Why Do Truckers Haul Cheap Freight? Is Everyone Just Clueless? 

I decided to deadhead from Orlando to my home in Texas 900 miles just wasn't going haul cheap freight and make nothing I can go home empty cheaper

IRS the only one NOT EVER taking a loss

I grew up in California, it was possible to pay a mortgage on a home mowing lawns for a living. Eventually Mass migration made that not possible

Illegal b1 visa drivers from Mexico so able to take cheap freight or big companies that are taking any rate knowing they are not paying back their liabilities

Trucks are not making any $. any repairs takes all back and then some, and the fact is the rates are out dated . These are 1990s rates with 2025 cost of operations.

I used to really get agitated when I heard someone say they were doing a back haul (for a low rate) to get back to their primary load or to get home or whatever. There is NO SUCH THING AS A BACK HAUL! You should make a profit no matter which way you are going. Cash flow is definitely important but you shouldn’t be in this business as a business, without sufficient capital to go two months or more without revenue. You need a reserve for unexpected breakdowns, driver down time, late paying customers, etc. Everybody’s cpm might be different but CHEAP FREIGHT is recognizable to most with a H.S. Diploma! Bottom line, unless we have a major change in government leadership the only thing to make trucking profitable (on a temporary basis) is a bloodbath (meaning a mass exodus of carriers/drivers that are hanging on by a thread). There is over capacity! Demand is low, capacity is high. Hauling at a loss to get to a “better area “ is a slow bleed that ends the same way. Prolonging the inevitable!!

Simply to many trucks and not enough freight! Competition is fierce which drive prices down! Everybody situation is different. Some people have the luxury to sit out and wait for rates to increase and others have no choice but to run at the minimum. We do have other factors that drive price down such as immigrants, new inexperienced trucking companies and more.

You just missed the most important thing in the ecuation when refering to “ need to move all the time to generate cash flow and daily revenue, no matter the rate and the where rhe load is going to”.Or the guys taking cheap loads at any rates just to keep the head above the water and pay the due bills.And that important thing is ( don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out)-the more miles you make, the more chances you have to break down, put wear in tires, brakes,shocks,engine, transmission, etc. You may make 4K a month running endless miles, pulling 45K lbs all the time, but what it takes it’s a transmission, engine or rear end failure and you are done. That 5K bucks you just made are not going to be enough to fix it and, anyway, that money supposed to go to bills, right, not repairs. That “ thin line” you’re talking about is the one between making little money or going bankrupt from a major breakdown. Heaven and hell, sometime in the same day.With the huge prices we have ariund is wise to preserve the life and shape of your equipment. This is not the time to get burried in repair bills. Huge bills you don’t have money to pay anyway.Most of the “ one truck carriers” go out of business not because they can’t pay the bills, because they don’t have money to fix and mantain equipment.This is the truth.Making the payment in time on rhat truck is not important.,few days later is ok…but breaking down in the middle of nowhere with no money in your pocket-you are done, no matter you just ready to make 7K in a load going to Oregon.That truck is not moving anymore and, instead of having a “ steady cash flow” you may end up having nothing.One way or the other, the cowboys running wild for 1 buck a mile are going to pay the price. Not if but when.Sooner then you think.Seems like everybody forgot that trucking is one of the most expensive( in terms of spending) businesses to be in. In this line of work you need to invest money in order to make money. This is not computer work shere you invest one time 10K bucks in few computers and starting collecting money after. Trucking is a costly business where you need to pump big money, all the time, in order to keep the business alive and make profit. The day you stop investing in equipment is the beginning of the end for you.And that brings us to the “ old conclusion” everyone knows but few obey- “ Instead of working for nothing, I better do nothing”. At least, in trucking, doing nothing don’t cost money, but working for nothing does…

Same for company drivers, if company drivers knew they were really making about $13 an hour working 80 hours per week they’d probably look for better jobs.

Drivers who hauling cheap freight don't live in this country, just work here. They work here on 1099 send all money back to the country they come from. If they make $500 a week , there is a lot of money in there country. So if the load pays almost nothing, they still making money.

When brokers post 500 miles for e.g., literally it would be 530-545 miles on a truck route; brokers calculate by google car map not truck route map. Supposedly, if you are taking $2 per mile rate, you are creamed off 60-100$ right at the beginning.

Because when you say NO to cheap freight, other 100 drivers behind you say YES we don’t have choice.

