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Well said!! This job is about the details and the money is important but cmon! Take pride in the job at hand.
Do people know/care who they work with or just that it's Covered?
- Thread starter MikeJr
- Start date
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I always start with ' we could have a truck for that' but, in times like this where there are about 100 loads for 1 truck, even the most loyal partnerships seem to have gone astray. We are being told that if we REALLY want the load, we'll have to come down on price. They don't care if we are asking for what they paid us the last time. Not many are willing to pay for QUALITY service anymore.
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It's the fly by night companies that scare me. Like I said I pay good money for most my loads, I could be making triple my profit if I gave it to the first low baller. I rather make less profit and ensure my custumer is happy with the service my company and carriers provide.
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But are "they" asking you to come down because that's what the market dictates? You must understand that not only are carriers having to fight each other for loads, but brokers are also having to fend off the low ballers calling the customers directly. If I was paying $3.50 per mile at one time should I continue paying that instead of $2.75 per mile to keep my customer? I do my best to explain that the customer or for that matter the market has seen a reduction in price, I am certainly not offering anyone $1 a mile or anything, but I am not paying the high prices carriers were seeing in 2011 either. I find myself calling the "regulars" instead of posting loads, making sure my valuable partners know that we are taking the time to offer the very best we can to those that haul all year round.
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It really all depends on whether relationships with customers are contractual or transactional. I know through my career when the relationship was contractual and continuous we would work with our customers for better or worse with the arrangement, and when brokering if we could get the same continuity out of carrier partners then we wouldn't shop the lane around while under contract.
Sometimes we work under contract with customers but execute transactionally because the carrier community wants it. On the same transaction, sometimes we would look like we were making out like bandits, other times we may lose money on the same transaction ... we just look at it in aggregate.
If the customer is transactional or if we are called upon from a contractual customer to do a 'one-off', we have to go by today's market.
Shippers, carriers, and brokers do not dictate what happens in the marketplace ... supply and demand do. All of us only work as conduits in the natural marketplace, particularly on the spot markets.
Sometimes we work under contract with customers but execute transactionally because the carrier community wants it. On the same transaction, sometimes we would look like we were making out like bandits, other times we may lose money on the same transaction ... we just look at it in aggregate.
If the customer is transactional or if we are called upon from a contractual customer to do a 'one-off', we have to go by today's market.
Shippers, carriers, and brokers do not dictate what happens in the marketplace ... supply and demand do. All of us only work as conduits in the natural marketplace, particularly on the spot markets.
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Paying the high prices... are there any brokers out there who even consider what it costs to run a truck. If you are paying anything under $1.75 we are working at a loss. Everything costs more. In 2011 the dollar was close to being the same on either side. Now you can tag on 25% more when we are paying in US even with out the hikes on our expenses. We do realize that the customers want to pay less but, when I go to the grocery store and see cauliflower at $7 for a vegetable the size of a soft ball (which was the case last Xmas), even if I tell them I want to pay $2 they'll laugh me out of the store.
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eventually, if that is the solution, broker's won't be able to move the freight anymore either. So moving you freight will not happen for the bottom barrel prices being offered these days. Respect has gone out the window also... Greed on the other hand is having it's hay day...
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We both did the same thing for a few months, right? Bought other veggies than the broccoli and cauliflower. I like zucchini, peppers and salads. We have a choice as consumers.
This is very different than the shipping world, no? My customer that has weekly inbound loads (all year) from TX understands that sometimes the price is a peak season price, and we pay it because we must to move shipments (and the carrier asks for it rightfully so when they can), and other times it's 2/3 of that price. We can't call the peak season price 'outrageously high' and the rest of the year 'cheap' can we? Both are market rates, it's as simple as that. Isn't that why some carriers only run those particular lanes during those peak periods pulling equipment out of other areas and actually increasing pricing there too?
Anyway, I'm sure this thread can go on for 11 more pages.
Keep well,
Mike
This is very different than the shipping world, no? My customer that has weekly inbound loads (all year) from TX understands that sometimes the price is a peak season price, and we pay it because we must to move shipments (and the carrier asks for it rightfully so when they can), and other times it's 2/3 of that price. We can't call the peak season price 'outrageously high' and the rest of the year 'cheap' can we? Both are market rates, it's as simple as that. Isn't that why some carriers only run those particular lanes during those peak periods pulling equipment out of other areas and actually increasing pricing there too?
Anyway, I'm sure this thread can go on for 11 more pages.
Keep well,
Mike
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I think that it's just the opposite. If the brokers were having an easy time, they wouldn't entertain that kind of crap either. Good brokers know that in order for the business generated to be long-term it needs to be sustainable. It's usually marginal players or just new and young employees who are too naïve to know how things really work who will do those sorts of things.
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maybe even more than 11 pages Mike Jr. What I was referring to in my example is that no one wants to pay to work.
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35 years and still the same arguments. Supply and demand will always dictate price which is how it is supposed to work. My suggestion is always try and get yourself into a larger company that will sign a contract because playing the market does not work in this business, you need that base that will carry you through. It is not as hard as you think when we where 10 trucks we got into a multinational because they needed a better response on loads that we could provide 18 years later still going strong with the same company and we built up our lanes with them as we increased in size. We now have numerous contracts with different customers to give us stability and only play the market on less than 20% of to cover backhauls.
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Exactly. Long term, I find maybe 10-15% of revenue comes from spot business, the rest is continuous. It's just that you have to get there ... and nothing good comes without some sort of fight ... and/or wait.