Questions to ask before accepting load

bobwg · Oct 18, 2009

Hello cargo van/sprinter drivers and all other drivers I am looking to see what questions all of you ask yourself when you get a load offer before accepting the load . The first one I think is at the top of the list would be Is there enough time to pick up the load and run safely/legally (including fuel/rest stops) to deliver on time. But lets hear from the rest of you on what and how many questions you ask about a load your looking at before you take it or turn it down. Have a great day

TeamCaffee · Oct 18, 2009

We are a straight truck and we still have the same questions when we are offered a load.

The first question is what does the load pay ALL miles and by all miles I want to know from out last delivery to the delivery on the load offered.

Where will we be when we deliver this load? Are we going to be in the middle of no where? How much is the next load going to have to pay to compensate for all of the dead head we are going to drive to get into a better area?

We do not worry if we cannot make the pickup on time as our company has us pinpointed on where we are and they will adjust the time for pickup. We are always given plenty of time to deliver and if we run into adverse conditions we immediately contact dispatch.

When we get a load offer going to Canada we look at the delivery time and if it is on a Friday afternoon we take that into consideration are we going to possibly have to spend the weekend in Canada or will we deliver near the border and we can come out in a dead head status.

We also look at the load pay and will the load be on toll roads? Is there enough money per mile to consider the tolls you will have to pay? We do get some compensation for tolls but on some loads the load pay is just not enough to pay for the Pennsylvania turnpike.

I know I will get slammed on this one but if the load is Hazmat or going into a area we do not like meaning New York city does the load pay enough for the Hassle Factor? Some reroutes on Hazmat are huge and you have to wait for an escort or you have to make calls to go around certain cities or you will not have a safe haven and you have to go into a hotel. We do not go into the city often enough to keep abreast of all the rules that New York City has started enforcing how many tickets are we going to get because we are ignorant of the laws?

When we hear the beep of the QualComm our brains go into over drive of all the got ya's we have learned about loads and then we try and make a informed decision. I said try as sometimes out brains do not go into over drive and then we have to say whoops that was not such a good load after all.

hondaking38 · Oct 18, 2009

Lately if they call ya even before the text reaches ya over the phone,something is up...i ask weight,destination,how far from shipper,fsc,price,total miles...just last week,they called before the load offer came thru , and i asked all the pertinent questions, except how far from the shipper...accepted the load and had to drive 175 miles to shipper for a 330 mile run...... man was i peeved.....if ya dont ask they dont give it....on the other hand if its a decent load, they will tell you everything without you even asking..

layoutshooter · Oct 18, 2009

Hey Linda, We ALWAYS look at the "hassle factor" when looking at loads. Canadian runs, border hassles. Hazmat/radmat, hassles. Those hassles cost money. We expect higher rates for loads with "greater hassle". As always, we have NO set rate, each load is judged on it's own merit.

LDB · Oct 18, 2009

All good answers so far. I'll add layover pay to the list if it's a load that has times suggesting the potential for a layover night or in some cases definite layover if it's Friday pu for Monday del that doesn't need the full time to get there.

nightcreacher · Oct 18, 2009

Lets say this is your very first load.

My 1st question is how far is it to the pick up,then miles load is going,and what express center will I be in.The last is very important,as if you have a long dead head to pick up,no matter how good the load pays,if your going to a dead express center,that can eat up you profit for the week.

When you ask what the pay is for all miles,they only give you mile to pick up and delivery,you need to know where your going to layover.If the load your doing goes to Montana,does it really pay enough to dead head to a dead ex center like Omaha or Denver

Next is pieces and weight,do You really have enough space to put the load in.You might have personal items that might take up cargo space

Yes, there always the hassel factor.Give me a load that is going to be a hassel,I want paid for it,and knowing I'm going to be in an area that I'll be layed over for a while,goes into this,along with Haz loads border crossings,slow deliver spots.

Now my bottom line,this works for me,at least it has for over 20 years.

I take the miles from layover to pick up,miles to delivery,and where do i want to layover after load is complete,not always
where the company would have planned
total these miles,and divide by the lowest miles per gallon your truck might get if in adverse conditions.
Now multiply this by the average dollars that fuel is going for,if there is a hassel factor,I add $100 to the figure.
Now divide this figure by the amount of advance the company will give you,if the advance will take care of business,without going into your own plastic,I'll do the load.Remember,In these figures I've already put in to the equation miles to layover,so even if I'm 1000 miles from layover,I've already planned for that.

Hope this helps,all the previous advise is good,this is just the way I do it

aileron · Oct 18, 2009

nightcreacher said:
Lets say this is your very first load.

