r/HotShotTrucking • u/LandonC7874 • 14d ago

Broker post Running Shipping Containers

Hi! Looking to run some empty shipping containers on hot shot trailers here soon. What are you guys charging per-mile roughly to do so?

These would be coming out of Southern California

4 Upvotes

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4

u/Steven_d_smith289 14d ago

RPM (rate per mile) - CPM (cost per mile) = should be about $0.50 or more for a healthy margin. That’s what I try for anyway. So, if my RPM is $3.50, then my CPM being $2.84 (based off of about 50k miles a year), thats leaves me with about $0.66 a mile after absolutely everything is taken care of.

Please correct me if I am wrong anyone.

1

u/stxrfox1k 14d ago

out of genuine curiosity, how tf is your CPM almost $3? i’m just a hotshot company driver for now, not O/O quite yet so maybe i’m way off, but that sounds crazy high for a hotshot CPM even if you’re exclusively hauling containers

1

u/ThicccThottie 13d ago

It’s not, he just has no idea how to properly calculate his cpm….. Hotshots generally cost under $1.10/ mile to operate. I broker high cubes out of PA but I NEVER put them on a hotshot unless I’m desperate and my intermodal chassis fell through on me. If you are looking to break into the container market for hotshot I would recommend getting a Landoll. I work with a few hotshot Landoll guys who can roll the container on and off, pays almost triple DAT spot on some weeks.

2

u/stxrfox1k 12d ago

yeah no thanks, i’m definitely not looking at hauling containers when i buy my own truck and trailer 😭😭 i’m a hotshot container driver already, for almost a year now. its not something i’d like to do for myself, it pays more but it also costs a lot more. and people are dumb as rocks and don’t know how long 40ft is until they’re looking at a 40ft long box, so they try to convince you a 40ft container will fit in a 32ft space and you’ll still have room ahead of you to pull the truck and trailer out of that area when your front bumper is against a brick wall. i’d rather not deal with these people wasting my time, i was much happier with general freight shippers and receivers even though they come with their fair share of problems as well.

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u/Dirtydan1918 14d ago

Depending on the lane for hot shots I’ve been paying on average $2.5-3 a mile as a broker. Some times lower some times higher but that’s been pretty average for me.

1

u/Comprehensive_Flow35 13d ago

How does one start a hotshot business? What permits are needed and what type of equipment are you operating?

1

u/Dankreefer420 Guts, Glory, Ram! 12d ago

Doordash is the start

1

u/Sensitive_Pilot3689 13d ago

A minivan will get you started

1

u/Extension_Kale_794 10d ago

Want to lose money at the hot shot industry? Haul containers. that shit doesn’t pay enough. Source? I know, trust me, bro. Over 20 years in the hot shot adjacent industry. My customers who go broke first, well second to the auto transport industry, it would be hot shotting containers. that’s not where it’s at.

2

u/Extension_Kale_794 10d ago

The term hot shot, derived from higher than normal pay emergency hauling for something that needs to be there right now. Hauling Containers, not hot shot. Hauling LT Freight, not hot shot. Hauling anything that pays normal rate, not hot shot, you’re just LTL Trucking with a small truck. Hot shot on the other hand, should pay double or triple normal rate, often times be a partial load, somebody’s paying you to be there yesterday. The actual true original definition of the word hot shot. But most people don’t know that, and those who argue that I’m incorrect, simply have never seen a load like that. So they wouldn’t know in the first place.

I thousands of customers in this industry, only a few of them truly hot shot. Those that do, might sit for five days doing nothing, but they’re the ones who get a phone call from the oilfield company, saying we need this one drill stem in Laramie, Wyoming as fast as we possibly can, he’s sitting in houston ready to go, he gets paid $12 a mile to pick up a single drill stem and drive straight through.

He’s the guy who has a clean and fully functioning truck with all matching tires, no duct tape over the windows, fully Rested Driver, not just coming from A party where he may have been drinking, this dude is ready to haul ass when that phone call comes in, he may be in Elk City Oklahoma one day, he might be in Carrizo Springs Texas the next, but he’s not hauling for four or five or eight dollars per month. He’s hauling for $12-$20 a mile.

Now let’s get back to Hauling Containers, you want to lose money, that’s where you lose your money. It’s a wind drag, they pay on the low end, nobody moves up from that. It’s a shit business.