I agree with Turtle, but I think there are better opportunities out there....
There are better opportunities out there, for sure. But as a noob, getting a flat 38 cents per mile softens the learning curve a bit. Getting paid a percentage of the load, generally speaking, will pay you more in the long run. But at 38 cents a mile, if the load pays $1.20 to the truck, you're getting screwed on that load. If the load pays 80 cents to the truck, you come out way ahead. It evens out in the long run.
For Cost Per Mile purposes, I figure my own pay at 32 cents a mile. It's a little different because I own the truck, but in the end the Rule of Thirds still applies. But using 32 cents and including that in my overall CPM, I can quickly get a minimum rate per mile that I can run without losing money, For example, if my CPM is 45 cents and my pay is 32 cents, that's 77 cents per mile minimum. Anything less than 77 and it comes right out of my 32 cents. Anything more than 77 cents and it adds directly to my 32 cents. A dollar a mile is $1.00 - 45 = 65 cents per mile directly to me.
If you're on a 60/40 split, getting the 40, the same kind of thing still works. 38 cents, at 40 percent, means a minimum load pay of 95 cents to the truck. If the load pays 90 cents, you'll get 36 cents, and if the load pays $1.00 you'll get 40 cents. If you run for a carrier (or a bunch of brokers
) that routinely book loads of 95 cents or less, stick with the flat rate of 38 cents and you'll come out ahead. If it's a $1 or more, getting a percentage is better.
It's also not hard to see that owning your own van is vastly superior to splitting revenue with the fleet owner.
