Cheap Freight of the Day

thebluffs1

Site Supporter
30
Here's the latest installment of cheap freight of the day, full load pickup Thursday, deliver Friday, in Hagerstown MD, deliver to Brampton ON friday, 26,000 lbs. Rate of 425 USD for the truckload from USA Truck.
Be still my beating heart. Can't snap them up quickly enough at that rate. Just when you thought you couldn't go any lower, you find someone else who is so low they have to stand on tiptoe to touch the bottom
 

Freight Broker

Well-Known Member
30
Maybe they'll go higher if you call. The other day I had a call on a posted load.. after going over the load details with the carrier, the carrier started laughing and asked if I could do better than the posted rate. I was in a bit of hurry with other stuff so I said "sorry.. posted rate is really the best I can do".. He laughed.. whistled.. and hung up. A few minutes later, just before heading out for lunch, I decided to quickly go over my posted stuff. Shit.. had that load posted for $100.00.. a typo.. should have been $1000.00!! But still someone called on it. I called that carrier back and explained what had happened. Luckily he wasn't covered and he took it for a thousand..
 

thebluffs1

Site Supporter
30
The rate wasn't posted on the load - that was a confirmed rate with me asking twice to ensure that my auditory function hadn't stopped working somewhere back in about 1827 with that rate.
 

RobsanT

Member
10
Here's another one, flatbed load of steel tube, with tarps, 46,000 lbs. From Ontario to Indiana (404 miles) $800.00 CDN ?????????
 

theman

Well-Known Member
30
It always makes me more sick when it's a company with its own fleet of trucks that goes and does this. It's a typical old move from US brokers back in the day. hey, it's more than $1.00 a mile! C'mon guys!!!
 

whatiship

Well-Known Member
20
Here's another one, flatbed load of steel tube, with tarps, 46,000 lbs. From Ontario to Indiana (404 miles) $800.00 CDN ?????????
I was offered something similar a while ago. I said, you know, I wouldn't drive my car there for that kinda money. And I have a really nice car.
 

duke22

Active Member
15
Here's the latest installment of cheap freight of the day, full load pickup Thursday, deliver Friday, in Hagerstown MD, deliver to Brampton ON friday, 26,000 lbs. Rate of 425 USD for the truckload from USA Truck.
Be still my beating heart. Can't snap them up quickly enough at that rate. Just when you thought you couldn't go any lower, you find someone else who is so low they have to stand on tiptoe to touch the bottom
They must have been trying to ltl this, even still it's low but that would at least make sense?
 

Michael Ludwig

Well-Known Member
20
I really wish you guys would quit calling load brokers "evil". There is no possible way to get Chinese widgets from Shanghai to Winnipeg without some kind of brokerage transaction in the pipeline somewhere. There is no transportation company in the world that has the depth and breadth on its own to make that happen without hiring someone else somewhere along the line to do part of the work.
Really, Boeing doesn't make its own air plane engines ... GE does that. GE doesn't make all the engine parts. General Dynamics, Martin-Marietta, and many others do that. Georgia-Pacific doesn't cut down its own trees. There is all sorts of "brokerage" in every facet of every industry. It would be foolish to believe that transportation can, could, or would, be any different.
The statement about transportation in general being a necessary evil is quite true. I can't imagine that anything would piss a shipper off more than knowing he is paying 35% of his cost to transportation which appears to produce zero production-added value. Forget that he can't sell his bread without transportation. The fact is that Mr. Shipper can't touch transportation. He can't feel it. He can't see it. It's not tangible. It's a waste of money, and someone else should pay for it. Keep in mind that in the minds of most people it doesn't cost anything to drive to grocery store to get a loaf of bread.
Suppose that shipper makes bread. He spends 35% of his cost on flour and makes bread. He sells the bread and makes money. The 35% transportation cost he sees as Dude rockin' up n a ridiculously expensive 360 inch wheelbase Peterbilt with an $80,000.00 paint job. Dude pops out the driver's side suicide door, adjusts his cowboy hat, dusts of his shit kickers, polishes his belt buckle, reorients his chain drive wallet, flips his cigarette but across the parking lot, hawks a luggie on the sidewalk, and strolls into the shipping office 3 hours late, reeking of too much cologne, too many cigarettes, and a waitress named Charmaine. He expects the whole world to stop just because he, Sir Dude, Driver of Truck, Waster of Time, Kicker of Shit, Defiler of Charmaine, has deigned the shipper with his regal presence ... all bow to his majesty please. Now the 15 other truck drivers in there that day were professional, courteous, top notch people, and they are forgotten about the moment they walk out the door. But Dude has left an impression that Mr. Shipper hates, and it just pisses him off that he has to give Dude money. You can substitute Captain Sweatpants for Dude ... it's all the same.
Sonny and Will didn't do us any favours boys.
 

MikeJr

Moderator
Staff member
30
Not sure about you, but I stood up and clapped.

Thanks Mike for the post of the day.

Keep well sir,
Mike
 

loaders

Site Supporter
30
Hey! That Dude you speak of just delivered our "hot" load for us this afternoon. The one that was supposed to be delivered yesterday morning! Wow, he sure has one real pretty truck.
 

theman

Well-Known Member
30
I don't think that anyone was saying that brokers were evil though? Just that the particular transaction is far fetched ... there are good players and bad players on both sides of the fence is all.
 

chica123

Site Supporter
30
Odds are they covered it pretty quick. All those "I'm not doing e-log" trucks are sweating for work. Wait until the holidays are over and that load will go for $400.00 all day long.

What am I missing here? We don't run that lane, never have. It will go for $400? Who can do that?
 

MikeJr

Moderator
Staff member
30
In negotiations one side typically starts a little low and the other party starts a little high, no? In the end the market and competition dictate the price.

The GTA-GMA lane has been on the decline a little in 2017 (rates for TL), then again, the inverse GMA - GTA increased then levelled off a little. I've been picking up the dispatch lines on the regular over the last 100 days especially and find there are Montreal carriers calling asking for TL from the GTA to QC, even ones that I never would suspect would service ON... Are they taking inbound freight to ON because there is none to QC and just need to get home? Perhaps. Is the rate per mile higher to the GTA? Perhaps.

I'll say this about my crystal ball for what rates will be tomorrow on any given lane, it can't predict much these days. :)

I had a guy today tell me he wanted $4700 home for a TL from MN - ON (dry van). I didn't say anything rude or hang up, instead I asked him how he came to the rate. Get this: we paid him a rounder +50% to head out to IL last week and pick up 2 loads that our client desperately needed to move for production. He's decided that because of those bookings that we're rich and can pay that (rounder + 50%) on all of our business. I won't post what carrier it was, it's not worth the time or energy.

Keep well,
Mike
 

Michael Ludwig

Well-Known Member
20
You can ask for as much as you want. The question is "What are they really getting ???" And just as important "Where is that carrier domiciled???".
Something I have noticed about the GTA/GMA lane after all these years is Quebec based carriers get great rates for Ontario bound loads, and Ontario based carriers get great rates for Quebec bound loads. Unfortunately the inverse is relative. Quebec based carriers get crap rates for Quebec bound loads, and Ontario based carriers get crap rates for Ontario bound loads
 
Top