At least I’m home. I’ve turned down a couple of loads, mainly because for one thing, I want to stay home over the weekend. Another, they weren’t paying very much. My dispatcher said they were getting tons of calls for trucks in Vegas, because for some reason there aren’t any available trucks in Vegas. Or it may be that there aren’t any trucks willing to take the ridiculous freight.
One broker called me direct after talking to my office, he says he can usually pay about $3600 on this load that’s about 2250 miles. A little on the horrible side, but it not only loads right now, it has an extra stop and he called my dispatcher yesterday for the same load. He’s got five loads to cover, this one is the most important one. He asks me what I want, I tell him $4800, which is a lot, but I’m home, the weekend is coming up, I really don’t feel like going anywhere, I don’t care if I get it or not. He tells me he only has $4600 total on it. So, he usually makes $1000 for making a few phone calls? He’s got to call his customer and call me back. He doesn’t call back, I don’t care. Shippers have been getting almost a free ride for too long. If I have the advantage somewhere, I’m taking it, It’s what they do. If I was in Florida and had been sitting for a couple of days, I would have taken less, but I’m not stuck somewhere.
Hopefully it will keep up like this on Monday when I am ready to go somewhere. Even then I won’t be in a big hurry. The bills are paid for the moment and I’m in no hurry to truck around for nothing. I’m in the trucking business, not the favor business.