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HawkJune 08 SLT a good choice?Sometime this year a group of teams from R & R ended their contracts and went to work for SLT. I only know one team that went and did not ask them why they went. So, is the move to SLT a good move? Here's the deal ... they offer a Cents per Mile model instead of a Percentage model. This takes the line-haul rate out of the equation. Instead of having to balance miles and rates you only have to worry about miles. Here's the Deal: You are paid by the mile. You are paid for every mile you truck travels (HHM/Short Miles). You get $1.00 per mile to deadhead to the shipper from the previous consignee. You get paid for the line-haul using a rate structure that goes up and down according to the national average fuel price. The rate structure also varies according to the trailer that you use and the type of freight you haul. As of 5/31/08
Example 1: Flatbed, DOD load. You deadhead 150 miles to a Flatbed DOD load with 850 line-haul miles. You will get $150 for your deadhead ($1.00 * 150 miles). You will get $ 2.52 ($ 1.03+$ .07+$ .70+$ .72) per mile for the line-haul miles of the load which comes to $2,142. The total settlement for this load would be $ 2,292 or $ 2.29 per mile for all miles. Example 2: Van, Freight of all kinds load. You deadhead 150 miles to a Van FAK load with 850 line-haul miles. You will get $150 for your deadhead ($1.00 * 150 miles). You will get $ 1.75 ($ 1.03+$ .72) per mile for the line-haul miles of the load which comes to $ 1,487.50. The total settlement for this load would be $ 1,637.5 or $ 1.63 per mile for all miles. Those aren't bad rates and you get paid for your deadhead miles. The question is wether it is better that you can get at R & R? There is no clear answer to this question because it depends on what is important to you. If you want to play it safe and get good rates on a steady basis and get compensated when fuel prices go up, then this could be the right choice for you. However, you miss out on the "high dollar" loads. You also have other items of concern such as how much of the freight is van and FAK. SLT is new to the business and who knows how much DOD freight they will have. I setup a profile which assumes a 10% FB, 90% Van, 10% FAK, and %90 DOD freight. I am tracking all of the loads that I have been assigned this year and will compare the results with the amount that I get paid from R & R. This can be seen on my blog that tracks the truck/business items by clicking on the Main Journal link on the sidebar of this blog. I did an exercise that calculated all of the assignments we were given last year using the SLT model. I went as far as to include the adjusted rate per assignment based upon the national average fuel price and fuel surcharge. Some assignment we made more and other we made less. However, the bottom line was that we made $4,920 more in the 5 months we were with R & R. If you want a steady income and want between $1.63 and $2.29 a mile for all miles on your truck then perhaps SLT is for you. However, if you want more risk and are willing to haul freight for less then $1.63 sometimes then consider R & R. Personally, I don't like a position that offers no "upside" and will stay with R & R. By no "upside" I mean that you don't get paid any more for the "high dollar" loads that you do the other loads. For now we will stay with the folks at R & R trucking ... I'm BackI has been awhile since I posted anything over here. I am going to make it a point to post here when I have thoughts on things. Fortunately my wife has been able to take the time to record our journey. You can find her blog by clicking on the link Her Journal on the side. Oh and the last entry before this one is for August 2006 not 2007. August 06 Charlotte, NC to Phoenix, AZAfter 25 years of marriage you would think that you know your spouse pretty well. Well, do I have news for you! You want to really get to know your spouse just quit your jobs, learn to drive an 18 wheeler and head out on the road for weeks at a time. Then, and only then, will you really get to know the person that you are married to. And if you are thinking you might have an idea, I am going to tell you that – no, you really don’t. I am also going to tell you that if you do such a crazy thing, prepare for worst battle of your life, or the best thing you could do for the marriage, or both.
To summarize, I believe that I am a very lucky man …
… more later July 23 Laredo, TX to Morganton, NCWe made our drop in Laredo and promptly hooked on to our next load and pointed ourselves north! I am not very fond of the Laredo area and am quite happy when it grows small in my mirrors. However, I am quite amazed in how much freight comes in and out of the area. The Mexican economy is growing by leaps and bounds. The border patrol is more active than the last time we were here. And there was a rumor of flesh eating jack rabbits but the person who started that rumor is quite insane.
We are headed to the east coast and just like the last time we left Laredo headed east, we had a squall about an hour into our trip – how strange! It poured cats and dogs for about 30 minutes and then a lightning show and intermittent rain for a couple hours afterwards. I wanted to stop the truck and grab my washing gear and wash the truck but it was in the bunk area where my wife was sleeping. I am not certain which is crazier, washing a truck in the rain or imagining a sea of bunnies ... July 21 Portland, OR to Laredo, TXI have relocated the cellular antenna to the rear of the main cabin so that it extends above everything. The height of the tip is at around 14’. The reception has been exceptional as we very seldom lose a signal over the routes we have taken so far.
I have added a new inverter and have attached it directly to the battery. This eliminates the problem of the inverter needing to be reset every time it lost power on the 12 volt side (the ignition system cuts the power to the accessories when it transfers the power to the starter). I have discovered that a majority of the inverters behave in the same manner. Anyway, we have good power to our electronics and we are beyond that problem (I hope).
I have replaced the KR1 router with a Top Global router to eliminate the network reset on loss. This router seems to be working well and does not reset on loss of the WAN connection. However, I am noticing an occasional drop on the Wi-Fi side but have not spent any time finding out why. I am so happy that my network is staying up that a drop once or twice a day is nothing (I am sure it will start to annoy me at some point). The KR1 was resetting 15-20 times a day!
I have changed the error handling routine for the client side of the trip mapper. It seems to be working much better and recovers on its own most of the time. I have some more work to do but the “Live View” should be current now unless we do not have a network connection.
We lost the weather station console and logger. The weather data is joined with the GPS data to provide the records for the trip mapper. Currently, the mapper requires the weather data in order to display the GPS data. I am considering a change to the client to place dummy records in the table if the data has not yet been collected or it is not available. I will need to do something as I will not get a replacement for several weeks.
Anyway, now that things are finally under control, I hope to journal daily again. We shall see … June 27 Los Angeles, CA to Houston, TXWell I was right, there is a lot of new things to learn and that leaves little time for pondering or researching. The tracking system is working better than I thought it would for a rough draft. However, it’s hard to trouble shoot when your network drops out whenever you lose the cell connection. I need to find a better solution before the tracking system will be reliable. I guess I know what I will be working on the next time we are at home. June 23 Riverview, CA to Los Angeles, CAThe installation into the new truck went very well. I will take some pictures and post them when I get some free time. I think I might have found a cheap solution to my problem. I need my own battery between the 12 volt outlet and the inverter. I am thinking about using a battery jumpstart device and just keep it constantly charged. I haven’t checked out the specs but it seems like an inexpensive solution. The only other solution that I can think of is an mini-RV type solution but I haven’t had a chance to look into that yet.
I have a feeling a good portion of my time will be spent keeping on top of our first “team scheduled" delivery. The last time I calculated our delivery time we might make it on time. However, we got stuck in traffic so I will most likely have to send in new estimate on delivery. This is going to be interesting … |
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