State Of The Union

Well said chica123. No one is going to complain about a few carriers hitting the occasional "home run" in terms of rates during these turbulent times, but as in baseball, home run hitters are also notorious for striking out when they don't connect. Let's hope everyone tries to hit a few more singles, it helps to keep the game moving.
 
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chica123 said:
I would usually expect to see the typical January slow-down by this point in the month. We are still going strong. It is almost like a perfect storm working in the favour of carriers for a change. I have found brokers for the most part very understanding of the situation and willing to work with us to get the rates closer to where they should be. I have heard that some carriers are trying to get greedy though, and they may not understand that this could come back to bite them down the road. Brokers are unlikely to forget that temporary greed and overlook them for future shipments when things settle down. I think we should all work to get the rates up to where they should be, but not dig our own grave...
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Very well said, we are being absolutely gouged by some carriers and you are right, it is short sighted. As a quality broker we don't tell the carriers what we are paying, we tell them what we used to pay and ask what they need now. We expect it to be higher but c,mon, be reasonable. We are the ones facing our customers trying to explain why the $1000 load is now $2000 to move it. Most carriers wouldn't hit their direct customers nearly this hard but a 3PL is an easy target. I think a lot of the gougers don't have direct customers and simply play hardball with 3PLs. Anyway, have a good Friday and let's all work together in a reasonable, professional fashion.
 
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The "take it or leave it" approach to rate negotiations has never been one of my favourites, nor very successful in my opinion. It is more like the opposite of negotiation.
 
I was really hoping that the start of this week would see some relief from what we have seen so far this year......but NO! Customers with whom we have a few lanes are now calling with lanes serviced by other providers which tells me that everyone seems to be in the same boat. Staff tells me that they think there are fewer trucks posting on Link than just a few weeks ago. Could it be that carriers are pre-booking their inbounds prior to heading out and therefore not needing to post? As for rates.......on some lanes through the roof is an understatement! What would seem like high reefer rates, are being quoted to us for regular dry van shipments.
I know we'll get through this and fortunately, some customers are understanding and can appreciate this dilemma. In the meanwhile, we are working closely with our bank of regular carriers as much as possible. We are also keeping a record of those who seem to think that this is the time to rape and pillage.
Interested to hear from others about how they are coping.
 
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loaders said:
I was really hoping that the start of this week would see some relief from what we have seen so far this year......but NO! Customers with whom we have a few lanes are now calling with lanes serviced by other providers which tells me that everyone seems to be in the same boat. Staff tells me that they think there are fewer trucks posting on Link than just a few weeks ago. Could it be that carriers are pre-booking their inbounds prior to heading out and therefore not needing to post? As for rates.......on some lanes through the roof is an understatement! What would seem like high reefer rates, are being quoted to us for regular dry van shipments.
I know we'll get through this and fortunately, some customers are understanding and can appreciate this dilemma. In the meanwhile, we are working closely with our bank of regular carriers as much as possible. We are also keeping a record of those who seem to think that this is the time to rape and pillage.
Interested to hear from others about how they are coping.
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I hear exactly what you're saying. We are seeing lanes go from 900 up to 1500.00. Carriers that I thought we had a better relationship with wanting 50-75% increases. On the same note, I have customers calling me, that wouldn't give me the time of day in years past begging for help. I never want to be the one to kick someone while they are down but had they spread the wealth alittle more during the tougher times I would tend to be more sympathetic to their current situation.
 
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I have had to explain to quite a few customers, that although every broker and every carrier they use operates independently, when it comes to locating available, empty trucks, we are all fishing out of the same pond. So waiting in the hope that we, or any other broker, will somehow magically make a truck appear after your regular provider has failed, is in most cases, wishful thinking. The ratio of calls made to securing trucks has jumped dramatically. For all of those out there that think brokering freight is easy, it is time to think again!
 
