Dead Head Question

[carstea]

If a driver goes on the following travels...

Trip A

Drive 30 miles away from home to pick up a load (dead head)

Trip B

Drive 300 miles to deliver the load.

Trip C

After dropping off the load you drive 100 miles to pick up the next load (dead head)

Trip D

Drive 400 miles to deliver that load, and then

Trip E

drive another 200 miles back home (dead head)

For which of these trips would the driver be paid on a per mile basis? Is there any pay at all for dead head miles, and if so how much is the pay per mile for the dead head miles (approximately)? How much is the pay per mile for the "non dead head" miles (approximately)?

Thanks!

 

[RichM]

Well I can only speak for one company FDX CC,
Trip A = 0
Trip C= 0
Trip E = 0

FDX CC pays dh miles after you eat the first 100, so Trip A = o,Trip C
= 0.,They never pay dh miles to your home so if it is 100 or 1000 you absorb it. Other companies may pay differently.Loaded miles depends on many factors,the weight,the dimensions,any accesory charges such as an inside pickup/delivery ,haz/mat etc..When you are offered a load,think about the deadhead miles, the costs come out to the same as when you are loaded. Important thing is too where you are going.Your trip may look good up front but if it drops you off in the middle of nowhere,think about what it will cost you to get back to a decent area for your next load.

 

[mcbride]

Hi, I can speak for Con-Way Now.LOL

>Trip A
>Drive 30 miles away from home to pick up a load (dead head)
No

>Trip B
>Drive 300 miles to deliver the load.
No, if you picked up within 50 miles of where you delivered.

>Trip C
>After dropping off the load you drive 100 miles to pick up
>the next load (dead head)
Yes, .20 per mile after the first 50 miles of dead head.

>Trip D
>Drive 400 miles to deliver that load, and then
No, if you picked up within 50 miles of where you delivered.

>Trip E
>drive another 200 miles back home (dead head)

No, unless your home location is where they wanted you to go to layover for the next load.

Con-Way Now pays .20 per mile dead head (for their D units) after the first 50. Dead head pay is shown on your weekly settlements and not added to your next loads rate per mile as FedexCC does.

I may be wrong here but I believe that Tri-State pays .20 after the first 50 and their dead head pay is called bonus miles and is also credited to your settlements on a monthly basis.


mcbride-
--What goes around comes around--

 

[carstea]

Thanks for the information...very helpful. Now for a chance to show my real ignorance ) ... Would a straight truck be considered a D unit (does it have to be a certain length etc.?)?

Can you also tell me how many miles per gallon a straight truck would get?

Thanks for your help!

 

[carstea]

RichM

Thanks for your help. Each question I get answered I develop more knowledge of how all this works.

Thanks again, and I hope you have a great week!

 

[RichM]

There are 2 types of straight trucks commonly used in expediting, One is a C truck which must have as a minimum a 12 foot box and can carry 5,000 lbs. The next choice up is what is called a D unit,and have as a minimum a 20 foot box and be able to scale a load of 13,000 lbs. Most C! have a 14 foot box and most D!s have a 22 footbox.,Many D units get huge heavy sleepers and cannot scale 13,000 lbs with a single axle so they get a tag axle which can be lowered to carry the additional weight.

 

[ATeam]

Is deadhead a good thing or bad?

My wife and I consider deadhead a good thing. Without it, we’d almost never get a load. Wherever you are, you will almost always have to go someplace else to pick up your next load. Deadhead is what you do to get to the freight.

When we get a load offer, we immediately add the deadhead and loaded miles together and then compute the total pay per mile. We then use that number to decide whether or not the load is profitable. We once deadheaded 287 miles for a 5.5 mile load, because it was a money maker.

Load analysis is not that simple and straightforward. Rich’s point about ending up in a slow area is a good point indeed. The above-mentioned load marooned us in Las Vegas for two days (worse things have been known to happen!).

Fortunately, our next offer took us from Arizona to Pennsylvania. Of course to get that load, we had to deadhead a couple hundred miles to the pickup. The AZ to PA money was great and we gladly took the load. Had we put too much emphasis on deadhead and waited for a minimal deadhead load to come out of Las Vegas, we’d probably still be sitting there.

 

[davekc]

I had mentioned this in a earlier post. One must truely understand what it costs them per mile to run their truck. You can take this as a monthly or quarterly average. That will give you a basis in which to figure how much deadhead is enough. If you deadhead 3 0r 400 miles a week, you have to make sure you are generating enough through your runs to cover that cost.