Just recently, we completed the shipment of a 2017 Jeep Cherokee from Ankeny, Iowa, all the way to Watertown, New York. This was a 1,060-mile trip using an open trailer and cost $1,392.00, amounting to $1.31 per mile.
The Cherokee was driveable during pick-up time. As far as an open truck load goes for this mileage for a compact SUV, that’s pricey. But this is not because of the point of pick-up. It’s because of what the truck could do after dropping the vehicle off.
The route
This 1,060-mile drive stretches from Ankeny to Watertown through the Midwest to the Great Lakes region and beyond into northern New York State.
Ankeny is located just to the north of Des Moines. Travelers start out by traveling eastward on I-80 all the way to Des Moines and then through Iowa City to the Quad Cities before proceeding to Chicago.
Once there, the next stage of this road trip follows the toll roads through northern Indiana and Ohio to Toledo and Cleveland before continuing east on I-90 through Erie, Pennsylvania, to Buffalo.
Continuing on, I-90 takes travelers up through upstate New York all the way to Syracuse, from where the route turns northward along I-81 all the way to Watertown.
Why the destination’s outbound freight matters
We have talked about rural pick-ups and deliveries in remote places where the cost is in sending the truck to such places. Watertown illustrates another factor influencing trucking rates. It is not difficult for the trucker to arrive at Watertown but it can be difficult to load up the truck after delivery.
It must be understood that the carrier charges for the entire run and not just your individual part of the trip. After making the delivery in Watertown, the truck will require another load. Depending on whether the next load is nearby or far away will influence whether the empty return to the loading point becomes a part of your haul.
There are some end-of-the-line markets where there is not much through traffic and where the trucks come in to deliver and leave empty.
However, hub destinations have quite an opposite approach. As you have seen from our example of moving from Denver to Newark, major city means a lot of departures from there in all directions. Carrier servicing such a destination reloads right away and sets the price for it correspondingly.
The logic of directional pricing can be compared with that of the outbound freight, but it concerns not the entire lane, but just one particular destination. Both of them appear in the estimate despite the fact that neither of them can be seen on the map.
Neither does your car change anything at all. A compact SUV holds only one single position while the premium is charged only for the destination, so any car going there is to have it.
What $1.31 per mile reflects
Two underlying factors exist with respect to this number.
Destination is the more important, as explained above. A terminal destination assumes the cost of the empty miles ahead of it.
Distance is the other factor. With a distance of 1,060 miles, this is a medium-length haul, where the cost per mile associated with pickup, loading, securing, and delivering the load remains significant. If the trip were from coast to coast, these costs would be incurred over almost triple the distance.
Origin is not a problem here. Ankeny is located at the outskirts of Des Moines metropolitan area, with easy access via interstate highways I-35 and I-80.
Open transport
The Cherokee traveled via open trailer, which is the transport method by which most all vehicles in this nation travel.
It is a manufactured compact SUV with a clearcoat from the factory; there is enclosed transport only for cars where getting a rock chip would be a costly issue. In this case, open transport is the right choice, as we stated previously.
Ground clearance was not an issue, since the vehicle is raised high enough that ramp angle was not a concern on either end. The transport straps were soft, going over the tires instead of around the suspension with chains.
Transport summary
- Origin: Ankeny, IA 50021
- Destination: Watertown, NY 13601
- Distance: 1,060 miles
- Service cost: $1,392.00
- Cost per mile: $1.31
- Vehicle: 2017 Jeep Cherokee
- Condition: Operable
- Trailer type: Open
- Route: Ankeny, IA → I-80 east through Iowa City and the Quad Cities → Chicago, IL → Indiana and Ohio toll roads past Toledo and Cleveland → I-90 east through Erie, PA and Buffalo, NY → Rochester → Syracuse → I-81 north → Watertown, NY
