How much to per mile

I just sent a quote request on a website, how much per mile do trucks charge these days, it is a 870 mile trip, hauling a 17,000 pound tractor? I know wait for the reply from them but thought someone might have ideas of anything better or ones to look out for! Thanks

just a bit off the subject but what kind tractor did you get I'm not sure but does 3 dollars a mile sound in line no idea

I've sort of lost touch over the last few years, but $4.00 to $5.00 per loaded mile is to be expected. If your tractor can share the trip with something else, might go down to $2.00 per mile. Those big rigs do not run cheap.

Holy cow, got some quotes back, I guess cause it is over two weeks from needing picked up, a couple quoted me under 1.5 dollars per mile, never expected it!

Like so many other things; freight rates are all over the place. If you can find a local company; allow them to work to their schedule; do not need any oversize permits; you can get a lot better rate. Many companys will run at just over expenses to get their trucks back in loaded rather than empty. Hiring a truck to specifically go get it; they will expect you to pay them both ways at a good profit. Hense the $3-$4 per mile numbers. You are paying them to run empty as well as haul the load. Better to get it loaded on a truck coming back into the area where you are that is coming "home" as well. You can look in a local phone book and find folks to call.

A 17,00 pound tractor, more than likely will be 10 wide since it will probably have duals and the longer axles. That would put you in the permit program. Some states do not require permits for farm equipment. I would be in the 2.5 -3.00 per mile range and would load to the load and then load yours back.
If this has a turbo make sure they close the exhaust (tape,boot or what ever,). If the turbo spins it will be junk when you get it.
I always tape the exhaust with duct tape. If it is a Deere I put a strap over the cab so the top cover won't blow off. They will and it is about 800.00 for the new one the driver will not want to pay for. Check your pictures before and then the tractor afterwards for differences. Like items mentioned.
Make sure they have liability and cargo insurance. This will cover you for damage. After all you don't want him have somebody run the stop sign and have your tractor ruined and not covered. Both parties will not be happy. This can be some of the differences in your rates. Remember you get what you pay for.
Going by a Ritchie auction one time I saw where a guy was loading Skidsteers on a flatbed. He was just putting a strap over the top of the cabs. So make sure your guy knows what he is doing.

(quoted from post at 06:01:06 11/20/15) Like so many other things; freight rates are all over the place. If you can find a local company; allow them to work to their schedule; do not need any oversize permits; you can get a lot better rate. Many companys will run at just over expenses to get their trucks back in loaded rather than empty. Hiring a truck to specifically go get it; they will expect you to pay them both ways at a good profit. Hense the $3-$4 per mile numbers. You are paying them to run empty as well as haul the load. Better to get it loaded on a truck coming back into the area where you are that is coming "home" as well. You can look in a local phone book and find folks to call.

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I get this every day, as I am in the transport business. I have been for many years. Thank goodness I have everything paid for, because if I hadn't, I wouldn't be able to hang on with the way this business fluxuates.

People think just because we charge a round trip fee that it's some sort of crime. I had a guy text me recently that had an "urgent" move for me...Two tractors from northern Vermont to Central Massachusetts. Had to have it done that day. Normally and generally speaking, some other transporters would make this a "priority" or in layman's terms, a "hit". I don't operate that way...I just want a fair day's pay for a fair day's work and a good reference. I calculated the approximate time and mileage and gave him the quote based on the numbers...and it wasn't "cheap," but fair to the penny based on the 12-14 hours it would honestly take to complete it. He texted me back and said "never mind...I never heard of anybody getting paid BOTH WAYS for something in my life..."

Let me get this straight then, because I must be a little slower than others. I'm supposed to haul something one way, charge for that time [b:b7532c14bf]only[/b:b7532c14bf]...then pull the plates off the truck/trailer and walk home? Or maybe rent a "Sky Hook" to bring the truck/trailer home so I don't burn any fuel, have to pay road taxes on every mile traveled, or maybe I can get my insurance agent to deduct the mileage I am on the Sky Hook while hovering? I'm not trying to be a wise guy here...I'm making an honest assessment of what people think about freight rates and trucking costs in general.