And because we hate ourselves

I will say that the majority of Owner operator's today, do not know their numbers at all and are simply living week to week. If someone in their life would actually sit down with them and figure out their numbers, they automatically would run smarter as they would know their cost per mile down to the penny. If your running a 1 truck operation without knowing your numbers, you are a fool at best! I hate the term "cheap freight" as everyone's CPM is different. A paid for truck and trailer vs a non paid for truck and trailer is a big difference. Ones cost for Insurance can be way higher than another's and so on. I get what your saying and I love that your saying it, just want to make sure everyone understands that one persons freight rate vs another does not always mean "cheap".

Hello 🌺 I liked this video very much Keep making more videos like this I love it. By the way, if you pay a little attention to video editing i.e. insert B-roll properly then it will be very easy to understand the topic.

There’s so many factors to this B1 drivers have destroyed the Texas Market Cubans have control over Florida At the end of the day you have to come to terms that it will never change and adjust your business strategy Brokers and customers know the game and know what areas are the weak points This industry is not for the weak hearted Go out and chase your own customers or be at the brokers and markets mercy. If you can’t even have at least a decent customer for your place of origin you really need to rethink how you are doing things Owner op or Fleet owner

I started hauling load under my own authority in 2008 after the another collapse in the market. The best i ever did in trucking was dedicated . After that i brokered all my loads for 5 years till 2013. Understand why rejections loads exist. Horror getting back. Love your presentations. 6 thumbs up. Politics has dominated our decline lawlessly . No chart to the future . Need a new administration {for the people : republic not for the politicians. Other wise less growth more poverty and more of your shows! Go lady trucker broaker

Great video Miranda, good job,

My dad is working under CH Robinson. He’s trying to get maturity in his Authority, but I’ve been telling him if he keeps taking their dirt cheap loads, it will catch up to him before he has enough maturity and leverage to bid loads on the DAT board. He keeps coping and I just feel so bad because I am certain that the hatchet will come down before he can become profitable.

Thanks for your work and advice you do a good job

Thanks for your insights. Preciate ya!

Excellent point!!

Because they don't know what their operating cost is

Many foreign driver have no capitol equipment expenses and can run at these rates

I know Mexicans that run with no insurance, pump red diesel, don't pay ifta, skip the scales, n the list keeps going 🤦

Love those brokers that say "we've been moving these for x". Affirming that other trucks have done it so you can too. Nobody ever stops to think, If you have a list of trucks that have done it before then why not call them again? This is even more common in OS/OW where the risks and likelyhood of screwing up the prices are the most damning. BROKERS DO NOT SET RATES! Ultimately it's the truckers fault for not knowing their own business/value. So all you can do is hope those bottom feeders learn fast (unlikely) or fail so spectacularly that nobody wants to fill their space. Another massive and common syphon for your profit is factoring. 3 or so % of your rev is a lot but it's an insane amount of your profit considering how high expenses are. At 25cpm profit, 3% of gross can translate to 25% or more of your actual profit, largely because you need the money tomorrow. If that's the case then the Unfortunate truth is that you're almost certain to fail. You just haven't maxed out your bailouts like credit cards/lines of credit yet. If you operate at less than 25cpm profit then you simply can't afford to pay that much to have your money tomorrow and if you profit over 25cpm then you probably shouldn't need your money tomorrow.

Too many people out here frantic to book either a day or 2 early or as soon as they get empty. My partner and I go round and round about this. He starts calling at around 10am "have you booked anything yet!!" Makes me crazy. I book the same way for every load in a lot of markets, not all, but it works out most places I run. I don't even look at loads until after about noon. These brokers are posting lots of loads that don't even have to move that day. That's why we're seeing so many loads with too much time on em, drop trailer loads etc. They've figured out that they can book for a cheaper rate that way. If you watch the boards and have a little patience there will be loads that the rate is increasing throughout the morning. Those are the ones that have to move that day. It's tricky because once so many loads are booked you'll see them dropping rates in the late afternoon when the amnt of available loads gets low. Sweet spot seems to be between 11:30a-2:00pm for me. Truckers really need to get out of that "if the wheels are turning I'm making money" mindset. A little patience and sticking to your rate goes a long way. Let the newbies, foreigners & morons fight to book the cheap loads 1st thing in the morning. Just makes it easier for me to find a better rate after all the garbage is gone. Just my opinion and the strategy is always changing in this terrible market, but it's working out for me here lately.

PSA: Low Rates are putting REPAIRS on the Back-Burner, thus putting the PUBLIC SAFETY AT RISK !, Bad Steers, you name it !

