I KNOW MOST COMPANYS HAVE A SURCHARGE IN PLACE BUT IT WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR ME I HAVE HAD TO FIND A BROKER THAT PAYS THE RATE I NEED TO BE PROFITABLE 1.60 PER MILE MIN . I HAVE A GOOD BROKER THANK GOD BUT HOW IS IT ALL AROUND
Jezzzzus James where have you been 
I thought you had flown the coup, You can try our company if you need some brokered loads, don’t know what they pay though.
Anyway, how are you doing I think of you about 3 or 4 times a week when I pass near Kinderhook, will be going by very early tomorrow morning to Ct and back in the PM 
hey james,
hows it going good buddy. long time no speak. last i heard you where moving down south to warmer climbs.
have you still got the stirling, or have you seen the light and gone all volvo.
drop me an email sometime.
say hi to liz and the kids.
regards
no 2 lazy lumper 
dave:
no 2 lazy lumper
Most ‘LUMPERS’ are lazy
Especially the 4 guys who took 4 hours to take 26 pallets off my trailer in Hartford CT last Thursday, then charged me $175 
Lumpers are the laziest bunch of tossers I’ve ever had the misfortune to have in the back of my wagon…but I found that out about 12 years ago.
For what it’s worth here is my take on the so called fuel crisis, and how I earn my money and stay profitable pulling boxes. The fuel is not affecting me as bad as I thought it would, our fuel surcharge is crap 5%-10%, yet fuel has risen over 100%! Go figure! Having said that, I’m fortunate to be running containers on a ‘local’ operation, with varying rates of pay mainly falling somewhere between $1.20-$2.50 a mile, although it can sometimes be more, but not as often as I would like!
We are not paid by the mile as such, we are paid a rate based on zones, sometimes you might go just into a zone (less than 10 miles) and get $100, other times you may have to go all the way to the other side of the same zone(as much as 35 miles) which still pays $100. (the zones are based on radius miles from our yard) all rates are negotiable over and above the official rate, meaning the hotter the load, or the less desirable and the closer it’s getting to being a late delivery before it has even left the yard, then those are the variables that dictate how much each particular load can be renegotiated with your dispatcher to a much more profitable rate, nowadays renegoitiating a rate that was once set in stone has almost become a matter of course, over the past 6-8 months our level of freight has gone through the roof, we cannot hire enough drivers to handle it all. This industry has been completely turned around from an employers market less than 18 months ago, to a very strong drivers market, that does’nt show any sign of abating. Our rates have already gone up twice this year and that does’nt include our unofficial ‘deals’ with our dispatchers either, or the fuel surcharges.
I calculate my weekly mileage not on what I’m dispatched on but what the start miles are when I begin the new week and what they are when I finnish the week, meaning I include all miles I drive, wether they are dispatch miles, personal miles, ‘getting lost’ miles, cruising miles, going to the mechanic miles, going to get a bite to eat miles, going home miles etc I have always used that rule of thumb, because it is my own truck and any miles I doin it, count towards wear and tear, and affects the overall fuel consumption etc, so I want to know just exactly what my truck is earning over the WHOLE week. Without figuring the fuel surcharges which fluctuate anyway, I have earned so far this year based on every mile I have driven, an average of $1.48 a mile. the worst week I had I earned an average of $1.03 the best was an average of $2.79, Usually when I go on medium distance runs like to Alabama, South or North Georgia or down to Florida is when I weaken my average, but I can make up for that doing runs like I did last weekend, we had to get over 100 empties out of a Target Distribution Centre and bring them to our Yard, it entailed bobtail one way and an empty back on a round trip of 7.5 miles (25 mins each trip) it paid $50 each trip, I did 26 between Friday night and Saturday afternoon including time spent at breakfast I spent about 14.5 hours doing job, When I figure my actual worktime it meant I was making $100 an hour, when you get deals like that, high fuel costs don’t have such a detrimental affect on your operating expenses, but we don’t have as high an operating expense as regular road drivers anyway, most of the time they aim to stay loaded as much as possible (it’s where their money is), but because we are paid the same empty,loaded or even bobtail, I try to run more empty miles than loaded, which having figured my average for the year, it seems I spend more time running empty and bobtail than I do loaded, according to my figures, 63% of my ‘moves’ are empty or bobtail, because all our trips are only loaded one way, it will always be empty or bobtail back, unless you get a reload which then means you get paid twice, I did one like that yesterday, I got paid $100 to run 23 miles loaded, another $100 to run 4 miles empty to reload and then run 21 miles back again 48 miles paid $200…Bish bosh!
