Trucking Economics, Trucking Economies

I’m interested in trucking company economy. I just got done with an assignment which included a 470 mile deadhead , the longest deadhead I’ve ever done. How do companies absorb the cost of such a long deadhead?

Also, I would like this thread to include “driver” economy. As a driver, how do you manage your economic situation? I know this is a very broad topic, but it will be educational to know what drivers do to enhance their paycheck.

The single largest contributing factor for me saving money is doing all my food on the truck. Another is I don't buy things on a whim. Anything I do buy I've either wanted for a long time, or put a lot of thought into prior to buying. With many items remember that you get what you pay for. Inexpensive usually equals low quality, but not always. I try to not purchase anything in the truck stops, unless it's really truck-specific and cannot be found somewhere else. Lastly, I use things forever, and I repurpose or recycle a lot of things that I have on the truck. Form over fashion; usefulness over fads.

The single largest contributing factor for me saving money is doing all my food on the truck. Another is I don't buy things on a whim. Anything I do buy I've either wanted for a long time, or put a lot of thought into prior to buying. With many items remember that you get what you pay for. Inexpensive usually equals low quality, but not always. I try to not purchase anything in the truck stops, unless it's really truck-specific and cannot be found somewhere else. Lastly, I use things forever, and I repurpose or recycle a lot of things that I have on the truck. Form over fashion; usefulness over fads.

PackRat, I’m definitely in the same mind set as you. I remember some years ago that there was a driver on here who had to eat all his meals at truck stop restaurants. He was spending almost $1000 per month for food. And he wondered why his income was so low. Crazy.

Same here as PackRat, I usually don’t eat out. It saves money, and less chances of getting sick. If I do eat out, it’s usually with points. But now that Pilot pizza has gone from $6.00 to $7.50, I don’t do that anymore. I do however use points for bread to make sandwiches on the truck. My longest DH was 550 miles a few weeks ago. I have been doing longer DH’s lately do to less freight, and my company trying to get me to freight. I heard a report yesterday that apparel sales are down, and that retailers have excessive inventories.

One of the better venues to follow, re: trucking economics;

Freightwaves ~ Truckers & Side Hustles!

~ Anne ~

ps: If any of y'all start a channel, clue me in!

I think long deadheads just sort of go with the territory sometimes. It may be a matter of just sucking up the loss in order to get to better freight lanes. Or it may be that the carrier is willing to lose money on a deadhead so that they can service a loyal customer. Or perhaps even the customer is willing to pay those deadhead miles just so that their product gets shipped on time.

Take my job for example. Walmart is so adamant about preventing their shelves from ever going empty that they will sometimes send me on what is clearly a losing trip. But that is still more desirable than allowing Mrs. Jones to go to a competitor's store for her favorite product. Once you lose her, she may not come back.

Economy is sometimes a long-term plan.

Hi bk,

Deadhead miles most of the time are baked into the rate on the load. For instance, if you look at what shippers pay for loads going into places like Denver or Florida you'll see that they pay twice, sometimes more than a normal load. This is because freight volume at the receiver is so bad that more times than not you're bt out unless you want to haul some cheap and heavy freight.

Ultimately, it all trickles down to the consumers that pay for it. Anything that raises the cost of buisness gets put into the price.

I heard a report yesterday that apparel sales are down, and that retailers have excessive inventories.

I just left the WM in Laramie. On the road, I get 90% of my groceries at that one, the WM in Lexington, NE, the WM in Twin Falls, ID, or the WM in Staunton, VA. Anyway, all the summer clothing is on sale now at up to 80% off. Lots of the Fall clothing is out, but I didn't see any low prices on the new inventory.

Remember last month:

3 more weeks? I heard from a buddy that some of the stores are already getting pumpkins in!

Ultimately, it all trickles down to the consumers that pay for it. Anything that raises the cost of buisness gets put into the price.

That's not entirely accurate. Shipping rates for goods fluctuate, but prices remain seasonally consistent. Even when the cost of shipping goods increases for more than a single shipment, prices will not exceed what consumers are willing to pay for a given product. Look at the cost of gas. It raises to a certain point and then money can no longer be made because consumers find ways to buy less and less gas. In order to actually be able to sell enough gas to make a desirable profit, the price has to come back down. In a typical summer, the price of gas increases after Memorial Day and remains higher until after Labor Day. Why did that not happen this summer? People found ways to buy less gas, thus decreasing the demand for gas. Price decrease was necessary to increase demand. Basically, temporary increases in shipping costs are basically considered a cost of doing business.

Longest DH we had was from San Antonio, TX to Miami, FL, 1,200 miles ?! I had to call our DM , to verify this crazy run. He said YES, it's true, the customer is paying for it, for some special thing they were doing. Was to a drop yard, we'd been to a few times before, surprised when we got there, they had like 10 of our trailers already sitting there? What everrrrrrr, we're getting paid, I don't care lol, then we BT'd all the way back to San Antonio, TX, another 1,200 miles