_The low rates are definitely a big problem. The best thing that you can have in your pocket at this point is to have a completely paid off truck along with a couple of months advance on the insurance, but if you have a overhead on personal finances, then that will also be another problem for you, the economy is beginning to shrink the market to very small trucking companies. The best thing that you can do is avoid purchasing multiple trucks._

_Too many foreigners, the value of the dollar is higher in those countries_

I like trucking, as an activity and have my authority since 2013. Also work at a bank. After talking to a lot of truckers and seen how they carry themselves, no wonder truckers are being screwed. Why, because truck drivers do not think, or do not know how to. No one in their right mind should earn less than at least $40 PH plus overtime after 8hours and also layover fees equal to a full working day.

They literally can't do math.

This has always been and will continue to be a phenomenon. It is true that besides all things in this chat no one is united because if you have unity and one mind in the trucking business and simply STOP taking cheap freight things might even out. The same could be said with rent if we have a unified plan and everyone agrees you will see the light of day

BINGO, you just nailed the issue that put me out the utilization was completely intolerable, but that did come from the overall market conditions and the fact I was bull headed about wearing out my equipment and myself for too little income!

Because I have to keep drivers busy. That's my best guess

There are between a quarter and half million too many trucks on the road. Freight will be a buck a mile soon.

🙏👍

Yes, it bites them in the butt and also everyone else who is trying to run profitably…🤦‍♂️

Taking cheap freight is either greed or desperation Either way it will end up desperation Not casting stones , my loaders do it also and lately I think it has turned to desperation for them and now will reroute before they pull me with them Any way good evening everyone and thanks teach

One should know , a few steps ahead , of what kind of area you’re landing in. Anticipate realistically . You aren’t always going to get the rate you’d like and geographically you may never change that by waiting around. Time can become your enemy real quick waiting for the “unicorn”. However, there are other intangibles that go with a “mediocre” load which can tell a different story. A load that lacks rate can be profitable. Maybe it is light? You’ll make it up on the fuel mileage. If you keep your foot out of it! Maybe the customer is quick ? Or. , maybe the terrain is super favorable and flat! More fuel incentive…Maybe the pickup time and or delivery time sets you up perfectly for the next load , which happens to be spectacular ! Also, do the math on not just one load but the loads prior and the ones you anticipate getting (realistically). Then, see where you are. Round trip/multi-load calculations can really make a load that seems like mush at first , look like a pivotal puzzle piece to a great week!

I am parked right now. I been parked for about 2 years now. I got COVID bad.... My minimum was 1500.00 per day.... Now at the sometime my truck only needed $500 per day to be ok... When you take a load going 400 miles and paying $800.00. you are not making good money.

Lets not forget the people with the new trucks that get a solid 8.5 mpg between 55 and 85 mph that have decided to pass the money they could have made on fuel over to the broker and or the shipper. If I got 8.5 I would have just saved that extra money for something that maybe I could enjoy or use it to buy a chance at not slaving to the grind for jack shit while all my friends enjoy their life.

You are absolutely correct in all aspects, i had a conversation with my insurance agent yesterday as i paid mine late. Things are close to getting real bad fast as he told me many carriers are paying late now.

You have a big percentage of these drivers buying these old ass trucks with these beaten down old trailers cost nothing to run and believe me they can survive on the loads paying a 1.00-1.50mile. As long as the truck is moving is there main concern..,

If you're being affected by low rates that means you're in the wrong line of trucking..I deliver cabinets and furniture. Make 70 cpm, $40 per stop. I make $2k every week. If you're not happy with the rates then go find where the money is being paid.

You can’t say NO when you don’t have your own customers! This is not rocket science!

you bring up an interesting point about the daily rate which is something we always watched in our fleet. The thing you didn’t mention is the average truck between repairs, drivers home time and all sorts of other issues only works about 200 days a year so when you’re calculating your daily rate, you need to bear in mind that it doesn’t work every day

It’s no secret, national average cost per mile is 2.25. Why are brokers paying any less? Shippers are screwing brokers and carriers

They do it to get fixed expenses something. Being a fool that they will go under just a little later.

Because they have bills to pay and a one truck company has lower overhead costs than most others

YOU KNOW YOU HAUL CHEAP FREIGHT! I've been home since January.. keep hauling that cheap freight

I try to keep my dry van rates around $2.00 mile. I am stuck. If I park my truck and take a company job , almost half my pay will go to truck payment and insurance, can’t sell my truck without taking a good size loss. I can forfeit the truck to the lender and trash my credit, or I can keep running to pay the bills. My Cost per mile is around 1.30 a mile depending on how many miles I run a month. So I’m just trying to make it through this and hopefully come out the other side. If I was having to pay a driver I would be out of business.

