Its been a while since the first time I started this blog I left one post and then disappeared for almost a year, well honestly I don't have much time to be around the computer while I grow 2 companies, one brokerage and one carrier with up to 30 trucks owner operated and company trucks as well.
A lot of things have changed since the time I wrote the first post, the dynamics of the business are completely different but the basics are the same, one year ago we were able to maintain an average of 1.90 to 2.50 a mile per truck with reefers, yes im talking about $25,000 dollars in 10,000 miles, we have even seen up to $27,000 per truck on rare cases, it was simple and very doable but unfortunately not anymore, a lot had happened since then.
Petroleum prices are in the bottom and the shippers lowered the prices so much that not even with diesel in the lowest lows trucks will see those profits again; the main problem its that the fuel prices should be correlated with the freight prices but unfortunately thats not true!! they are not !! freight prices have lowered so much that on average people is moving at an average of 1.80 a mile or less, I wish we could do 1.80 a mile every month!! plus the brokers think that small carriers are able to operate the trucks moving at 1.10 a mile, of course sometimes we have to take some crappy loads but out of 10 loads the crappy one needs to be only one in order to have a decent profit otherwise with all the expenses involved in running a truck or small fleet will destroy the company.
There are of course a lot of factors that affect the pricing on the shipment but I would say this is the main one, I've seen trucking companies closing down like never before, trucks are getting repossessed like never before and people is going bankrupt every day, the whole dynamics just changed. Right now this is rome and we are like gladiators fighting in the roman coliseum to get good prices and to keep operating, I bet most of us feel the same.
stay tuned I will be posting on a regular basis, in the next post I will explain how to get the cost of your truck per mile so you will know how much per mile your truck cost to operate so next time a cheap broker try to sell you a crappy load you will be able to renegotiate the prices, and overall thats something all carriers and owner operators should know.
