Fuel for Thought

How much do you need to haul this load?

Your cost per mile, if you have figured it, will tell you how much you need per mile to break even and make a profit. You may figure your expenses as per day pay, whatever your method is for figuring your expenses, you know, or should know, what you need to cover your costs to operate. There are many factors involved and each driver’s CPM is different. So now you have your numbers, you know what YOU need to run a load. Now the load offers come.

 You accept an offer that fits your needs, let’s say it is nice paying run to a good area, the shipper loads you promptly, the load is exactly what you were told it would be, even the drive is nice. Sunny day, light traffic. You arrive at the receiver, again no issues, they unload you in a timely manner. Sweet! Another nice run in the books and you were paid well.

 Now you find out that the sweet run you just completed, could have paid you more. The carrier or broker was charging the customer way more than you thought. No one lied to you, they just asked for your rate without telling you what they COULD pay. This is where some drivers get upset.

 Scenario : A load offer for 1000 mile trip paying $3.00 per mile. You take it and then find out customer was paying $6.00 per mile. Now you want a bigger piece of the pie? If the $3 per mile was good enough before, what has changed? If you found out the customer was only paying $3.05 per mile, would you give some back to the carrier/ broker, so they could make a little profit?

 If you are getting what you need to make YOUR profit margin, why get upset over the fact that you COULD have POSSIBLY got more? If the offer was “ Can you run this load for $4.50 per mile”, would you say “No, all I need is $3.00” ? Of course not, but don’t blame the carrier or broker if YOU didn’t ask upfront about the total charges or what they had to offer. And if you are not happy with the rate to begin with, do not accept it.

 When you accept a load that you are comfortable with and meets your needs, it really doesn’t matter what the carrier/ broker/agent’s profit is.

Know your worth, and the market.

No, this does not apply to everyone.

As a business owner, you have to ask the questions that need to be addressed to keep your business running. Also take into account who you are dealing with. Is this offer from a one time contact? Do you have a long history with this broker, agent or shipper?

Build your business relationships and while some issues will arise along the way, most can be resolved or not even be an issue to begin with, if you ask the proper questions.

As for the $6 per mile load, with good business relationships, it most likely would not have even been offered to you at $3.

See you down the road

Greg

Greed is not a financial issue. It's a heart issue.

- Andy Stanley