Too many people from India, Arabs, Serbians / Russians, Africans, Canadians, and Mexicans !

Because some drivers don’t have dignity and balls to say NO …… Why because they are broke and not ready for this hard times period.

I know this has nothing to do with the video but I just want to say this don't haul for flock freight, in the middle of the trip they changed the rate con to almost half of the original agreed one when I booked it. a bunch of scammers out there be careful

You still got those yt and fb trucking gurus lying to these folk suckering them into the trucking game but right into the fleece program.

Heyyy thanks LEETSS GOOOO

I would love to see more comments from people taking these cheap freight. I guess because they know there options are as stupid as they are.

Foreign folks freshly recruited by US trucking companies and via trickle down effect the US government (driver shortage) are very willing to accept less than US/North American living standards (they are not used to such "lavishness") therefore are grateful for "cheap rates"! Just multiply that by say 500k and you have constant cheap rates. Win win for everyone except US drivers.

With does 3 factor $1000.00 a day is the answer.

There alot of punjabis they taking chep leads every single day 😂

Each truck should gross $36k per month

84 cent when l started, then came lil' bushee.

Literally going through variable costs, and fixed costs in Economics for Managers online with Harvard. Your situation is a lot to take in for a newbie but if I had to guess your fixed are less than variable because there is so much competition. And they say in a price war you can go as low as your variable and still breakeven if any of this makes sense. I remember trying to find the perfect metric for investing in the perfect stock and met a lot of frustration. Who knows if I would've kept searching...I think business is a lot like investing. Good luck. High fixed would act as a barrier to entry

Kicking 🦵 butt in the Midwestern 2000 dam near last week and I’m regional!!!😅😂😂😢

Why? Well, because cheap freight is all we have. There is no good rates anymore. If someone knows of a place with good rates. Please let all of us know. So we all go and bring the rates down for ya.

The dot owner deduct 10% they don't care about the owner operator !!!!sometimes they load him 44,000 or more!!!!!

There is also fear of missing out which causes panic booking

For me, I do not to take the cheapest loads. I look for the best paying loads on the board. But yes, I have bills to pay and if I can make a few dollars , it's better than nothing. It's a pretty sad situation, really! If things don't turn around by 2025, I will be another one on the list of truckers gone.

Hate to say it but it’s foreigners who take the cheap freight mostly

I’m currently a company driver and make decent money every week, but I want to become an O/O. Would it be wise to stay as a company driver and learn more about the trucking industry before starting my own company?

It's getting busy. Memorial day short week plus 4th of July coming up. Bid high on freight.

Had this experience last week in NC every load was paying 600 to 700 round 2-2.5 miles. Loads were getting cover fast.

Miranda, would you mind to share what you believe is your minimum RPM at this time?

I have customers all the time saying this to me. "What, you don't want to make money?" I tell them I guess they have no idea what all is involved. One customer lately told me he'd do it himself. He kept calling me and asking how to do things. I told him to figure it out since he's doing it. He kept hitting roadblocks. Two weeks went by. Now he comes back and says, "I guess I'll just have you do it for what you said it would cost." I told him I'm not trying to bend anyone over, but I'm being bent over all the time. No one knows what all is involved or what all the regulations affect unless you do it. I have a friend who trains companies how to use their software. Her pay keeps getting decreased. The companies are trying to get new hires inside to train their own people. So they are doing away with experience and hiring inexperienced people. We went from being great and flourishing to going broke. Thanks joe.

I’ve been noticing a lot of Foreigners buying New To them Used Trucks in this Stellar Market 😂

Don't want to pay the truckers for there hard work.

Miranda❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Our Flatbed short haul avg rpm about 10$. Contract though. But we deadhead back to our pick up location. And we still struggle with expenses.

Some carriers are clueless, shady brokers, double, triple even quadruple brokering, dispatching companies with carrier MC acting as brokers, reselling loads,even though there is a law that prohibits this, it is not inforced.

I heard from some load boards are only for back hauls just to cover fuel. I don’t believe any one of them. I think it was a joke and all they haul is back hauls.

