Midwest IC

I'm not an IC but I have gotten some info as I'm looking into it as an option. First off the Midwest covers a pretty large area and depending on where you're from people have different ideas of what constitutes Midwest. From what I was told pretty much anywhere in the Midwest going to anywhere else in the midwest will pay fairly decent with plenty of loads available. The information I got was for loads around my house to see how easy it would be to get in and out of the house but I was told there were almost 200 loads within 150 miles of my house and over 50% of them were paying more than $1.50/ mile.

The midwest doesn't have super high rates like some areas but they're consistently decent rates and easy running around the Midwest.

 

The Midwest has the most consistent freight within its region so as long as you stay Midwest to Midwest you will have no problem doing 1.60 per mile all ways. Now leaving the mid west pays good but coming back to the Midwest especially from the north east can be cheaper as in 1.20 average. The worse area for rates out of the area are the northeast and Florida of course. It's about the averages usually.

 

The trick is just to stay within a "zone".
What I mean by this is only take freight into and out of certain states.

WI, IL, IN, OH, MI, KY, TN, maybe eastern IA and MO too.
I know if I stay within this area I never have to worry about bad rates or feeling "stuck" somewhere.

Just to give an example my last two loads were:
Gary, IN to Plymouth, MI around 230 miles at $2.21 drop and hook at both ends.
Then I picked up a load in Plymouth, MI going to Knoxville, TN about 513 miles at $1.72 also drop and hook.

I'm going home for a couple days but if I had to randomly pick a load right now for tomorrow and plan myself based on what's out there I'd do...

Clinton, TN to Louisville, KY looks to be about $1.87 all miles at 240 miles and put me there on the 11th

then on the 11th do Hebron, Ky to Orion, MI around 390 miles at about $2.13 all miles.

I don't need to knock out tons of miles to do well.
Take those 4 loads for example over 4 days.. sure only averaging 343 mile at day but at $1.94 all miles.
You do that 7 days you're at 2400 miles at $1.94 or $4656 gross.
Say you get 7.2 MPG and pay $3 a gallon = fuel costs of $1000
Fixed weekly costs of $1100 and at the end of the week you're at $2556 after fuel and all those fixed costs. JUST driving 2400 miles. So pretty much you drove for $1 a mile and that .94 went to costs.
See why % is the way to go?

Again this is just an example based on my last two loads and next two loads I could book right now but you get the idea.

Now of course if you wanna start taking long runs..
or going to Texas, Florida and New England.. you ain't gonna pull that off lol.
You might think oh man I've got $2.10 going into New England yeah but you're coming out for a $1. lol

Anyway you look at this you're still light years ahead of a scam per mile O/O L/O job say at Swift, Celadon, TranScam.. I can go on and on.

 

okay sometimes you can go into New England, I've seen loads in PA going to MA for $3 a mile sometimes.
I just don't find it worth dealing with the mayhem though and knowing I'll be coming out of MA for a $1.

NEVER leave New England on a long load.
I see right now loads out of MA going to PA and NY for $1.40-$1.60
If you gonna go west of PA from MA you're looking at $1 or less.

All day long there's loads going into the Northeast for $2+ But you gonna play detective and connect the dots to get out of there not for garbage.
Sometimes I've found it fun.. it's like playing a real life combative video game puzzle all mixed in one. Connect the dots, "fastest finger" and instead of "Battle ship" you've got Load Battles! :smt117

lol