is while we are on a cheap back-haul load, a very good load might pop up from our carrier that we would miss because cheap freight is already on the truck. As often as not, when we are deadheading to a better freight area, a good offer comes in.
Now for the ironic part. I write this as we are in service, ready to roll, waiting for freight with 28 hours of dwell time...sitting at home!
Home for us is in the Minneapolis express center, which is a very good express center. We have never waited more than a few hours to get a load after we have been home and gone back in service. But today, here we sit! Ha!
When we were first researching the industry, a number of experienced drivers said we would get bored with the work after the novelty wore off. While that may be true for some folks, it is not true for us. It's been four years now and every day feels fresh. You want to see bored? Look at us after we have been home for a few days. The truck is already clean. I'm starting to think about waxing the Webber grill.
The next-best express center is Chicago but I doubt we will go there. Minneapolis is very good. By the time we got to Chicago, a Minneapolis load would probably have popped up. Some neighbors are keeping their State Fair pig entry in the barn. Maybe I'll go make friends with it.
There is that stack of trucking magazines to go through that build up at home when we are gone. But golly, you can only take those in small doses. They read like a broken record....fuel prices, driver shortage, trucker of the month, manufacturer offers new product, hours of service, home time...yawn.
Dwell time now 29 hours....dum, dum, deedle, deedle, dum, dum, deedle....
