In the last couple weeks, I've been hauling the cheapest freight I've ever seen. It's a freight broker's market, a broker's world.

A week ago, I bought my broker authority. In a couple weeks I'll be a broker/carrier.

Soon, I'll be selling my trailer. I pay $800 a month in freight related insurance. Hauling freight no longer covers the cost of putting it in my trailer.

The decision to stop hauling freight and begin brokering it, is obviously economic.

I live in my truck and have a small office set up. I'll broker freight in my truck until the market changes.

Therefore, my expenses are minimal and if brokering freight fails, I can always lease.

So there's my offer. I'll pay the highest commissions to freight agents!

...

Appended January 29, 2009

Monday, the 26th of January, I completed a trip from New Orleans, Louisiana to Phoenix, Arizona. A 1,500 mile trip that paid $1,500. My truck gets 6 miles to the gallon when fully loaded, which loads these days are like that. Very heavy. It took 250 gallons of fuel to make the trip. Fuel averaged $2.20 a gallon, and cost $550.

The week before, I had made a trip from Laredo, Texas to New Orleans. It payed $.85 a mile for the 700 mile trip. That trip payed $600.

I used the money from the Laredo to New Orleans trip, to finance the New Orleans to Phoenix trip. As you can see, the Laredo load would cover the fuel to Phoenix with only $50 to spare. With over the road expenses, namely eating for two weeks, I took a cash advance from the New Orleans to Phoenix trip of $200. At Eloy, Arizona, about 75 miles from Phoenix, I added 55 gallons of fuel costing $125. Now I'd subtract $200 from $1,500, what the New Orleans to Phoenix load would pay leaving $1,300. Yesterday, I was paid for the trip. The factoring company withheld $200 until the account receivable is paid to them, paying me $1,100. Yesterday I put $200 fuel in my truck, leaving $900. Tomorrow I have a load from Phoenix to Decatur, Alabama. I'll take the southern route due to the ice and snow, making a 1,600 mile trip into 1,800 mile trip. I'll need 300 gallons of fuel, costing $700.

Today is the 29th of January. On February 1st a series of payments are due, including Internet, phone some load board subscriptions, finance charges, truck and apu payments, totaling $1,000. Including freight related insurance, my fixed costs are $2,000 a month, not including fuel!

Point is, I need freight that pays closer to $2.00 a mile to cover my costs.

Last night I saw the movie, "Sex Drive". A coming of age movie I probably wouldn't have seen, except that I was parked at the Seminole Truck Stop, Weston, Florida, January this year during a portion of the filming.

I was leased to Landstar at the time, and the company I was delivering to asked that I drop the trailer. They would use one of their yard goats to dock it when they were ready to take the freight, and I would return to get my empty trailer in a few days. I bobtailed to a nearby truck stop, the Seminole Truck Stop, on Highway 27, Weston, Florida. A favorite among the Miami Harley motorcycle crowd, located along the eastern edge of the Florida Everglades.

At the time I arrived a movie set was under construction. A carnival was being set up, there were graphic renovations to the front by way of signs and graphics depicting it to be off Interstate 65, the route the story line took between Illinois and perhaps near Knoxville, Tennessee.

What I find to be quite amazing, is the hours and days spent, not to mention the $$$ on what turned out to be only a few minutes in the movie. There were perhaps 100 extras who showed up several days 8 to 10 hours a day for $50 a day. I turned out to be an extra, just milling around the carnival set. I was asked to sign a form and was paid $2. Apparently, I might have been in a frame or two, but I didn't see myself in the movie.

I found it to be gruling, and I was only killing time. I took about 30 pictures which the picture above is one I hope won't cause a problem to post, only in the sense that it is a spectator shot. While I was there to get some sense of the movie scene, the people working the set were really working it. Hours of setting up, takes and re-takes. A lot of equipment, lighting, shades, movie making technology, and days of hard work for only a few seconds of story line.