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loaders said:
I was really hoping that the start of this week would see some relief from what we have seen so far this year......but NO! Customers with whom we have a few lanes are now calling with lanes serviced by other providers which tells me that everyone seems to be in the same boat. Staff tells me that they think there are fewer trucks posting on Link than just a few weeks ago. Could it be that carriers are pre-booking their inbounds prior to heading out and therefore not needing to post? As for rates.......on some lanes through the roof is an understatement! What would seem like high reefer rates, are being quoted to us for regular dry van shipments.
I know we'll get through this and fortunately, some customers are understanding and can appreciate this dilemma. In the meanwhile, we are working closely with our bank of regular carriers as much as possible. We are also keeping a record of those who seem to think that this is the time to rape and pillage.
Interested to hear from others about how they are coping.
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Same here,
We're finding people who thought the pastures were greener elsewhere (found a lower rate) are calling/emailing regularly. Some of them are outright aggressive when asking for rate/availability requests. I'll hold further comment about that. The bottom line is the customers that have been feeding your families for years get the trucks first, and the other freight waits. We're booking outbound and some of those carriers already have a backhaul for the outbound we are giving them (depending on the lane). Also finding some lanes we're given carte blanche - book first let them know what it costs later. At least some people know what's going on and also can trust that you are not taking advantage.
If you don't think we're logging all of the increases (who is taking advantage vs who is being reasonable), I'll say I'm handling this project myself. The percentage of freight booked higher than 3 months ago is increasing weekly. I don't see 'normalcy' in the near future. Lets see what happens on this ride into February.

Keep well, do your best, make the customers happy!
Mike
 
One of the bright sides to all of this is we have a lot of drivers and O/O's applying all of a sudden, before ELD's nothing now it looks like we may add a couple of brokers and have all the trucks filled which will take some pressure off for our current customers.
 
lowmiler88 said:
One of the bright sides to all of this is we have a lot of drivers and O/O's applying all of a sudden, before ELD's nothing now it looks like we may add a couple of brokers and have all the trucks filled which will take some pressure off for our current customers.
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What do you think is sparking the increase in driver applications?
 
I think a lot of companies are exiting running the US but are finding out that running in Canada is saturated already. Also we have been doing ELD's for almost 3 years now and understand how they work so they can get their miles with us.
 
lowmiler88 said:
I think a lot of companies are exiting running the US but are finding out that running in Canada is saturated already. Also we have been doing ELD's for almost 3 years now and understand how they work so they can get their miles with us.
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Interesting observation.....
 
lowmiler88 said:
... are finding out that running in Canada is saturated already...
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Did I not say that back in November/December ???? ... LOL

Here's what I think some load brokers, shippers, and fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants carriers seem to be missing ... It's not about cents per mile anymore.
It's TIME ... time is everything. Time is the only thing.​
There is only so much time in a day, and there will never be any more of it. Now, every second of that day is ACCOUNTED for.
TIME is valuable. Wasted, or non-productive time now has a cost associated with it, and you can't manufacture "paper time" any more.
Every give any thought to why that 575 mile trip now costs double what it did 3 months ago?
TIME​
That extra fifty miles costs another driving shift, and that shift has to be paid for. All trips in the red zone, 525 to 1,000 miles, are like that.
What's the big question that carriers are asked now? It's not "Do you have any trucks ... ?". It's "Do you have any drivers with TIME ?".
Regardless if you are a shipper, load broker, or carrier, if you are still thinking in terms of cost or rate per mile, you are so far behind the eight ball, you might not catch up. You need to be thinking in terms of cost or revenue per working hour.

Just my humble 2 cents worth for the day :)
 
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Perhaps time to chime in on an updated view of business. Any takers?
I see - fantastic volumes, freight is being booked fast, very fast, prices are leveled off in some areas, increasing in the areas we expect and declined a little in some areas.
Have all the drivers returned from winter vacations and this is the cause of miraculous increase in capacity on seemingly many lanes all at once?
I see the emails to dispatch with capacity updates - there used to be extremely slim pickings for trucks, now I see long lists of trucks for today, tomorrow, etc... Can't really complain that's for sure.
Keep well,
Mike
 
I've got some modest rate increases from my main accounts and, along with allowing my margins to take a beating, I've managed to stay on an even keel with respect to getting trucks. Got to say though.. THANK GOD I've got a fair amount fo LTL.. so easy to move compared to truckload. And lastly, some of my customers have me quote on every move (because every move is different from the last)..on those (although they're not as plentiful, I do really well.
 
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