"But if loads like that are all you're offered, what happens to your acceptance rate, when you keep turning them down?"
I'm with T'Hawk 'n Terry (sounds like a bed and bath pawn shop). I can't make a living by accepting loads that lose me money, regardless of my acceptance rate. It's currently at 100%, but that's just the way it is working out at the moment. I haven't been offered that many bad loads lately, but the few that I've been offered and turned down, they ended up calling me back and meeting my conditions.
The thing is, you can be offered 5 loads in a week, and turn down just one bad one, and bam! you're at an 80% acceptance rate (for the week). I can't worry too much about my acceptance rate when I'm offered a load. I look at the load, and if it makes sense I'll take it, if not I'll turn it down and let them worry about my acceptance rate.
The key is to work smart. Deadhead smart, accept and reject smart. Don't deadhead just for the sake of deadheading. Deadhead if it's going to make you more money than sitting and waiting it out. Take a marginal load if it takes you to a place where you are likely to get a good load. Accept loads that make sense, both in terms of pay and in terms of where they take you. Reject loads that don't make sense, either in terms of pay or in terms of where they take you.
As a general rule, I won't deadhead in the same direction that a paying load would otherwise take me. For example, if I drop off a load that's half way between KC and St Louis, if I'm gonna have to deadhead to one or the other, I'll go to Kansas City, 'cause a load out of KC is likely to take me in the direction of St Louis.
I prefer to work the outer fringes of that big bullseye over the midwest. Everyone wants to be in the middle of that area, and as a result that's where all the vans (especially) are located. On the outer edges there isn't as much freight, but there isn't as many vans, either. The loads tend to be longer and better paying out on the edge. And, they tend to garner bonuses as needed, whereas in the middle of the bullseye there's no need to hand out bonuses, cause some sap will take a luzer for straight rates to keep up their acceptance rate, only to drop off in an area where they're once again #5 on a board where 1 load a day comes out.
Work smart, and the acceptance rate takes care of itself.
Slow and steady, even in expediting, wins the race - Aesop