Deadhead question
- Thread starter tknight
- Start date
I don't know that being solo or team matters. Deadhead is deadhead.
When considering a load, Diane and I do not think about percentage of deadhead. We think about total miles (unloaded + loaded) and total pay for the run. It would not matter if the run was 10 percent empty and 90 percent loaded, or 90 percent empty and 10 percent loaded.
Say it is a 1,000 mile run with 100 miles deadhead to the pick up included in that 1,000 miles. If the load paid $1,500, that works out to $1.50 per mile for all miles. How many of those 1,000 miles were loaded or empty does not matter. It only matters how much the run pays and how far you drive.
Note also that many deadhead miles happen that are not related to runs at all. You deliver a load and then drive 25 miles to the truck stop for fuel. That's 25 miles deadhead. A week later, you decide to head home on Friday instead of staying out. That might give you 275 miles more. Incidental driving you do may give you another 100 deadhead miles without seeming like deadhead at all.
It all counts.
By way of example, we did a load a few weeks ago that was exactly 50 percent deadhead. The delivery was in the town we happened to be sitting in at the time. The pick up was 650 miles away. That meant we deadheaded 650 miles to the pick up and drove loaded 650 miles back to make the delivery. Total miles were 1,300. Total pay was $3,250. That worked out to $2.50 per mile, all miles.
Would you have turned down a load like that because it had 50 percent deadhead? That woud not be wise.
Again, percentage of empty or loaded miles do not matter. What matters is the number of miles driven and the number of dollars paid.
When considering a load, Diane and I do not think about percentage of deadhead. We think about total miles (unloaded + loaded) and total pay for the run. It would not matter if the run was 10 percent empty and 90 percent loaded, or 90 percent empty and 10 percent loaded.
Say it is a 1,000 mile run with 100 miles deadhead to the pick up included in that 1,000 miles. If the load paid $1,500, that works out to $1.50 per mile for all miles. How many of those 1,000 miles were loaded or empty does not matter. It only matters how much the run pays and how far you drive.
Note also that many deadhead miles happen that are not related to runs at all. You deliver a load and then drive 25 miles to the truck stop for fuel. That's 25 miles deadhead. A week later, you decide to head home on Friday instead of staying out. That might give you 275 miles more. Incidental driving you do may give you another 100 deadhead miles without seeming like deadhead at all.
It all counts.
By way of example, we did a load a few weeks ago that was exactly 50 percent deadhead. The delivery was in the town we happened to be sitting in at the time. The pick up was 650 miles away. That meant we deadheaded 650 miles to the pick up and drove loaded 650 miles back to make the delivery. Total miles were 1,300. Total pay was $3,250. That worked out to $2.50 per mile, all miles.
Would you have turned down a load like that because it had 50 percent deadhead? That woud not be wise.
Again, percentage of empty or loaded miles do not matter. What matters is the number of miles driven and the number of dollars paid.
Last edited:
In your example the rate is $1.53 for all miles which would be acceptable for our operation. You have to determine what rate you can run for. Please remember deadhead miles cost the same to run as loaded miles so all miles you run have to be divided into your rate to obtain your rate per mile.
Humble2drive
Expert Expediter
What A-Team said with some thought given to cancellations.
We have had friends drive many miles to a remote location to pu and only have it cancel when they got there.
Keep the actual pu location in mind and have a back up plan. This became a problem with the Fed at one point as their sales people were eagerly booking uncommitted shippers.
Granted this is rare but we keep all downside possibilities in mind when evaluating a run.
We have had friends drive many miles to a remote location to pu and only have it cancel when they got there.
Keep the actual pu location in mind and have a back up plan. This became a problem with the Fed at one point as their sales people were eagerly booking uncommitted shippers.
Granted this is rare but we keep all downside possibilities in mind when evaluating a run.
Deadhead, loaded, line haul, FSC, etc. don't matter. Who cares what's called what as long as the total $ and total miles work out. As long as it's guaranteed they can call any of it anything they want to call it. I had one job that had approximately 5,200% deadhead. It was 26 miles to do a half mile run that actually turned out to be about 200 yards loaded. Don't focus too much on labels or percentages, just mostly on the bottom line.
Last edited:
zorry
Veteran Expediter
Who would pay it ? Evidently that shipper and many others.
Those are the kind of rates that are NEEDED if you drop $250,000 into a TVal truck.
A fully qualified TVal team, able to do special security things,shouldn't be running cheaper than that.
It was not Christmas Day, it was a team at Landstar, fully credentialed, fully equipped, who have learned where the good freight can be found, what agents dispatch it, and have earned the trust of those agents.
