expedited or ltl

[truckerd5]

If you have your own authority, and expedited freight is slow or your out of the major expedite lanes. Does it make since to go through a broker and pickup LTL freight, some of that pays pretty well from what I gather. I don't know, I want to go into expedited, but live on the West Coast (not a good area according to EO) My thought is haul LTL to get into the lanes. Of course, once I'm there I'm probably S.O.L. if I'm not with a bigger carrier.

Any suggestions would be helpful, I'm an OTR company driver. Love the lifestyle, but a T/T severely limits where I can go, even bobtail. Besides the company hates when I sit idle, but I want more time to see things of interest before there gone or become a WalMart or Starbucks.

I was looking at a cargo van, but it seems dock height and capacity make for a strong argument to go with a "C" or "D" unit. Of course running solo, a van would be nice get DOT off one's back and out of the passenger seat.

 

[davekc]

You can make money with LTL freight if you know what you are doing. Sometimes you may have to double shipments when coming from the west coast. Each load may only pay .80 cents per mile but with the two you are at 1.60. Of course you want to make sure they are going to the same area. Keep in mind also that these loads do not have expedited freight time requirements. At Panther you have to give up .15 percent so you have to factor that in your rates when talking to them. You will find instances as well that pay over a dollar but you have to look. When going out west it may take a couple of days to locate something but we usually make our calls on the way out so we don't have to wait around.
Davekc

 

[Tennesseahawk]

In your situation, I would look into Landstar Express. From what I understand, their system allows you to choose where you go according to their loadboard. Talk to a recruiter though. I don't think their website has everything down that you should know. Hope that helps.

T-hawk