Education

There is the CITL and various trade associations like the Toronto Traffic Club. Specific industries also have educational organizations, especially those that are involved with hazardous goods. I think that there are ample sources of education for shippers and receivers, and as we all know, the larger ones encourage their staff to learn as much about the industry as possible. The problem lies with the small/medium sized firms who view transportation as a cumbersome, annoying , costly overhead in getting their goods to market. Those are the firms that can easily fall prey to a fly-by night, basement broker, or a "shoestring" carrier. Until the customer can see the value and benefit in being educated about transportation, it will be difficult to divert their eyes away from the lowest rate provider.
 
... and typically by the time they have figured it out on their own, they have gone broke themselves, or their market share has significantly dropped because their competitors, the ones that know about selecting effective transportation, have eaten into their share.

It would be nice to be able to go to a potential customer and point out all the pitfalls of using less-than-effective service, and have tangible proof of the result saving the customer a lot of grief in the long run.

But alas you are correct, many, many small and medium size customers cannot see the forest for the trees. If they got it done for a dollar today, they want it done for ninety cents tomorrow. The consequences of service failures completely eludes them.
 
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Reactions: Igor Galanter
Best school I know of is called the School of Hard Knocks, but tuition is quite expensive. Most often, though, its not a question of education but one of attitude. A lot of people are after that proverbial $5.00 haircut, and they usually get their money's worth (and less). There's just no fixing stupid. Fortunately there are enough shippers out there who understand the market and will pay accordingly.. no one wants to pay more than market, and that's quite understandable.
 
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Reactions: chica123 and hauling_ass
Being an alumnus of said school, I can appreciate your line of thinking. However, there has to be a better way than just letting the unwashed try and figure it out for themselves. These people, regardless of their cognizant functionality, are part of the market place we all want a piece of. To educate them would increase our chances of getting their freight at the rates we want. The upshot is, the more educated the shipping community is, the less opportunity there is for bottom feeder carriers and brokers.
 
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