The Funny Thing About ELOGs ...

[Michael Ludwig]

That's not quite true: brokers are customers too. A carrier who has five or ten steady broker clients is just as valuable as a carrier who has direct shipper clients. A customer is a customer.. some are manufacturers, a good many are commodity traders, and some are middlemen.. but money is money, and they're all customers.

Yes, I agree that brokers are customers as well. However, they are a different kind of a customer. Generally speaking the majority of brokers are not loyal to any particular carrier for any particular lane, but that was the nature of their business. I don't see it rolling out that way anymore. Brokers who have, or are, adopting the 3PL practice of contracting a specific carrier, for a specific volume, on a specific lane will continue to be successful. Those that continue to try and play the spot market game will suffer dearly.

Just my humble 2 cents worth.

 

[dad2andrew]

When I was brokering freight, I had my "dedicated" carriers who did probably close to 95% of the lane, but who I always gave them 1st right of refusal for any loads if they couldn't cover. Most of the time, they weren't the most cost effective carrier for me to use but still had 1st rights, simply due to their service. It was always much easier for me and the carriers (depending on their size) to just get set up with good consistent carriers who are in the area on a regular basis.

Works unless your area is anywhere within about 1500 miles of any produce season.

 

[Michael Ludwig]

One thing I think a lot of us tend to forget is that the overwhelmingly vast majority of load brokers on this site are the exception, not the rule. I have personally found that load brokers here are well ahead of the curve vis-a-vis the state of the industry and the direction in which it is going.

 

[lowmiler88]

If you have trucks it's time to get your rate increases in, we have put in some modest but some substantial increases and everyone so far is taking them. I could add 15 trucks tomorrow to do the freight but cannot find the drivers. It is great but it is also scary in that I truly believe the true capacity shortages will start in 4 days (ELD's)

 

[bubba-one]

We need to take positive approach to ELD's. I'm thinking we should be adding an accessory charge for software come Dec 18. ( aka combination of ELD, and driver detention by the minute ) I know my lawyer and accountant have a line on their invoice for software, so why not trucking companies. Let say 10 hours in-transit is 600 minutes at .10 per/minute, would cover the cost of software/hardware and give the driver incentive to keep in the trucking profession. Just a thought.

 

[RochLogist]

right now rates are on the rise and most of our customers are aware, we've been working at making better offers to carriers and when people do ask for more, if we can get it, we will pay it, if not we'll just drop the load.