Should I take seasonal or year round freight in Florida?

this is a hard choice for you? what are your after the 3 month haul season? that should answer your question. remember the tortoise won the race, steady beats run fast and stop to rest, every time.

 

Sounds like a good full time gig,

in florida no less.

best jump on that deal !!!!

 

Why not haul produce for the season then move on to other higher paying freight? Your costs are the same year-round.

Florida has a longer season than 3 months, too. Veggies, citrus, frozen juice, melons, flowers, nursery stock, etc... you can pretty much stay busy 9 months of the year if you make the right contacts.

 

In the last few years I've seen rates from $1.00/mile to $2.50/mile from Miami to the midwest, so to give you my opinion I'd need to know the rate he's paying, and where it's delivering although I dont blame you if you dont want to post that.

2 things - is there a FSC tied to it?.... and is this broker actually going to have this load all year, as oppose to lossing it in June after you just passed all the great paying March, April, May produce.

 

Yea. What he said

Assuming your getting a real good rate and have steady frieght going into Florida (witch you better, if your going in there) I would definatly take the year round frieght. Yea ther is about 9 months of produce out of Florida but there's only about 3 months worth of good rates unless you doing 16 stop plant loads.
Secondly. Brokers, like politicians, both speek outta both sides of there mouth. Good (trustworthy) brokers are as hard to come by as an honest politician. Brokers are constantly under bidding (like some truckers) each other just to get the customer.
Hopefully this guy your talking to is a small time broker and the customer is an old college buddy who owes him a favor. If these promises are comig from mega broker; Run Forest Run. Good Luck
The best advice i can give on Florida; Stay out and save yourself the headaches.

 

If it were me bidding on that Miami freight I'd look at it like this....

Break the year into 1/3 blocks. Let's say you can expect to see four months of $2.50/mile rates (optimistic, I know). Then four months of $1.75/mile rates (optimistic, I know). Followed by four months of $1.00/ mile rates (realistic, I know). For the year this obviously averages out to $1.75 - which in my opinion is certainly higher than what the broker and shipper have in mind, but should be a close benchmark for negotiating the rate. Perhaps $1.50 is closer to the real number they have in mind, and in July august and September that sure looks better than deadheading to Georgia LOL.

I only say this assuming you have a money load going in. I'd still wiggle in some fsc just to cya.

 

he's not looking for advice, he's a broker and this is a sales pitch... jeeze people

 

we're covertly trying to snag a pm from him with load details. don't blow our cover man

 

oops my bad. Carry on with getting your cheap FL freight. lol