Slow Season Question

I know it's not really slow anymore at least not for me but I just have a question about the slow season. How many miles are people getting in the slow season? I know good miles are probably considered 2300+ so what is considered slow or not so good?

I know it's not really slow anymore at least not for me but I just have a question about the slow season. How many miles are people getting in the slow season? I know good miles are probably considered 2300+ so what is considered slow or not so good?

Hey Theron, hope it's going well for you. Since I am on a dedicated account my mileage is fairly constant, so not sure about the answer. However if you are high-performing driver (which you probably will be), you are less effected by the slow season. Like the farmers say, make hay while the sun is up.

As an experienced driver I always shot for about 3,000 - 3,200 miles per week. That was a great week.

About 2,700 - 3,000 miles was a little slow but not a tragedy.

Anything under 2,700 was worthy of serious concern.

Anything under 2,500 and phone calls had to be made.

But that was with experience. Your first year take about 300 miles off of those numbers. And also keep in mind that getting those kind of numbers consistently meant doing things like moving appointment times forward, constantly hounding dispatch for more miles, and doing everything I could to keep things moving. If you just sit back and hope for the best you'll never get anywhere near those miles consistently. You have to push things. You have to try to get loaded and unloaded early, you have to push for pre-plans, and you have to roll every chance you get.

Brett,

Just a question. When you were driving, you were under the old HOS rules and paper logs. I'm sure you never fudged those! With the new HOS rules, 14 Hour Clock, E Logs and 62-67 mph governed Trucks, are those numbers still possible consistently?

Thanks!

Brett,

Just a question. When you were driving, you were under the old HOS rules and paper logs. I'm sure you never fudged those! With the new HOS rules, 14 Hour Clock, E Logs and 62-67 mph governed Trucks, are those numbers still possible consistently?

Thanks!

It's certainly possible but you won't have the flexibility I had since I could write down whatever I wanted to. When I would fudge the logbook I wouldn't run over my 70. It was the 10 on/ 8 off that we had back then that you could move around to suit your purposes. We also didn't have the 14 hour rule, nor did we have the 34 hour reset.

But you can certainly do it with today's rules and electronic logbooks. You have to really master time management and be really ambitious about moving appointment times around and staying on top of dispatch to keep you preplanned as often as possible.

I know Daniel B was turning big miles when he was running OTR and so does Old School using electronic logs and today's rules.

I've been solo for three months and have heard people whine about sitting for days. I met other rookies with the same dispatcher tell me they are only getting 1200 miles a week. I average 2500 per week... my max I reached 3 times at 2900. This week will be my lowest at 1300... (other than hometime) unless my dispatcher pushes thru this run of 1300 (or I talk 90 into getting me in early).

Now 1300 hundred sounds bad... but.... tues/Wed I was in the terminal for doctor appt. Thurs/Fri I maxed out my hours. My dispatcher actually called me to ask if I was alright driving when he saw night dispatch message me constantly about getting loaded...he knew I didn't sleep then i rolled out of customer. When I maxed out I told him i was going to walmart to get an Rx and stock my truck then heading to truck stop to sleep like the dead. I wound up with a load that delivers on wed... after pay cut off.... but I have plenty of time to get it there.... so I'll either play dumb and try to push it up... or my dispatcher might be able to push it thru. Worst case scenario is that this pay will suck but next week will be pretty big....cause I can certainly drive 2000 mikes between Wed and tues plus the 1300.

This job is a bit like commission. Where one week can be down and the next week huge. One great thing about my company that I don't know if other companies do.... if I have a bad week and need some cash my FM will advance me a couple hundred on com check and take out of next week's pay. I don't want to ise it constantly but it is great knowing that in an emergency that is available.

In addition to miles I get between $50 to $100 per week in fuel bonus.. and in 3 months racked up $50 in rewards points to use in our company store and salon/spa. I got a FREE hour long massage at the terminal this week using those points ;) lo e some of these perks hahaha

It's definitely possible to get the miles on elogs. Now, I would say it's easier for someone in dry van than in refer for the simple fact that you generally don't sit as long waiting for a load or unload and many more drop and hook opportunities with dry van. Either way, the miles are there, you just have to go get them. Getting appointment times moved up if you can make it early definitely helps too, just keep in mind that some places like Walmart are pretty specific on their appointment times and with so many places making everything a JIT - just in time load, it's getting a bit more difficult but still doable.

I honestly never felt slow freight season, not 20yrs ago, and not now :) I don't believe it's my good looks and charm either lol. Well maybe it is part charm, because attitude is the only major difference I saw between my experience and drivers that were complaining. I had a codriver that was pulled in for follow up training, Jan or feb, we had hit 5400 miles and would've ran more except for his class, the instructor asked the class how many miles they were getting, saying it's probably not what they were used to. After the class he asked me what was going on, said some drivers thought he was lying when he said how many miles we had so far that week. I had been trying to explain to him about having that good relationship with disp, making the effort to not be the last 8 or 9 drivers calling up with the same complaints (loads under 1000miles, detention times, refusing loads, refusing city work etc basically all the things we know disp hears everyday of their career) my goal was to make dispatches job as easy as I could, my job is to drive, thier job is to find me somethIng to dtive!lol dont complocate past that :) And in the long run I feel that contributed the most to the experience of never feeling slow frieght. Had a company driver get in my face ready to fight because I disagreed with his "don't ever accept city work.....it's all they will give you from then on!" Again my experience was the oposite, I was stuck in San Francisco area, no load after a few hours, still no load after a few more which was rare, called disp and asked if they had anything to keep me busy, my disp had in fact a 5 stop run in San Francisco lol this is an all day load, no way around it. I said I would take , would rather be busy than not, disp told me hold on he was working a few angles, am hour later I was disp on a mail run to new Jersey :) so in fact disp actively avoided giving me city work, instead they kept me running. Why? I can only guess that disp knew if they absolutely needed that load delivered, they could've given it to me and never heard a peep of protest, I'm out here to work, not complain about the work. This attitude tends to be so far from the worst they deal with, that it changes my experience. Don't get me wrong, I know slow frieght is real, and if/when I feel it, it will be with the same attitude of calm acceptance, my success is not measured by a week or two of poor performance, it's based on a yearly average :D

Hey thanks a lot for the info guys! Good to see some realistic & actual numbers. Appreciate it!

As an experienced driver I always shot for about 3,000 - 3,200 miles per week. That was a great week.

About 2,700 - 3,000 miles was a little slow but not a tragedy.

Anything under 2,700 was worthy of serious concern.

Anything under 2,500 and phone calls had to be made.

But that was with experience. Your first year take about 300 miles off of those numbers. And also keep in mind that getting those kind of numbers consistently meant doing things like moving appointment times forward, constantly hounding dispatch for more miles, and doing everything I could to keep things moving. If you just sit back and hope for the best you'll never get anywhere near those miles consistently. You have to push things. You have to try to get loaded and unloaded early, you have to push for pre-plans, and you have to roll every chance you get.

this... if i hit below 2500 I'm talking to someone above my dispatcher. As it is on Monday i will have a conversation with one that will be a bit less then kind. I did a "favor" for one of the weekend dispatcher guys and my reward was no freight until Monday, 47 hours from when i unloaded until my next load picks up. I will let the real manager know that i will never run another load for that guy period.