Short loads are they worth it?

[TeamCaffee]

Heck yes DaveKC we would take the less than 75 we go do an hour or two hour job we get paid $300.00 on up and now we are the top of the list. We do not need to sit for two days for a load we have just been paid very well and the next truck dispatched that fits what our truck is qualified for we get first chance at. Now to me that is a sound business practice.

 

[PalletJack]

I know if I was number 8 on the board and the load paid well I would always do a less than 75 at FedEx.

If you were #8 for a good paying load, you would never know about that load, not in this slow time for all kinds of truckers

 

[davekc]

If you were #8 for a good paying load, you would never know about that load, not in this slow time for all kinds of truckers

Bingo!

I think it is just different ways of operating. If an area has 10 trucks, I likely wouldn't be running a truck into that area in the first place. If I did, I would be setting up a load long before they got there. Just too much risk that you would ever see that mini regardless of what it might pay. The minute you lose a day(s) sitting, the value of the load in starts to diminish.
But, the shorties can be profitable, but for us it has to be in a area that has a lot of them.

 

[Moot]

How does your company reward you with doing short loads?

Knowing that my company offered me the load with the chance to service the customer and add to the company's bottom line is reward enough for me.

Ask not what is in it for you but rather ask what is in it for us all. Look at the big picture. Your company needs to make a profit. The employees need to earn a wage. They have mortgages to pay, mouths to feed, bodies to cloth and poodles to clip.

The customer also needs to show a profit and pay employees. Those employees in turn bring money to main street. Do you want to be responsible for destroying a town because you refused or drove the price up on a "mini". How will you feel when Ralph's Vegetarian Poodle Clipping goes out of business.

The following is from a fleet message dated October 31, 2008

"THERE ARE NO BAD LOADS…IF IT IS PROFITABLE…IT IS GOOD."

 

[Bruno]

Bingo!

I think it is just different ways of operating. If an area has 10 trucks, I likely wouldn't be running a truck into that area in the first place. If I did, I would be setting up a load long before they got there. Just too much risk that you would ever see that mini regardless of what it might pay. The minute you lose a day(s) sitting, the value of the load in starts to diminish.
But, the shorties can be profitable, but for us it has to be in a area that has a lot of them.

This whole post is about not getting a 1st out on loads under 75 miles. I did a load last week and it was 71 miles. Thinking that I could take the 1st out home and go out of service like and still keep my 1st out when I came back in service. Wrong you lose it when you go out of service and you don't get a 1st out if the load pays more than $99.00. So doing a 71 mile load is not worth my time anymore because why do it if our trucks is not going to get a 1st out. I was told that it is based on if the load paid under $99.00


Oh and Phil Yes I have turned down loads what I meant by we is. We the company should never have to turn down loads.

 

[CharlesD]

We just need to "spread the freight around."