How do ya figure............. ?

[DannyD]

David's post got me thinking of a few things. Rather than hijacking his post I'm just starting another one.

Anyway, how do you personally determine what runs you'll take & what you'll decline? Include any factors that ya use. My criteria is something like this.

Being a local driver w/ most of my runs being 20-50 miles, I'll need 2-3 runs grouped together to make it profitable. EGL has a funky payscale so it's hard to put exact numbers to each run. As a rule though, living 80 miles from the warehouse I'm going to need 2-3 runs payin $40-50 each to make it worthwhile. Overall paid miles will come out to anywhere from .70/mile up to maybe $1.10/mile or so if I can get a 4th run in there somewhere.

On hotshots (runs over 90 miles that aren't to a zone) we get paid .90cpm +fsc. This isn't much in a lot of cases, but I have other criteria. If it's a run from up north Michigan to the Detroit area, I'll take it because I enjoy the drive up there & have no traffic to deal with. On a per mile basis this means I'm working for an overall .50 cents/mile but the "total money" for that day is usally pretty good & on a per/hour basis (due to very little sitting/waiting) sometimes comes out even better than the runs that pay well on the per mile basis.

Having said that things have been a bit slow these past few months. When I'm running I feel I'm doing ok. I'm not really interested in lowering my criteria to get more runs.

Take care,
Danny

 

[TJ959]

I haven't turned down much of anything for the past year unless I was too tired or the run was way way bad. The only one like that I remember was a run to Louisiana, 3-skids that would fill up my truck and make me fold my bunk up. It picked up on a friday night and unloaded at 10:00AM on monday. There was 60 miles deadhead and it paid 150 miles. I told them it would cost me less if I just flushed $200 down the john and stayed where I was. Usually I take almost any run even when it's a looser but the numbers are showing me that this is a mistake. I'm real interested in what others think on this issue, especially van guys. I was smarter about this when I was in the D truck.

 

[davekc]

Since you did well with the straight, I would use those same methods.
Know exactly what it costs per mile to run your van. That will aid in determining run selection and whether you will make anything. Also knowing your companies freight lanes ect have to be figured in.
As you found, just taking anything isn't usually a profitable venture.






Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[TJ959]

I've always known what it costs me to operate my vehicle whether it's by day or by mile but the problem is that vans are not in as high demand as the D trucks. So how many loads do you turn down before they stop asking you? Besides, the Sprinter doesn't even come close to being as expensive to operate as the old D truck so that figures in the mix too. The really bad part is that the freight lanes seem to be different for vans and they seem to move around more too. I've been in this Sprinter a year now and it's time to make some changes to become more profitable. I guess, no more mister nice guy.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

We're in a sprinter as well and been doing this "expeditin" for over 4 yrs now and same company. If ya keep your head out of company politics and just concentrate on the job at hand we make good money sooo nothing to complain about. You gotta know your pecking order out here, vanners I talk to don't like it but it's a fact of life, live with it.
Vans are at the bottom of the food chain. If thiers C's and D's around in a slow area they'll move them out with a B load instead of taking money out of thier pocket for a DH move. Shouldn't work that way but???It seems to, a D is worth alot more to the co. then a van. Vans are a dime a dozen.
A 60 mile DH is what 8 bucks for a Sprinter? You'll find, you'll have to move more often on your own dime, or as Dave would say be more "proactive", When we're moving on DH I do about 60 mph to get up to about 26mpg, I mean why speed? With 4 years at one company I know where the highest percentage of loads come from, advantage to me. If you move from company to company you'll never learn where to be and when. Learn that months like September is not only the end of the month it's the end of the fiscal 3rd quarter. Stay in service if you can...You have to think and plan. You got into this business to be independant...The company isn't going to lead you around by the nose. Be responsible for your own business.