Most of us owner-operators went home for the holidays, and it’s going to take a pretty penny to get back out on the road. The weather is so cold, you worked hard leading up to the holidays, and soon there will be fewer loads to pick from.
I know the feeling of these winter blues, it happens to me every year. This is what I do to stay employed and still get home.
I look at last week’s DAT Trendlines report and see what the national spot market rate was for my kind of trailer. I double that number, and this now becomes my minimum rate per mile. If the weather is very bad or it’s a short run, then I will increase that number to what I am happy with.
I then post my truck, keeping my destination within 250 miles of home. In the comments, I will include my rate per mile. My purpose in this is that no matter what load I take, I know that I can deadhead back home if I can’t get another load and my average rate for the round trip will still match the national average.
I have found that the best time to post this way is before 8 a.m. and after 3 p.m. Don’t forget that if you are not getting calls, you can easily do a search for these same loads and make calls on them. This is also a great practice if you are still adjusting to using ELD.
Chad Boblett is the owner and driver of Boblett Brothers Trucking of Lexington, KY. Chad also founded the Rate Per Mile Masters group on Facebook, a communications hub for more than 18,000 members, including owner-operators, truck drivers, and other transportation and logistics pros.
