The Trucker Man | Truckology 101 May 22, 2022
Do you consider miles or rates? In trucking you're going to hear about cpm when you're an owner operator.
While we agree knowing your cpm is very important in running your business, it is the most important part of the cpm number and how it applies to your bottom line.
1. Not everyone will have all the same costs.
2. It's enough videos on YouTube that focus on how you should interpret/use/apply that number. Most people just rely on simple addition once they come up with their cpm.
Let's say their cpm is 1.00. They say ok if I book a load for 2 dollars a mile then I am making 1 dollar profit per mile. So, then you take fuel/pay/maintenance out of that dollar and all that stuff, right?
Let me explain to you how that hurts the industry. On an open market if you simply base your rate off per mile based on your cpm, you dilute the industry by creating a company driver pay scale. Many company drivers run off cpm, but not the same cpm that carriers do.
So, when the two get mixed up with each other we begin to see a decline in rates. It's a lot more to pricing loads than knowing your cpm; this is why when people ask me how much I need to move my truck my answer is always the same, it depends.
You need to know the distance/commodity/weight/temp and its loaded transit times detention policy and quick pay policy before I can accurately price a load; all these things factor into price. I average 2 dollars a mile on all miles, so I'm good!
Check out the link below on how to calculate rates:
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