There are plenty of other opportunities to pad your settlements without using too much fuel, for instance, I like running all night (less traffic, less stopping and starting, less fuel consumed), it also allows me to take maximum advantage of loads that deliver or pick-up in the morning that I know can take as long as 8 hours to load/unload, so I will run all night, grab the live load/unload early so I can be on time (if you are late you won’t get paid the detention pay that I like going after) because I’m knackered from running all night usually upwards of 12-15 hours, I then go to bed while I am at the long time loading/unloading place, knowing that after the first 2 hours I will be getting $50 an hour to sleep, I wake up refreshed , wide awake, with a smug look on my face for getting as much as $300 to sleep, make a nice cuppa and hit the road to go at it again!, of course it does’nt always work out so perfect as that, but it does work quite often, at least once a week. By manipulating the system like that enables me to use ways I can ‘beat’ the fuel hikes without worrying about my consumption, it also helps that I stay on realatively flat topography,( No mountains for me, fuel is too high and the mountains are too steep up there in Tennessee for me to keep my fairly respectable fuel consumption in check!), I don’t know what your average fuel returns are James, but I usually average between 6.8 and 7.8 a gallon, which is’nt bad cuz I do have a bit of a lead foot, and to be honest anything over 7.0 mpg is penalised by fuel taxes, so it really does’nt do anyone any favours by consitently returning over 7.0 mpg, technically the Feds refuse to believe a truck can acheive that kind of fuel economy, you and I know a truck can but either they really don’t or they pretend they don’t just so they can screw us for more fuel taxes each month.
Other Owner Operators will often ask me how I can stay in business pulling containers, usually after I have blown there doors off after overtaking at 75 mph or more, it always makes me laugh to see these bloddy great chrome bedecked ‘large cars’ that have the aerodynamic qualities of a breeze block, ‘poodling’ along these days at 65 mph, when not long ago it would have been them blowing my doors off, I can almost gaurantee I will get a comeback on the radio asking how I can still drive so fast at the current high price of fuel especially as I am pulling one of those ‘loss making’ containers, I really enjoy rubbing their nose in the fact that it probably has alot to do with the jurassic truck they are driving( gotta have that macho ‘large car’ no wimpy girly Volvo for them kinda attitude), which for modern aerodynamics and fuel consumption does’nt even leave the starting line when put up against a Volvo, oh yeah, for all those macho weiners, that laughed at the aerodynamic trucks, seems that they’re not laughing quite so loudly now, not when they are hard pushed to get 4.5 miles to the gallon, compared to 7+ per gallon on a truck like the Volvo VN (and in case your wondering, yes I do idle it all day and all night, I cannot stand the humidity, so I need A/C 24/7, It is only this past few days that I have started shutting it down now the cooler weather has arrived, but the days are still too warm so it is still idled all day) These poor sods, who had to have their Mr Macho Man 4.5 mpg truck are looking even more worried when they finally figure out that they, like so many other O/O who are leased onto the bigger carriers are actually making as little as 82cents a mile on miles driven, paying considerably more for their fuel in the various States, and no doubt being hit up hard on fuel taxes too, no wonder so many are joining the rapidly expanding ranks of newly bankrupt.
What alot of drivers don’t realise, is that contrary to the popular belief that container hauling is ■■■■ poor money, it is in fact very lucrative, if you know how to work the system, there are drivers who are happy to make just $1500 a week working Mon- Fri 8.00am to 3.00pm, then there are drivers like me who aim for a figure between $2800 - $3500 a week, although I have’nt figured the system as well as some other drivers, because two of our drivers regulary make $3500- $4000 a week and do it Monday to Friday, I work Sunday to Sunday (most of the time) and still struggle to get above $3500 most of the time, but so long as I can do at least $3000 on no more than two fill-upsat the Diesel Pump I am happy, it usually takes around 150-165 gallons at a time, twice a week, the current price for a gallon here in Atlanta is $1.96 a gallon, down from an all time high of $2.21 a gallon two weeks ago.
So there you go, you asked how the cost of fuel was affecting us, now you know in clearly explained and easy to follow detail how it is not really affecting me at all. Yes I know I have written quite alot, but in view of the fact I have’nt put a post on here in months, and that I actually had a few hours to spare, notwithstanding that this is my forum anyway which gives me the right to write as much as I bloody well want! (although I do now share it with Mr Shaun "I never answer my phone’ Andrews) I thought I’d really get into some deep explanation that will show how I don’t consider the higher cost of fuel is really an issue, fuel has been artifically cheap in this country for so long, Americans have for too long been cushioned from as well as displayed a blatantly arrogant indifference to the realities of what a gallon of fuel costs consumers in other countries, now the price has finally begun to rise here in the USA to what could be considered a more realistic price level, which although not yet quite comparable to what the rest of the world has been paying for it’s fuel for years, it has gone someway, in regards to showing the population of the most wasteful country in the world, that the gravy train is about to run out of tracks.