Establishing ourselves within the Landstar system worked out partly the way we expected when we first started but in another way that surprised us.
Expected was a positive agent response as we introduced ourselves, successfully covered loads for them, and they got to know us as the professionals we are.
Unexpected was how agents from sister companies, agents we have never contacted or heard of before, would call us out of the blue with the occasional awesome load. They called us because they had a special need for a reefer truck or a credentialed team or a liftgate; a need that they could not fill with the trucks and drivers they normally deal with.
Sensing that there may be more such loads from such sources, we cultivate those agent relationships too. Such an agent may only use us once a year, but as the number of them grows in our database, the number of such loads grows too.
We have visited with a number of Landstar Express America BCO's (contractors) since starting with the company in 2011. It is interesting to discover that the number of agents they deal with is almost always less than half of the number we have come to know and have hauled loads for. Many BCO's work with less than 1/3 or even 1/4 of the number of agents we work with.
These agents are great to work with. They tell you what they need. They tell you who their customers are and what loads need to be covered and when. They tell when they don't need you. They tell you how to best communicate with them and how to not make yourself a pest.
Our approach at Landstar: Find the agents who have the best freight (and as often, let them find you) and give them what they want.
Last edited:
Doggie Daddy
Veteran Expediter
There are lots of loads out there paying this kind of money.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using EO Forums
Doggie Daddy
Veteran Expediter
We've hauled a couple of loads that paid over $60.00 / loaded mile. Course, they were only 10 miles long
We just look at total pay / total miles, with an eye towards where the pickup is. More likely to say yes to a load picking up in New Jersey than to one in Montana.
I would be more concerned at where they delivered.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using EO Forums
jimby82
Veteran Expediter
That sort of goes without saying, since, well, I didn't say it.
Here is how I do it simplified, all miles, total pay, do I make money.
No Im not trying to brag, just saying this was a great run.
Example. I took an injection mold Rochester NY area to west of Detroit MI
Friday Evening, Hot priority 1, No return load.
Return empty had to be home for Mon AM job. would have stayed out otherwise
Total miles home to P/U to delivery, return home 907 miles
Deadhead miles 465
Rate $ 1300.00 or 1.43 per driven mile.
Job was done in a van,
Yes I made money after expenses fuel, tolls, and estimate $ 0.20 per mile wear and tear on the van.
Needless to say I am looking foward to the return run.
Bob Wolf.
No Im not trying to brag, just saying this was a great run.
Example. I took an injection mold Rochester NY area to west of Detroit MI
Friday Evening, Hot priority 1, No return load.
Return empty had to be home for Mon AM job. would have stayed out otherwise
Total miles home to P/U to delivery, return home 907 miles
Deadhead miles 465
Rate $ 1300.00 or 1.43 per driven mile.
Job was done in a van,
Yes I made money after expenses fuel, tolls, and estimate $ 0.20 per mile wear and tear on the van.
Needless to say I am looking foward to the return run.
Bob Wolf.
Last edited:
Right now almost of my work is done in a S/T so I make sure I charge enough to pay what it costs for my fuel, parts and maintenance, insurance, and pay myself as an O/O
You should be paying yourself after taxes at least .35 per mile no matter what van or truck.
I expect a gross pay as close as posiable to $ 0.55 per mile shave off taxes that gives me about $ 0.30 to$ 0.35 per mile or $ 15.00 per hr NET pay to give me a reson to drive, give regular customers a better rate while making some coin and put up with the B.S.
So after I add up what all my expected yearly expenses less fuel as it changes almost daily
divide by my average yearly miles, add my fuel and salary cost per mile.
I Take the offered rate divide that by the total miles I calculate the miles I will drive not the dispatcher, and THE HIGHER NUMBER ALWAYS WINS.
Now much do you have left over per mile?
Dose it match what I want to charge or exceed it? If so I take it.
You should be paying yourself after taxes at least .35 per mile no matter what van or truck.
I expect a gross pay as close as posiable to $ 0.55 per mile shave off taxes that gives me about $ 0.30 to$ 0.35 per mile or $ 15.00 per hr NET pay to give me a reson to drive, give regular customers a better rate while making some coin and put up with the B.S.
So after I add up what all my expected yearly expenses less fuel as it changes almost daily
divide by my average yearly miles, add my fuel and salary cost per mile.
I Take the offered rate divide that by the total miles I calculate the miles I will drive not the dispatcher, and THE HIGHER NUMBER ALWAYS WINS.
Now much do you have left over per mile?
Dose it match what I want to charge or exceed it? If so I take it.
Last edited: