Freight Decisions for Owner-Operators

How many times have you heard your owner-operators say, “That freight is too cheap for me to haul”? From a business standpoint, there are times when it’s understandable for an owner-operator to think this way. However, we often find that the rationale for owner-operators turning down freight can come from them misunderstanding the true cost of operating their business on a daily basis.

If an owner-operator believes the freight they are offered is “too cheap”, many times they will opt to deadhead or skip a day on the road all together rather than take the load. We often hear them say they won’t run for anything less than a predetermined amount of money per mile. We don’t believe this is the correct way to look at freight rates. Rather than choosing loads based on revenue per mile, drivers need to look at revenue per day on a round trip or weekly basis. This is because whether or not a driver is hauling freight, fixed costs don’t stop.

Interested in sharing this information with your fleet? Download our flyer and educate your contractors to look at freight rates and operating costs in order to make sure they are running their business as successfully as possible.