The costs are all over the map due to many reasons. One being a saturation of trucking companies that have less-than-qualified "drivers" to put it politely that need to keep trucks rolling that you are taking an awful chance on using, as stated by the last post I read where the guy throws a strap over a skidsteer cab to secure it. Another is just pure lack of knowledge of how this industry works. Many variables, but as with any other service provider whether it be a trucker, plumber, carpenter or heating system tech...you do indeed get what you pay for.

Trucks aren't cheap to own, keep up, keep registered and insured, or fix nowadays. Fuel filter for this ISX Cummins I own alone= $73.00 each if you buy them over the counter from a parts house. I managed to skirt that by buying them differently, but this is just one example of some of the horrendous costs affiliated with heavy duty trucking. Quarterly fuel tax reporting. People don't realize it costs us .06/mile to drive on New York State roads every single mile you use them. Every state charges you a different rate, but NY is one of the most expensive to operate in.

$550.00/year Federal Hiway Use Tax. Talk about a crock, but you have to pay it or else. New UCR (Unified Carrier Registration) filing (a tax in disguise) is another $82.50 annually they just started per truck, per year. Try paying a $12,000/year insurance premium and see how warm and fuzzy you feel making those installments every single month. Then tell me you wonder how we can charge for a two-way trip and not feel guilty...Tires, maintenance...you should see the shoebox of receipts I have to manage for the weekly expenses, and I'm a small time operation compared to the heavy hitters.

Let's look at equipment needed to do this stuff for a second. I just bought 8 brand new Grade 70 transport chains, four 1/2" X 12 footers, and four 3/8" X 12 footers with proper hooks and 8 brand new ratchet binders to do a job that required the proper WLL securement, and it was just north of $1,000.00 for that stuff a month ago. 8 chains, 8 binders. Just as a mechanic needs his Snap On, Mac, or Matco tools every week or month, so does a professional transporter need his tools to perform his job safely AND stay compliant most of all. Worn chain links, or just the stamped markings on them, or a minute little rip in a nylon ratchet strap will get you shut down at a roadside inspection in a New York minute. I also have an arsenal of hand and power tools to keep things working right too...so that's yet another expense on top of it all.

I recently moved an old D8 for a guy 250 miles. Cost him $5,000.00 for me to do it, and he was more than satisfied with that because I did everything I said I was going to do, it was a challenge from the first minute to the last, and it didn't RUN, so that added some fun to the mix. The wrecker I hired alone to unload it and drag it 200 feet to it's resting place was $1,500.00 for an 8 hour stint. It was a project, but again, the customer was and still is happy. The month of phone calls it took to three different states obtaining information and permits, etc...and the 26 total hours of transporting and labor on both ends to prep and unload...it goes on and on.

Also remember, some things require some specialized handling such as winching, rigging, RGN trailers, so everything has a specialized cost in those areas. It's fine and dandy to say "Sure, I'll haul yer tractor fer ya.." but when the guy arrives on site with a dually and a gooseneck and no way to load a dead machine, etc. now the sweetness of the cheaper priced guy suddenly becomes a little bitter. Or better yet it's a 14K GVW trailer and the piece is 16K that needs moving.

I had that happen recently too. A golf course sent their men to rent a 750 cfm air compressor that weighs about 9000 lbs. to the rental company with a one ton dump and a car trailer, and almost broke the trailer in half, had to abort the mission and call me. I moved it the past two years in a row now, because they appreciate the ease of operation and the safety benefits of having the right equipment for the task.

So it's all relative. You do absolutely get what you pay for, regardless of what it is you're doing.



This was a non-running Case TLB that took four hours to load...had to use geometry that I haven't used in 35 years to rig this thing with snatch blocks 3 different ways to pull it to a spot to be able to winch it onto the truck, secure it then haul it 4 hours east...then another couple hours to unload it because it didn't run.


The Ditch Witch ran, but it was contankerous as all get out. V 4 Wisconsin and some wicked jumpy hydraulics made it interesting, but I won in the end.

