A federal minimum freight rate of $5.00 per mile paid to the motor carrier. Carriers remain free to negotiate and charge above the minimum. No load at a loss.
Mandatory Minimum Carrier Freight Rate, explained by David McCown. Runtime 2:25.
Today, freight routinely moves below the true cost of operating. When brokers and shippers can push rates as low as the market will bear, carriers are forced to haul at or below break-even just to keep their trucks moving. Small carriers burn through cash, defer maintenance, and eventually go under. The ones who survive too often cut the corners that keep our highways safe. It is a race to the bottom, and everyone loses except the few who profit from the chaos.
McCown Co. proposes a federal minimum freight rate of $5.00 per mile paid to the motor carrier. The floor is intended to support safe equipment, sustainable operations, professional driver compensation, and responsible business practices.
Carriers may always negotiate higher rates based on market conditions, specialized equipment, hazardous materials, oversized loads, expedited service, remote locations, additional handling, or other demands.
The purpose is not to establish the price of every shipment. The purpose is to establish a legal minimum below which freight may not be tendered, brokered, or transported.
It is a statutory price floor, not a fixed universal rate. Competition continues above the floor.
AFFTRA legislative proposal. This is not current federal law.
A sustainable rate floor lifts the entire industry, not just one group.
No. McCown Co. is advocating for federal legislation establishing a legal minimum. It is not asking competing carriers to privately agree on current prices. Under the proposal, carriers would continue competing and negotiating above the statutory floor. Until such a law is enacted, McCown Co. does not set present freight rates, negotiate loads, operate a load board, coordinate bids, or arrange private pricing agreements among carriers.
Shippers already pay for instability through service failures, carrier turnover, and capacity shortages. A sustainable floor trades hidden, unpredictable costs for reliable capacity.
It protects them. Small carriers are the ones forced to run at or below break-even when rates collapse. A floor keeps the race to the bottom from wiping them out.
From documented operating cost data, including fuel, maintenance, insurance, equipment, tolls, and fair driver compensation. That research is part of our legislative policy work.
Become a Co-Founder for 25 dollars a month and help turn these reforms into reality.
