Hauling Rates

[barrettwood]

Hey guys,
Been hanging back reading all the posts for a bit now and finally have a question.
I've got a '92 F450 with 8 x 14' flatbed and dump, max weight around 3 ton. Thinking of offering a hauling service for hay, lumber or whatever. Need to figure out how to charge for this.
Should I charge a certain rate per kilometer for the total trip, only by the loaded kilometer or possibly by the hour?
Would appreciate your opinions and any rates you may have.

 

[rip van sparky]

local by the hour, long distance by the mile err, km.

 

[MMeier]

local by the hour, long distance by the mile err, km.

Yeah, what he said!! If someone doesn't like my rates, I tell them to go haul thier own "stuff" !!

 

[barrettwood]

What rate?

What kind of rates are you charging? Is the per km/mile rate loaded distance or round trip?

 

[94f450sd]

Yeah, what he said!! If someone doesn't like my rates, I tell them to go haul thier own "stuff" !!

i tell them to call the next guy thats gonna charge them 60.00 instead of my 40.00.and they will pay him the 60.00 cuz hes been around longer than me and has more trucks than me,go figure

in the car bussiness we are getting somewhere around 2.00 a mileround trip.i just give a flat price.dont like watching mileage i get 40.00 for an in town tow and then the price goes up from there.

 

[MMeier]

What kind of rates are you charging? Is the per km/mile rate loaded distance or round trip?

Not set in stone, but I start off at $1.50 a loaded mile per vehicle if hauling those ,if a regular customer or I know I have something not too far away to pick up thats worth my time and effort I canoffer a break on price....sometimes. Don;t take the cheap freight just because it's there!

 

[aaklingler]

i tell them to call the next guy thats gonna charge them 60.00 instead of my 40.00.and they will pay him the 60.00 cuz hes been around longer than me and has more trucks than me,go figure

in the car bussiness we are getting somewhere around 2.00 a mileround trip.i just give a flat price.dont like watching mileage i get 40.00 for an in town tow and then the price goes up from there.

It $85 for an in town tow here. I charge $1 a loaded mile but I think I'm going to up it to $1.50.

If you have to help load I'd make sure you include your time in that. Or if you have to sit and wait.

 

[MMeier]

Roger on the manual labor part!! The wait ing time deal I have to work on with some jobs seeing as how I got into it with one over wasting 6 hours of MY time waiting for something that was supposed to be "ready" for pick up, needless to say my services "are no longer required" by this one, oh f'n well !!

 

[barrettwood]

Thanks, now I have to decide if I'm going to do this or not. I planned on it being just a part time thing to add on to my business until I received a quote from my insurance broker. To cover me hauling other than my own material, it will cost me $3500/year just for insurance. Currently costs 900/year for my own use.
Will maybe feel out the market and see if there is any real money to be made around here.

 

[MMeier]

Thanks, now I have to decide if I'm going to do this or not. I planned on it being just a part time thing to add on to my business until I received a quote from my insurance broker. To cover me hauling other than my own material, it will cost me $3500/year just for insurance. Currently costs 900/year for my own use.
Will maybe feel out the market and see if there is any real money to be made around here.

Sheees, only $3500 a yr. Better check to make sure you have the proper coverages, cheapest my insurance guy could find that would cover me was $5600, but I didn't like the sounds of that company, so I went with Wilshire Insurance out of California, $1800 down, $574 a month. Do you have your DOT and MC stuff set up yet? Need the insurance to get the MC #

 

[barrettwood]

MC#??? Not sure what that would be. Up here we have to have a CVOR (commercial vehicle operator registration). Maybe same as your MC#??
I'm going to check up on some other insurance companies just to get an idea of what I'm looking at.
One way out that I've thought of would be to just put the bills for whatever I'm hauling into my name and basically resell it to the customer I deliver to. That way if I do have an accident it should be covered under my regular coverage.

 

[MMeier]

Ooops, I now see you're up there north of the border, maybe you guys do things differently up there. Best to check around with the authorities and see what they have to say! Regular insurance don't do nothing down here for a commercial operation.

 

[barrettwood]

The truck is licenced and insured for commercial use but only for my own business and product. All I need extra to carry other parties cargo is the extra cargo/ carrier insurance in case something happens. That's why I thought about purchasing and selling the product under my own name but on paper only.
I suppose I could just haul the stuff and if I did have a problem I could get it put into my name as if I did buy it but otherwise not worry about it. If I lost a load of hay off the truck, I don't imagine they would question me if I just told them it was mine anyway.

 

[Brickman]

Canada DOT specificly Ontario will be a major pain in the ass from what I've heard. Check into all the laws up front to avoid MAJOR fines down the road.