Freight rates and fuel prices!

[davekc]

It is amazing some of the misinformation that floats around out there. First off, not all freight rates have dropped. Some regions of the country and at certain times. A broker or carrier may tell you they are dropping, but from what I see it is more of a regional thing.
With regards to fuel surcharge, a carrier doesn't have to pay all of it. It was challenged several times but nothing yet. OOIDA was involved in the last go around.
As it sits right now, there are numerous nameless carriers that don't pay the whole thing even though they might claim they do. Some skirt paying it through flat rate programs, just paying a percentage of the actual billed amount, third parties keeping part of it, or load is routed through a carriers own third party Ithat they own) to rebill it.
Kind of like a Chinese magic cup exercise.

 

[purgoose10]

Shippers have more or less always requested whatever vehicle is required for their shipments. Now that we have more and more Sprinters, they are naturally using them more and more. Shippers also tend to use the smallest truck necessary for their shipments. In many cases that's a simple cargo van.

That is true but remember that C/Vans are like cheap freight, they will always be there but the better paying freight will probably go on a somewhat larger capacity truck. Just my thinking.

 

[Doggie Daddy]

So you're basically working off Load Boards......No Set Customer Base.....Right?

If you have a set Customer Base.....why are you having to "Negotiate" your rates "Daily"?

Being just a "Broker" working Load Boards is one thing......Negotiating with a set Customer that "Carriers" handle is another. But...they still go hand in hand.......

Once a Carriers Long Term Customer starts to "Negotiate" their rates on a regular basis, that means 1 of 2 things are happening. First being that one of those Carriers Competitors have made their way into the Decision Makers office and are enticing them with Lower Rates. Second could be possibly that the Decision Maker was given a Heads Up on a Load Board somewhere that has a lot of Cut Throat Brokers on there "Negotiating" shipping costs down to nothing.

Either way......Rates ARE dropping again.....Period. And if one is "Negotiating" their rate on a "Daily" basis, then they are negatively effecting rates all across the board whether they realize it, or acknowledge it, or not.

You got it all wrong, I am contracted to the Fed. And the the negotiation is between me and them.

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[Brisco]

Waaaaayyyyy out in left field...again.

Yep.......possibly.....maybe......

It took another member here to point out to me that Doggie Daddy is just a "Driver".....a "Contract Driver" at that who has other people find him loads to haul. (Kind of like yourself.....Huh?)

I guess I was under the impression that he was a Carrier himself that was Brokering out loads to Expediters.

Now that I know he's just a "Driver"....then this statement is absolutely ridiculous.......

Also we don't do CPM, it's DPM.......

......when it comes to "Drivers" who are Contracted with Carriers.

Does it go like this? "Nah.....I won't do it for $1.00 a Mile.....But I'll do it for $2.00 a mile".

In Expediting......Yeah......Right. A true IOO.....Sure it could happen.........

As for the rest of what I covered........Aint No Left Field Involved. This is something you'll learn when and if you ever try to give being an IOO a try.

 

[Brisco]

You got it all wrong, I am contracted to the Fed. And the the negotiation is between me and them.

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Ooops......Sorry! Phone rang when I started typing post above.......then I got to doing something else.....and I just now finally sat down to finish what I was saying....

 

[Doggie Daddy]

It took another member here to point out to me that Doggie Daddy is just a "Driver".....a "Contract Driver" at that

Now that I know he's just a "Driver"....then this statement is absolutely ridiculous...

As usual you are wrong again, we are o/o's contracted to a company.


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[Doggie Daddy]

Does it go like this? "Nah.....I won't do it for $1.00 a Mile.....But I'll do it for $2.00 a mile".

Yep, that's pretty much how it goes.


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[Brisco]

As usual you are wrong again, we are o/o's contracted to a company.

We're not going down that road.....OK.

You "own" and "operate" a Truck.......and that's about as far any one can take it. You are "Contracted" to FedEx to do Deliveries for THEIR Clientele. You are told How to do their Deliveries, When to do their Deliveries, and are Paid by FedEx to do their Deliveries.

2 + 2 does equal 4......but in this case.......it's not even worth making it that simple.

I'm Done in this thread............

 

[guido4475]

Phew !!!!!!!

 

[Turtle]

We're not going down that road.....OK.

You "own" and "operate" a Truck.......and that's about as far any one can take it. You are "Contracted" to FedEx to do Deliveries for THEIR Clientele. You are told How to do their Deliveries, When to do their Deliveries, and are Paid by FedEx to do their Deliveries.

2 + 2 does equal 4......but in this case.......it's not even worth making it that simple.

I'm Done in this thread............

It's probably a good thing that you're done in this thread, because as Doggie Daddy correctly pointed out, as usual you are dead wrong. The notion that leased drivers are somehow "less" of a driver or "less" than a "true" IOO is ridiculous in the same way that day cab drivers are less of a driver than those with sleepers.

When a "true" IOO books a load for a customer, you are contracted to that customer to deliver their freight for that customer. You are told by the customer HOW to do their delivery, when to do the delivery, and are paid by the customer to do their delivery, all in precisely the same manner as someone leased to a carrier (except the carrier doesn't tell their contractors HOW to do their deliveries).

The only functional difference between a leased IOO and a "true" IOO is: where and how loads are obtained, and the manner in which collections are made. That's it.

