Long vs short haul

It's a push if you ask me in terms of revenue potential. But every dock you can eliminate in a given period of time is one less worry of excessive delay, cargo claim, truck damage risk, etc, especially when/where everything is live load/unload and generally all by appointment.

But if home time is important, then shorter hauls that keep you closer to home are probably a prudent choice.

I went to great lengths to find a company that has the absolute longest average length of hauls I could find. This makes eLog life so much more manageable and allows me more opportunity to drive on my preferred schedule. But the trade off is, I could never be home often [if that were ever to be an issue]. So if you have to do a regional operation area on eLog, you better make sure you're earning at least 50-60 cpm to average a worthwhile check considering 2,000 mpw [and a lot of trashing around hours] may be optimistic. I hate sitting around do nothing .... waiting, and more waiting .... followed by more waiting .... but the money is good! .... really?

 

IMO you are getting rates that are too low. I'm assuming you are pulling dry van, given the hours needed for loading and unloading. However, it seems you could be increasing your revenue side without increasing miles if you stay in good freight lanes.

On one hand you should be targeting increasing revenue per mile. On the other hand you need to target a minimum amount of revenue per day. Ideally you can hit your revenue per day target with the fewest possible miles.

It may be that your current gig won't let you achieve your goals. If that is the case, you may want to spend some time researching options.

 

I'll take long haul any time. 3000 miles? Perfecto! I can schedule the trip my way, my hours my time See you at the customer. Don't bother me with incessant are we there yet messages either. I'll call you.

Constant short hauls and overnights require a team for stamina for more than a few weeks. Remember I tend to stay out months at a time if not a whole year.

Waiting around at shippers and recievers is dead unpaid time. When I learned that drop and hook is way better than a day or three waiting to load, unload etc on each end of a short trip... bye! Keep wheels rolling.

I have run back and forth dedicated to FFE company freight between LA and Avenel NJ with wife team and we will be back in LA within 6.5 days or so round trip ready for another Avenel round trip. Kept that up for weeks. It's pretty intense and sometimes mind bending when you hit sunny southwest out of winter ice or whatever.

The money takes care of itself.

 

Same boat

Same boat you are in, I run short haul, and the inflexible HOS rules kill me. My average length of haul is normally around 100 miles. The pay is pretty good, $5 to $100+ a mile depending on what I am doing. Even more in some cases if you want to figure it by the mile. But, I will get a run, finish, take a nap, get another and I am out of hours to complete. I can do it now, but I am on paper... eLogs, I figure at least a 30% hit on NET income. Don't know what to tell you. Right now, I am thinking of turning my authority back on. I honestly don't know if we will even stay in business. And yes, we have a five star safety rating and we are the GM Expedite Carrier of the year. We are not fly by night, just a few O/Ops kicking tail and taking names. We are truck drivers.

 

And you are also an American. (Stay with me, I intend no offense not knowing you personally) And as such get your authority and go out swinging for the fences. Better to be buried in a pile of hot brass trying to do your best in life than to roll over and do nothing. I once bought a semi back in the 90's for 41,000 with the first payment due in three weeks plus immediate need for fuel etc. THAT was a time in my life that I was scared to death but very elated because there is a real possibility I will need 1000 drivers to hire on to keep the Heavy Stuff Incorperated rolling someday. That was my dream anyhow...

 

Some folks might not realize that you can often log as sleeper while you're docked. Then you really only have to worry about your 14. Just fwiw.