My APU's broke again. Saturday I was in Fairfield, Maine where it's cooler and a truck stop with showers is located. I needed to re-arrange the batteries in a utility box because a weld had broken. The weight of the batteries were stressing the box, and I needed to strap them away from the weak area. Soon I'll get to a weld shop and repair the broken weld. To do what I needed, I disconnected the batteries, however when I hooked everything back up the APU's computer wasn't booting up properly. I stressed over it all day Saturday, got dehydrated and made myself sick over it. If I'm going to live in a truck I want my APU! I checked all the connection's over and over, all the fuses. Everything was hooked up right and I didn't do anything to cause the problem.

Monday morning at 7am I was at the front stoop of Thermo King Portland, Maine. I'd parked in their back 40 the night before. I had called Saturday from Fairfield, Maine. They told me their TriPac tech wasn't in, but he'd be there Monday and he'd get my APU running. Sunday afternoon I went to Portland.

After an hour or so, they handed me a bill for $92. My APU was still not working, but they'd gladly overnight a wiring harness they seemed to think would fix it. Being a tech myself and having spent the weekend troubleshooting, I questioned the their diagnosis of a failed wiring harness as I was paying the bill and inquiring where I might find a Thermo King that had parts for the TriPac. The manager gave me a Thermo King book with the Boston, Massachusetts location and told me to get the hell off the property. Apparently he had the impression I felt they didn't know what they were doing. Thermo King of Portland expelled me with prejudice and would not allow me to park my trailer there a few days while I bobtailed. Luckily there's a Fleetguard yard 200 yards away. The Fleetguard people had no problem with me parking my trailer in their yard so I could bobtail to Thermo King in Boston.

The problem was not a failed wiring harness, but exactly the component I felt was, and shuttered to think about it. The TriPac's main computer board, costing $1,500 to troubleshoot and replace. My payments are $389 per month, with 17 payments remaining. This month, my TriPac cost me $1,981 to own.

Here's a list of some of the expense I've encountered since the beginning of July:

July 12, 2008 a bump in some construction in Colorado pulled the engine and transmission bell housings apart. The repair included a clutch, rear main engine seal, both bell housings, hardware, oil change, etc. $3,495

August 5, 2008 replaced U joint. $428

August 14, 2008 replaced steer tires. $1,058

August 18, 2008 missed diagnosis of TriPac's wiring harness. $92

August 19, 2008 TriPac's main computer board. $1,500

August 22, 2008 truck alternator and trailer tire. $681

Total: $7,245

Appended January 12, 2009

Last month my factoring company informed me a broker had run off and not payed them. Freight Factoring as it's called, pays carriers for their freight bills. When I contract a load, I do a credit check on the broker and the factoring company gives me a go-no-go based upon their relation with the broker. The factoring company will front me the $$$ when I turn in a freight bill and they hold the account receivable. The factoring company will take a percentage of the freight bill for this service.

In April 2008 a broker failed to pay and the factoring company took the loss based upon the fact they gave me a go with the broker.

Then in October 2008 another broker failed and now my factoring company is refusing to take the loss, even though they approved the credit. They witheld $500 from a settlement.

Right now, I'm in Fort Worth, Texas. I haven't made my truck payment for January or my insurance payment. I've been looking for freight since Friday, and can hardly believe how cheap it's paying. I've seen some posted at $.40 a mile and it moved! I've been getting quotes between $.70 and $.80 a mile. It costs me $.30 a mile to move this truck based upon today's fuel cost. Let's just add up my monthly expenses:

$800 a month insurance.

$345 a month truck payment.

$350 a month APU (TriPac) payment.

$250 a month interntet, phone, load board subscriptions.

That's $1,995 a month fixed expense, conservative because I'm not counting the finance charges on my two maxxed out credit cards.

Say I get a load that pays $1,000 for 1,000 miles. On a typical heavy load, my truck gets 6 miles per gallon. Fuel will cost $300 on that load, leaving $700. If I got one of those loads a week, I'd be doing pretty good and can pay my expenses. So I can dream, can't I?

Fact is, I'm not even doing that. I'm not sure what I'm averaging. And now my factoring company is taking another $345 from a current settlement.

That's $845 I've lost in a month due to failed brokers. See, the problem is compounded because I've loaded the freight, payed the fuel and expenses, delivered the freight and will not be compensated. I cannot do business that way and I don't think anyone else can either.