Lastly, this old Allis Chalmers HD5 skid shovel didn't run either. It sat in the woods bucket down for the last 20 years, had a hemlock sapling growing in the bucket. My first attempt was last year, but failed to bring it home because it was frozen into the ground, and the machine is locked up solid. Drove up to Maine 7 hours and back home 7 hours without the machine, but the customer insisted on paying me anyways the entire $1,000.00 for the day. I wish everybody was like him.

Went back there this past October, with guns a' blazing. New wire rope on winch, new attitude and I got it on finally. I disconnected the driveshaft so she rolled freely, and a skidder helped push as I pulled it on. That was another $1,400.00 for that second trip, as it was about 700 miles round trip, but I gave him a break due to the first failed attempt. I didn't even want him to pay me for the previous trip last year, but he insisted and I accepted reluctantly. All I wanted was fuel money but he said "time is money". That's a real trooper.


So the moral to my long-winded story is...."If it was easy, everybody'd be doin' it...."

A lot of it depends on the shipping lane or what part of the country you are in. From Idabel Oklahoma to here in Tennessee pretty easy for me to catch a back haul if we have one unit left out there. Most times even less than $1.50 per mile. And I might say these guys are glad to get it. Location and timing are all part of the factors that figure in to it. IF you are one that has to have it TODAY and just ready to pay that high price I am sure there are some folks out there that will take you $3 to 4 dollars per mile.

Very well put! If it looks easy, take a second look, it more than likely isn't. I'm in the used tractor parts business, your comments of winching on dead equipment is all too familiar to me. Running any business by the books has lots of overhead, the ones cutting corners can always do it for less.

A trusted friend of mine says we only have three things to sell: Price, Quality and Service. Rarely will a customer get all three.

(quoted from post at 18:28:35 11/29/15) Very well put! If it looks easy, take a second look, it more than likely isn't. I'm in the used tractor parts business, your comments of winching on dead equipment is all too familiar to me. Running any business by the books has lots of overhead, the ones cutting corners can always do it for less.

A trusted friend of mine says we only have three things to sell: Price, Quality and Service. Rarely will a customer get all three.

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Agreed. And those three things are what I sell, every single job.

Perfect example is today's mission. I have a customer that called, needing a 585 Case tractor with loader moved from Western Mass. to Rhode Island. Sounds simple, but the catch is..it needs to be out of the seller's location ASAP meaning TODAY. I highly doubt he has time or the resources to find one of those "dollar fifty a mile haulers" to get this done in a timely manner.

He called last week, and disappeared for a day or two. I'm sure using that time to search for the cheaper, generic one with a 1 ton and a car trailer probably with no brakes, to do this. Then out of the blue...he re-appears. Lo & Behold, he decided the way to do this is to have me on the scene. Then he calls back and tells me there will be not one, but TWO 585's now...one runner, one dead horse.

To make matters more interesting, now it has to all be done all at once, both runner and non-runner gone at the same time immediately, and they go to TWO SEPARATE locations in Rhode Island. Fine with me, but we went from using the rollback truck to my 35 ton detachable lowbed to grab them both, then I am storing them both at my place until Saturday when we can get together in Rhode Island and unload them.

So there you have it. From the bottom of the spectrum to the top, cheap prices don't necessarily mean good service and customized service. I provide both, at a reasonable cost.

If I figured these things at $1.50/mile, I'd be at the courthouse filing chapter 11. Looking at the mileage vs. rate I charged for this, it's north of $3.00/mile, (still within the realm of reasonable.) Figuring about two hours to load these things, and the same to get them off in two different locations, plus travel time...I'm not getting rich by any means, but the job will get done, the customer is smiling now and will be afterwards, because most others would suddenly see this as a cash cow, because it's not just so cut & dried anymore.

People just don't take into consideration the mountain of compliance issues and fees, the cost to operate and keep a business running smoothly, and all the variables when they are surfing for that "special deal".

A very wise old man once told me years ago, "you get what you pay for..."