How many miles? straight truck
- Thread starter Mniesen89
- Start date
EASYTRADER
Expert Expediter
There is no "typical" answer to that because a lot of us run on percentage and in my personal experience in a straight truck that means less miles, but higher gross per mile.
If you run flat rate you will likely run more mile, have a higher monthly gross and a much tighter gross per mile.
I have been in the same truck with my wife 7 years, and we have 900k on it.
I don't know if that is "typical" or not. I know when I drove a tractor hauling general frieght I drove the same miles as my wife and I drive team with the "Fed" in a straight truck.
If you run flat rate you will likely run more mile, have a higher monthly gross and a much tighter gross per mile.
I have been in the same truck with my wife 7 years, and we have 900k on it.
I don't know if that is "typical" or not. I know when I drove a tractor hauling general frieght I drove the same miles as my wife and I drive team with the "Fed" in a straight truck.
EASYTRADER
Expert Expediter
Flat rate means, you get paid for the miles you run when dispatched. The vast majority of companies in trucking pay this way. So when you see .35 cents a mile for company or .95 cents a mile for OO that's a flat rate.
Percentage is you get paid a percentage of what the company claims they get paid for a load.
Fed Ex has both Flat Rate and Percentage contracts and I have worked under both. I can't honestly say which scenario produces more "Profit", as my pay plan has been switched twice since I went "flat" and none of the switchs have been favorable.
Percentage is you get paid a percentage of what the company claims they get paid for a load.
Fed Ex has both Flat Rate and Percentage contracts and I have worked under both. I can't honestly say which scenario produces more "Profit", as my pay plan has been switched twice since I went "flat" and none of the switchs have been favorable.
The moral of Easytrader's explanation is: choose a carrier that understands that you are running a business, just like they are. Your business and theirs can be mutually profitable when you both make the effort to complement each other, rather than finding ways to undercut each other.
If the carrier expects you to run low profit freight [for 'good' customers], you should expect to get high profit freight as well - if it doesn't balance out [I mean over time, not tit for tat], then they're not working for your benefit, you're working for theirs.
I believe that 'drive less, make more' is an excellent philosophy, because driving puts wear & tear on both the vehicle and the driver.
And because there's other stuff I want to do with my time, lol.
WanderngFool
Active Expediter
It doesn't seem to matter what I drive I seem to end of somewhere around 120k miles at the end of the year. I try to work smarter not harder but harder has a way of sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong, especially when I'm having a lean week.