Most owner-operators hunt freight the same way: refresh a load board, take what’s posted, and complain the rates are trash. Jared Flinn, who spent six years coordinating grain freight at a major grain trader before founding the bulk load board Bulk Loads, says the highest-paying freight is rarely the freight that’s posted at all.
The lesson for operators: posted loads are the leftovers. The money is in the freight you go find — direct, seasonal, and relationship-gated. For most carriers the truck is the business. Flinn’s playbook reframes it: your relationships and your reloads are the business; the truck just executes.
1. Stop post-and-praying — call the shipper
Flinn’s point on "hidden" rates is counterintuitive: most shippers withhold the rate not to hide it, but to vet you and avoid getting undercut. The move is to reach out and show you’re serious about the load. Once a shipper sees you’re real, the rate — and the relationship — opens up.
2. Find direct shippers on LinkedIn
Treat LinkedIn as a door to knock on. Search "logistics manager" at grain elevators, fertilizer plants, and rock/aggregate companies, then send a direct message. Flinn calls it the virtual knock — a low-cost way to get in front of the people who actually control freight.
3. Don’t leave weight on the table
In bulk, you’re paid by tonnage — Flinn says nearly all bulk rates are weight-based. That makes your tare weight a revenue lever: keep the tractor and trailer as light as possible so you can scale the maximum legal weight (he gives an example of running 26–27 tons against an 85,500-lb permit). Under-loading is money left on the scale.
4. Chase the season, not the lane
Bulk freight is seasonal. Rather than chasing a favorite lane, go to the shippers whose commodity is in season — landscape rock and mulch in spring, for example — and you’ll find the loads where demand is spiking.
5. Plan for short hauls and reloads
Bulk runs tight regional pockets: Flinn pegs the average bulk haul around 150–200 miles, versus roughly 300–500 for general freight. That makes your reload discipline matter more than your long-haul rate — empty miles eat a short-haul business alive.
6. Go where the relationships and hazmat are
The highest margins sit in specialized, relationship-gated freight — think hazmat like anhydrous ammonia. The catch: it takes long-cultivated relationships and expensive equipment (Flinn guesses specialized tankers run north of $200,000). It’s a destination, not a starting point.
7. Think outside the bulk — diversify
"You got to think outside the bulk," Flinn says. Don’t let one customer be able to take you down. Bolt on revenue — a trailer wash-out, a mechanic shop, leasing — so a single lost account doesn’t end the business. And keep showing up in person: "Your net worth is your network. Go out and visit people. People remember that stuff."