Brokers = low rates?

The auction style bidding seems to be making a comeback. Round one is all about quoting reasonable.. round 2 is all about quoting in faint hopes that one or two lanes are going to be workable.. round three is all about (WTF?) maintaining some semblance of dignity, and round four, if you've made it that far, is all about how far you can bend over.
That is why round one on RFQ's hit the file 13. Not worth my time even quoting.
 
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That would be great. I guess one can be strategic.. quote on a few lanes and be done with it.. let the chips fall where they may. That's what I do. I quit at round one and refuse to be anyone's dancing monkey. If I get the biz that's great.. and if I don't the world will continue to spin on its axis.
 
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I love big RFQs from customers that have special or expedited freight. We quote it out the first time with our best rate and don't even bother with the second round. most of the time we win most of what we quote but the lanes that go to the lowest bidder always come back around when they start handing back freight. Personally not a big fan of these RFQ as they don't value service in any aspect. There are much better ways to get rates and build relationships with your carriers and brokers.
 
The large RFQ exercises that the “consultants” hoodwink companies into buying, are nothing more than a simple race to the bottom. They sell this scam as some sort of magical, mysterious, hi tech process that will result in substantial savings for their client. In fact, it is nothing more than asking a collection of carriers and brokers to submit their rates. Then a group of recent high school graduates or a simple computer program matches the lowest number to each ship to/from point. The carrier/ broker submitting that rate gets the business….simple. Add to that the built in advantage the incumbent bidder has and one has to wonder how worthwhile this time consuming process is?
 
There's simply no winning with a large RFQ. If you're not the lowest among the 738 carriers and brokers who bid then all you've done is wasted alot of time. And if you're the lucky winner you go into the ring knowing that you were the cheapest out of hundreds who bid, and that wouldn't exactly bring a smile to my face if it was me. And what about the customer? Nope.. they lose too.. the low bidder is pretty much set up to fail from the outset as the cheapest rates don't always result in top notch service or even any service at all for that matter. So, are there any winners? The people who mediate the RFQ process I guess.. likely they get a fee for administering the bid.. but like an arsonist they're long gone by the time everyone notices there's a fire.
 
We have seen this play out with a number of customers who were tricked into believing that this, consultant organized RFQ process would somehow result in not only lower transportation costs but better, more efficient service. In each and every case the opposite was true. The winning bidder, who of course was the lowest, couldn’t provide reliable, consistent service at the low rate and had to give back many of their awarded lanes. These shipments were then offered to the next lowest bidder and so on, and so on, until finally the rate was up to where it should have been in the first place. Of course by now, any semblance of an efficient shipping schedule was out the window. Why in heavens name anyone would think that a cheap rate would deliver good service is beyond me. Nowhere else in our society does cheap miraculously translate into good, or better anything, why should it be any different in transportation? Can you tell RFQs really bug me?
 
We have seen this play out with a number of customers who were tricked into believing that this, consultant organized RFQ process would somehow result in not only lower transportation costs but better, more efficient service. In each and every case the opposite was true. The winning bidder, who of course was the lowest, couldn’t provide reliable, consistent service at the low rate and had to give back many of their awarded lanes. These shipments were then offered to the next lowest bidder and so on, and so on, until finally the rate was up to where it should have been in the first place. Of course by now, any semblance of an efficient shipping schedule was out the window. Why in heavens name anyone would think that a cheap rate would deliver good service is beyond me. Nowhere else in our society does cheap miraculously translate into good, or better anything, why should it be any different in transportation? Can you tell RFQs really bug me?
Typically the person at the customer facility that gets hoodwinked into this sham is the person that just got promoted from the warehouse floor to handle "Logistics". Usually, unfortunately for them, most of these people barely graduated high school, and generally have no clue what goes into making a logistics network work.
Just as often you'll come across the recent college or university graduate that takes this shady road to "success". Their modus operandi is to prove to the people that hired them that they can earn their wage in savings and that the company made a great choice in hiring them.
None of them have ever heard to old adage ... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!".
 
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I can recall one RFQ were we were the highest out of 27 carriers on a particular lane. An area we did not want to go so we quoted it as a round trip plus aggravation fee. We got the load every time as everyone else turned it down.

I think everyone agrees...quality consistent service has value.

Doesn't matter if you're painting house or selling tomatoes....there's always someone that will be initially cheaper. In the long run when service matters...then......another story.