…although after saying all that, It would be nice for Diesel to go back down to a dollar a gallon again! 
Cliff Warby:
Lumpers are the laziest bunch of [zb] I’ve ever had the misfortune to have in the back of my wagon…but I found that out about 12 years ago.For what it’s worth here is my take on the so called fuel crisis, and how I earn my money and stay profitable pulling boxes. The fuel is not affecting me as bad as I thought it would, our fuel surcharge is crap 5%-10%, yet fuel has risen over 100%! Go figure! Having said that, I’m fortunate to be running containers on a ‘local’ operation, with varying rates of pay mainly falling somewhere between $1.20-$2.50 a mile, although it can sometimes be more, but not as often as I would like!
We are not paid by the mile as such, we are paid a rate based on zones, sometimes you might go just into a zone (less than 10 miles) and get $100, other times you may have to go all the way to the other side of the same zone(as much as 35 miles) which still pays $100. (the zones are based on radius miles from our yard) all rates are negotiable over and above the official rate, meaning the hotter the load, or the less desirable and the closer it’s getting to being a late delivery before it has even left the yard, then those are the variables that dictate how much each particular load can be renegotiated with your dispatcher to a much more profitable rate, nowadays renegoitiating a rate that was once set in stone has almost become a matter of course, over the past 6-8 months our level of freight has gone through the roof, we cannot hire enough drivers to handle it all. This industry has been completely turned around from an employers market less than 18 months ago, to a very strong drivers market, that does’nt show any sign of abating. Our rates have already gone up twice this year and that does’nt include our unofficial ‘deals’ with our dispatchers either, or the fuel surcharges.
I calculate my weekly mileage not on what I’m dispatched on but what the start miles are when I begin the new week and what they are when I finnish the week, meaning I include all miles I drive, wether they are dispatch miles, personal miles, ‘getting lost’ miles, cruising miles, going to the mechanic miles, going to get a bite to eat miles, going home miles etc I have always used that rule of thumb, because it is my own truck and any miles I doin it, count towards wear and tear, and affects the overall fuel consumption etc, so I want to know just exactly what my truck is earning over the WHOLE week. Without figuring the fuel surcharges which fluctuate anyway, I have earned so far this year based on every mile I have driven, an average of $1.48 a mile. the worst week I had I earned an average of $1.03 the best was an average of $2.79, Usually when I go on medium distance runs like to Alabama, South or North Georgia or down to Florida is when I weaken my average, but I can make up for that doing runs like I did last weekend, we had to get over 100 empties out of a Target Distribution Centre and bring them to our Yard, it entailed bobtail one way and an empty back on a round trip of 7.5 miles (25 mins each trip) it paid $50 each trip, I did 26 between Friday night and Saturday afternoon including time spent at breakfast I spent about 14.5 hours doing job, When I figure my actual worktime it meant I was making $100 an hour, when you get deals like that, high fuel costs don’t have such a detrimental affect on your operating expenses, but we don’t have as high an operating expense as regular road drivers anyway, most of the time they aim to stay loaded as much as possible (it’s where their money is), but because we are paid the same empty,loaded or even bobtail, I try to run more empty miles than loaded, which having figured my average for the year, it seems I spend more time running empty and bobtail than I do loaded, according to my figures, 63% of my ‘moves’ are empty or bobtail, because all our trips are only loaded one way, it will always be empty or bobtail back, unless you get a reload which then means you get paid twice, I did one like that yesterday, I got paid $100 to run 23 miles loaded, another $100 to run 4 miles empty to reload and then run 21 miles back again 48 miles paid $200…Bish bosh!
There are plenty of other opportunities to pad your settlements without using too much fuel, for instance, I like running all night (less traffic, less stopping and starting, less fuel consumed), it also allows me to take maximum advantage of loads that deliver or pick-up in the morning that I know can take as long as 8 hours to load/unload, so I will run all night, grab the live load/unload early so I can be on time (if you are late you won’t get paid the detention pay that I like going after) because I’m knackered from running all night usually upwards of 12-15 hours, I then go to bed while I am at the long time loading/unloading place, knowing that after the first 2 hours I will be getting $50 an hour to sleep, I wake up refreshed , wide awake, with a smug look on my face for getting as much as $300 to sleep, make a nice cuppa and hit the road to go at it again!, of course it does’nt always work out so perfect as that, but it does work quite often, at least once a week. By manipulating the system like that enables me to use ways I can ‘beat’ the fuel hikes without worrying about my consumption, it also helps that I stay on realatively flat topography,( No mountains for me, fuel is too high and the mountains are too steep up there in Tennessee for me to keep my fairly respectable fuel consumption in check!), I don’t know what your average fuel returns are James, but I usually average between 6.8 and 7.8 a gallon, which is’nt bad cuz I do have a bit of a lead foot, and to be honest anything over 7.0 mpg is penalised by fuel taxes, so it really does’nt do anyone any favours by consitently returning over 7.0 mpg, technically the Feds refuse to believe a truck can acheive that kind of fuel economy, you and I know a truck can but either they really don’t or they pretend they don’t just so they can screw us for more fuel taxes each month.