My 1st question is how far is it to the pick up,then miles load is going,and what express center will I be in.The last is very important,as if you have a long dead head to pick up,no matter how good the load pays,if your going to a dead express center,that can eat up you profit for the week.

When you ask what the pay is for all miles,they only give you mile to pick up and delivery,you need to know where your going to layover.If the load your doing goes to Montana,does it really pay enough to dead head to a dead ex center like Omaha or Denver

Next is pieces and weight,do You really have enough space to put the load in.You might have personal items that might take up cargo space

Yes, there always the hassel factor.Give me a load that is going to be a hassel,I want paid for it,and knowing I'm going to be in an area that I'll be layed over for a while,goes into this,along with Haz loads border crossings,slow deliver spots.

Now my bottom line,this works for me,at least it has for over 20 years.

I take the miles from layover to pick up,miles to delivery,and where do i want to layover after load is complete,not always
where the company would have planned
total these miles,and divide by the lowest miles per gallon your truck might get if in adverse conditions.
Now multiply this by the average dollars that fuel is going for,if there is a hassel factor,I add $100 to the figure.
Now divide this figure by the amount of advance the company will give you,if the advance will take care of business,without going into your own plastic,I'll do the load.Remember,In these figures I've already put in to the equation miles to layover,so even if I'm 1000 miles from layover,I've already planned for that.

Hope this helps,all the previous advise is good,this is just the way I do it

Steve,

Great advice. Of course us the newer people don't quite know where to layover after we deliver and to account for that. We don't know yet where the best express center is close to the delivery place. And to think about all of these in 10 min. But slowly we learn all these things.

TeamCaffee · Oct 19, 2009

aileron this is where a network of contacts can come in very handy for you!

When we were first starting we had contacts of other trucks that were very similar to us and we used them for advice. We would often take that load to the middle of no where for to low of money but we found that if we called one of our contacts they could help us to make a bad situation a little better with their advise.

We found sometimes the hard way that when we would ask for advise a T-Val straight truck or even a White Glove non reefer straight truck would tell us where they would stay but as an Express truck we could not get a load out.

I have also found as time goes on my Streets and Trips map where I track all of our pickup and deliveries can tell us which direction we need to go after we deliver a load. Trusting the VRU to us is often a crap shoot.

piper1 · Oct 19, 2009

TeamCaffee said:
Trusting the VRU to us is often a crap shoot.

The whole post was great Linda but the above quote, boy did I ever learn that one the hard way!!

jj214 · Oct 19, 2009

I have learned over the last 20 years - if the load picks up on Fri. is the Fri. delivery confirmed? I have made a pest of myself by refusing loads unless they confirm the delivery time. No confirmed, no detention pay. Week ago today a load into Windsor on their Thanksgiving day. Not confirmed. I would not accept the load until they confirmed the delivery time. Ok - confirmed for 11:00 A.M. arrived on time, nobody home. Next shift at 2300 made for a very nice paying run and I watched 3 movies at the movieplex for the price of one and won 135.00 playing video poker at the casino. Yay for me!

greg334 · Oct 19, 2009

0 - What am I picking up (this is important)

1 - how much does it pay and if it is all inclusive

1a - if it is all inclusive, break out the fuel surcharge

2 - pick up address (gets put into the computer and then I can see actually how many miles I need to go)

3 - delivery address (also gets put into the computer, then I know how many miles from the pickup I will be driving)

4 - fuel surcharge if it is separate

5 - not asked but kept track of is the DH to the nearest large city if I am in states like Texas.

From those questions I can quickly determine my rate and accept it or not.

Even for those places, like the middle of No Where Ohio or Trailer Park Indiana, I can figure in between 50 to 100 miles of DH for my next pick and that is figured into the next run.

I have determined what it costs me to take a hazmat load and a Canadian load so those numbers are added into the rate I need. Most of my operating costs are now pinned down to the penny and my minimal rate has actually gone up a bit form a few years ago.

I don't chase the Quallcom or like to listen to machines, I want to ask questions and get answers from a human and it helps me when there is something that I need to know about the load or customer.

pelicn · Oct 20, 2009

We put the P/U and Delivery addresses into the computer and figure the actual miles. We then use a spreadsheet and we put in actual miles, loaded pay/miles, DH pay/miles, any extra pay (layover etc). Our owner has provided us with the fixed costs for running our truck so we can figure out quickly if the load will profitable for our owner and for us. If it isn't, we don't take the load.

Jack_Berry · Oct 21, 2009

ask...where does it pick up.

chicago

where in chicago, exactly? chicago is a big place. ohare on the nw and the ford plant on the south east. easily 50 miles different. depending on time of day and roads traveled that could be 2 hours.