your right...if one waits for 100 hours for a load and then runs a $700.00 load...it equates to $7.00 an hour plus we spent over 4 days waiting and eating and burning fuel of some sort to stay warm....then minus the fuel to run said load..and then the van payment PLUS any repairs and then the oil changes....Just HOW do we make money??
Probably down to $4.00 an hour plus tips!!!
The true formula for making money in a van is to have a company that is smaller. A company that can provide you with round trip freight. I worked for Arrow Freight Systems out of Ypsilanti Michigan for 6 months and did pretty well. I would begin my week in the Detroit metro area and 8 out of 10 weeks I'd finish my week in the Detroit metro area with around 600 dollars in my pocket after fuel and expenses.
This is an excellent paradigm for making money as a cargo van driver if you meet the following criteria. First off, you must have a place of residence in the Detroit metro area where you can sit and wait for your "starter load" the load that propels you out onto the road at the beginning of each week. Secondly, you need to have a cargo van that is already paid for "in cash" so that your operating expenses are low to moderate.
This was not a good model for me in the long run simply because I had a 500 dollar a month van payment, I did not have a place to stay in detroit (thus I spent all my money idling away my precious fuel at the detroiter) and I was 2000 miles away from home. That gets old after i'd say about "16 months!" But I had a very experienced friend who had been with this particular outfit for 10 years and he was getting by just fine.
The main reason why the miles were steady with Arrow Freight Systems is because the rates were lower than most of the larger expedited carriers. But, on the other hand there were absolutely zero deductions coming out of my paycheck; not even personal injury insurance. There were no qc fees, no sign on fees, no early termination fees, and I was paid 1 week from the day that my bill of ladings were turned into the home office. The only fixed expense that I had with Arrow was my bobtail insurance and cell phone note. This made the 70 to 75 and the occasional 80 cpm load a bit more bearable. So, in essence I traded rate per mile for steady income.
Other companies would tell a driver to get out of the Detroit area because there are too many cargo vans sitting around there. But, Arrow would have me out of detroit the same day I deliverd a load. My typical week would go as follows. Pick up in Detroit and deliver to Mossville MD or Kansas City Assembly (usually with two loads) and wait there a day or two and get another run right back to detroit. So I was always getting around 550 dollars to do 700 miles around two times a week "with an occasional double load" which netted me about 600-700 a week. I only once had to deadhead out of Maryland because NLM messed up and awarded a load that my company had won the bid on to another carrier.
Now I was their highest grossing driver. There were weeks when I made more than 600 take home because I did not live in Detroit and I was available to run during the weekends. So my week would go as follows, Detroit to Kansas City Assembly to Belvidere Asselbly in Illinois back to Detroit on a friday and loaded up with a load going to Mossville MD for monday morning delivery. That is a total gross of about 2100 miles at 75 cents per mile which is not too shabby if you are always busy. So, you can make the cargo van gig work with the right company, provided that you meet the criteria that I have listed in the above post, and provided you live in or near a good freight lane. Good luck my friend.