Drivers if you want to be successful when you’re booking a load you need need need to know your expenses. Hopefully you thought of this before you started your company. If you haven’t, I don’t think you’re gonna make it. But maybe you get lucky. But you need to know where you’re going. Are there tolls along that route? How much is fuel in the area that you’re delivering into? Can you get fuel cheaper before you get there and have enough to get out? Are there tolls along that route? Are there any shops nearby in case you have a breakdown? Do you need to pay for parking? How about lumpers is the Broker going to take care of it? And then you have your expenses how much are you paying on your truck your trailer the insurance? Figure out your expenses in the first two months. Take all of your payments on your equipment. Add in your tolls your fuel pretty much everything for each month. Then divide that by 10,000 miles. That’s how much you need to make per mile to break even. Anything more than that is your paycheck… I hope this helps. I’m just another truck driver just like you.

Sometimes it’s just to stop the bleeding so we can hopefully make it long enough to get to an economic turnaround.

I’m seeing trucks 🛻 broke down all over the place lately and it’s increasing plus there’s semi broke down at the truck 🛻 stops and left 😮 and man 🧍‍♂️ have there been a spike in roll overs!!! It’s already coming to bike many in the ass!!!😅

An 8 min video with “Cheap Freight” in the title yet NO definition of “Cheap Freight”.

Dispatchers who get paid flat rate and shuffling this crazy cheap loads up our throats.i fight with my dispatch all the time and he keeps saying would you rather just sit.hell yes i will sit for a week

This is an excellent question. Trucking is a service, and when there are times when your service is not required, your business expenses must be as low as possible. Some business owners create too many expenses just from owning one truck, having a truck, trailer, and pickup payment, plus insurance will have owner operators desperate for any cheap runs to cover these monthly payments and the brokers know who they are lol. Oh, you dont live in your truck, and you own or rent. Add that expense.

Can we get video about how to apply CA , MCP and EPN in California. I try to get your video about these however, I can’t get it.

I get what everyone is saying but stop wasting your time and breath. Think about what your saying if a guy is goin under it means he cant afford to sit it out and if hes gonna go out of business why on earth would he give a shit about what else is happening he dont care about your problems hes got enough of his own with out listening to everyone else who thought trucking was a great way to make a living.

idk if you heard of HF Transit but theyve been getting me really good loads

Trucking is no different than any other business. You have to know what it cost each and every day to be in business and then you break that down to how much money you need per mile it was like when I was welding for myself as a rig welder I need it to make so much per hour in order to pay my bills, then I have to pay myself so that’s on top of that. That’s how you have to run a business and if you run it by the seat of your pants you’re not gonna be around long.

We need some Trucking influencers to get the word out. $5 a mile out a good area minimum and $2 a mile minimum out of bad for Reefers. If you don't want to wait then leave but don't take less than $2 out bad area. I'm a reefer driver so I feel this would work. We need an appthat can keep us as first in the area first to load. The truckers app not DAT of other broker apps.

Mismanagement and financing everything

I do dry van. I refuse to take anything under $3 a mile when leaving home. Once I'm on the road I'll take a little less but absolutely nothing under $2 a mile. I'll deadhead back home before I pull something cheap.

There's no such thing as CHEAP freight. It's mostly CAPACITY, ex. 9 loads. 16 truck's in the Area. There's contract freight and there's spot market freight. There's more demand for loads than there's load's. Although there's many variables to consider. Also trucking has a low profit margin overall. Keep in mind this is a free enterprise, its competitive, its business. Keep your cost low in every way you can.

How can you run a business but not have your own customers?

I knew the market had dropped when I saw CRST hauling cardboard. Oakland Ca. 5/22/24

Your too attractive for me…can’t take ya seriously ❤

Literally, this is how a market economy works. People keep saying, "If only everyone stops taking cheap freight, the market will get better." No no no this is wrong. Let's say, for example, that all truckers agreed that nobody was allowed to take freight under "x" amount of dollars. Sounds cool, but who gets the freight? Is it up to the brokers to decide which driver gets that load? That doesn't matter because that's not the case. The case is that the only competitive advantage some drivers have is the willingness to haul freight for cheap. The only way the problem gets solved is that capacity keeps leaving the market. Until then, it's cheap freight for everyone. Any solution that requires human nature to change is not a solution. It may sound counterintuitive, but I think that those of us who can should keep taking cheap freight and those who can't compete then will eventually leave. That's literally the only solution I see.

I've personally told brokers to kick rocks. I'd rather spend 140 bucks in fuel to deadhead out of Florida than haul some cheap heavy crap out of there