Other Owner Operators will often ask me how I can stay in business pulling containers, usually after I have blown there doors off after overtaking at 75 mph or more, it always makes me laugh to see these bloddy great chrome bedecked ‘large cars’ that have the aerodynamic qualities of a breeze block, ‘poodling’ along these days at 65 mph, when not long ago it would have been them blowing my doors off, I can almost gaurantee I will get a comeback on the radio asking how I can still drive so fast at the current high price of fuel especially as I am pulling one of those ‘loss making’ containers, I really enjoy rubbing their nose in the fact that it probably has alot to do with the jurassic truck they are driving( gotta have that macho ‘large car’ no wimpy girly Volvo for them kinda attitude), which for modern aerodynamics and fuel consumption does’nt even leave the starting line when put up against a Volvo, oh yeah, for all those macho weiners, that laughed at the aerodynamic trucks, seems that they’re not laughing quite so loudly now, not when they are hard pushed to get 4.5 miles to the gallon, compared to 7+ per gallon on a truck like the Volvo VN (and in case your wondering, yes I do idle it all day and all night, I cannot stand the humidity, so I need A/C 24/7, It is only this past few days that I have started shutting it down now the cooler weather has arrived, but the days are still too warm so it is still idled all day) These poor sods, who had to have their Mr Macho Man 4.5 mpg truck are looking even more worried when they finally figure out that they, like so many other O/O who are leased onto the bigger carriers are actually making as little as 82cents a mile on miles driven, paying considerably more for their fuel in the various States, and no doubt being hit up hard on fuel taxes too, no wonder so many are joining the rapidly expanding ranks of newly bankrupt.
What alot of drivers don’t realise, is that contrary to the popular belief that container hauling is [ZB] poor money, it is in fact very lucrative, if you know how to work the system, there are drivers who are happy to make just $1500 a week working Mon- Fri 8.00am to 3.00pm, then there are drivers like me who aim for a figure between $2800 - $3500 a week, although I have’nt figured the system as well as some other drivers, because two of our drivers regulary make $3500- $4000 a week and do it Monday to Friday, I work Sunday to Sunday (most of the time) and still struggle to get above $3500 most of the time, but so long as I can do at least $3000 on no more than two fill-upsat the Diesel Pump I am happy, it usually takes around 150-165 gallons at a time, twice a week, the current price for a gallon here in Atlanta is $1.96 a gallon, down from an all time high of $2.21 a gallon two weeks ago.
So there you go, you asked how the cost of fuel was affecting us, now you know in clearly explained and easy to follow detail how it is not really affecting me at all. Yes I know I have written quite alot, but in view of the fact I have’nt put a post on here in months, and that I actually had a few hours to spare, notwithstanding that this is my forum anyway which gives me the right to write as much as I bloody well want! (although I do now share it with Mr Shaun "I never answer my phone’ Andrews) I thought I’d really get into some deep explanation that will show how I don’t consider the higher cost of fuel is really an issue, fuel has been artifically cheap in this country for so long, Americans have for too long been cushioned from as well as displayed a blatantly arrogant indifference to the realities of what a gallon of fuel costs consumers in other countries, now the price has finally begun to rise here in the USA to what could be considered a more realistic price level, which although not yet quite comparable to what the rest of the world has been paying for it’s fuel for years, it has gone someway, in regards to showing the population of the most wasteful country in the world, that the gravy train is about to run out of tracks.…although after saying all that, It would be nice for Diesel to go back down to a dollar a gallon again!
bloody hell cliff 
i found that quite interesting. you should get a job writing for a magazine
dave:
i found that quite interesting. you should get a job writing for a magazine
Yeah!
How about ‘Womans Own’
I thought it was knitters monthly…
Smartarse’s!!!
After re-reading what I wrote, It’s actually the ’ Economist ’ that springs to mind
may as well be a smartarse… need one part of me to be smart