One can read these boards for years and think they know everything about this business, but as long as they remain an armchair expediter and never experience it first hand, they'll know and understand about half what they think they do, because the full experiences and nuances of this business can never be communicated via these boards.

What is particularly bad is when someone takes this incomplete knowledge, yet think they know it all, and then uses it as a means of condescention towards people in the industry. It makes them look foolish.

 

[Brisco]

It's probably a good thing that you're done in this thread, because as Doggie Daddy correctly pointed out, as usual you are dead wrong. The notion that leased drivers are somehow "less" of a driver or "less" than a "true" IOO is ridiculous in the same way that day cab drivers are less of a driver than those with sleepers.

When a "true" IOO books a load for a customer, you are contracted to that customer to deliver their freight for that customer. You are told by the customer HOW to do their delivery, when to do the delivery, and are paid by the customer to do their delivery, all in precisely the same manner as someone leased to a carrier (except the carrier doesn't tell their contractors HOW to do their deliveries).

The only functional difference between a leased IOO and a "true" IOO is: where and how loads are obtained, and the manner in which collections are made. That's it.

Well.......as usual.....you still have a LOT to learn about trucking in general when it comes to being a true "IOO".

Not even worth discussing.......

One can read these boards for years and think they know everything about this business, but as long as they remain an armchair expediter........

I'm not an "Armchair" Expediter........I'm an "OFFICE CHAIR" Expediter!!

 

[Doggie Daddy]

I'm not an "Armchair" Expediter........I'm an "OFFICE CHAIR" Expediter!!

Among other things. But I am seeing how you won those 2 awards from that " other site ".

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[Turtle]

I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about being a true "IOO", but my brother has been one for more than 20 years, my stepdad was one for nearly that long, and his ex-wife, who I have known longer than my stepdad has, is a broker and has been for 40 years. You might be surprised at how much you can learn when interacting regularly with people like that who are that intimate with the business, especially when you sit right there next to them and see how it all works.

 

[jaminjim]

Well.......as usual.....you still have a LOT to learn about trucking in general when it comes to being a true "IOO".

And you, a used furniture salesman will be doing the teaching?

Not even worth discussing.......

True dat.

I'm not an "Armchair" Expediter........I'm an "OFFICE CHAIR" Expediter!!

Nope, not even that.

 

[dabluzman1]

We're not going down that road.....OK.

You "own" and "operate" a Truck.......and that's about as far any one can take it. You are "Contracted" to FedEx to do Deliveries for THEIR Clientele. You are told How to do their Deliveries, When to do their Deliveries, and are Paid by FedEx to do their Deliveries.

2 + 2 does equal 4......but in this case.......it's not even worth making it that simple.

I'm Done in this thread............

A famous man once sang,

"You may call me Terry, you may call me Jimmy
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray
You may call me anything but no matter what you say.

You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody"

 

[Brisco]

And you, a used furniture salesman will be doing the teaching?

You might say I've got enough smarts, and enough past experience, along with keeping up with current events pertaining to what's going on the trucking industry, to NOT be in "Trucking" right now......

.....and, I can probably guarantee anyone here that my little 1 man "Furniture Sales" operation is bringing in 3-4 times the $$$$ than any CV or ST driver is for any Expedite Carrier out there.

Even at that.....I'll be back out there running circles around, I mean running down the road with, you guys again sooner or later. It's who I am and what I love to do.........

True Dot......

 

[dabluzman1]

Well, at least you didnt say you were done with this thread, again.
Your credibility is taking a hit here. You say one thing, then do the opposite.
Oh, do you deliver?

 

[davekc]

Never ASSUME you know everything about this business. Just when you think you might know everything, someone else is changing it.

 

[Rocketman]

I'm thinkin a lot of people know more than Brisco gives 'em credit for. Brisco "knows" a few IOO's, so he figures that makes him an expert. He also ASSumes that none of us know any IOO's. I know a few and I'm sure most here do as well.

I've looked into it. I've even looked around, at length, on the very website that Brisco seems to idolize. Yep, sure 'nuff, they're gettin some good rates. You have to read between the lines a little to pick up on the extra work they're doing to get those rates though. Most of them are doing multiple stop LTL loads. That ain't all gravy. They are also running their own authority. That ain't all gravy either. Their doing their own billing, collecting and DOT compliance. There ain't one bit of gravy in that...for me.

The part that caught my attention the most on that website was a thread started by the owner of the website...who is also the owner of the brokerage who a lot of them get their loads from. He outlines what he expects from his IOO's if they expect to do business through his brokerage. It was fairly detailed list of "you'll need to do this, and that...and you'll need to do it this way, and that way...or... you'll need to find a different broker". Didn't sound all that independent to me.

What Brisco needs to realize is that we're not expediters because we have to be. We're not expediters because we're not aware that there are other ways to make a living in a truck. I think most of us have done our research and most of us are expediters because we want to be. It really doesn't matter to me what Briscoe..or any other thinks of what I do. I'll probably keep doing it however I want to and for as long as want to. When my "want to" changes, my business will likely change too.

I'm not convinced that Brisco is, or is capable of being, the super trucker he thinks he is but I am very impressed with his ability to sit on his butt and talk out of it at the same time.