Who's killing the rates?

[Jefferson3000]

Just saw this coming from the Cat. Evidently, they need some help covering a cheapy Notice the notes: "$380 is all we have in it." That's a carrier charging $1.74 per mile (even though they misfigured the miles as well) for a straight truck. That's about what we change for a cargo van to Miami area. Would any of you leased o/o folks like to go deeper into FL for the whole $380? Their book rate would have most likely fallen in the $655-700 range.

Simply more proof that it's the "big boys" that are killing the business for you. Be sure and thank them.

 

[davekc]

Happens all day long. Someone will grab it and throw it on with something else going down there. Have to broker it as a regular Panther truck isn't going to bother with it.

 

[Jefferson3000]

Well, it's still sitting there.

 

[davekc]

It may sit awhile, go up in price, someone takes it, or they will find a outbound load out of Miami and then talk a driver into covering. If they have a decent load pop up out of Miami, we would cover it with the outbound load. They get some that are pretty decent loads out of the Miami area.

 

[Jefferson3000]

Some of their loads are cheaper than that. I just normally don't see them offering an amount as if that were all that was in it.

 

[davekc]

Kinda like a reduced load they offer their own drivers. In many/most cases they actually have the rate in it.

 

[Jefferson3000]

Many times I've seen them throw it out for whoever will cover it for the price they want. If a partner throws a price out there that is more than they want to spend and no contractor has accepted it, they will use the partner price as a gauge as to what kind of incentive to re-offer the contractors in the area.

 

[x06col]

Not me. Anymore. I usta, when I could double or triple em up. But, I wish you'all would cut back a bit, i'm living on a "little" smaller income these days, an the goods are getting a bit high.

 

[piper1]

I know somebody who could run that and make very good money doing it (if he was down there today). If you think outside the box a bit and make a phone call, you could likely end up putting it a Sprinter too. Dock high doesn't always mean dock high. The Kentucky Duke will tell ya!

 

[nightcreacher]

You want to know whats happened to the rates,its the competition.There are companies doing expedite work at truck load rates,so what are our companies to do?
I was offered 2 loads to Florida last night,One for 96cpm,the other 80cpm,actually if I would have accepted either one,which someone else did,with my dead head,pay would have been much less,as there wasn't dead head or fsc involved.Oh and ther were both E loads,over 15000 lbs

 

[davekc]

You want to know whats happened to the rates,its the competition.There are companies doing expedite work at truck load rates,so what are our companies to do?
I was offered 2 loads to Florida last night,One for 96cpm,the other 80cpm,actually if I would have accepted either one,which someone else did,with my dead head,pay would have been much less,as there wasn't dead head or fsc involved.Oh and ther were both E loads,over 15000 lbs

I don't think some realize there are quite a few companies bidding on loads and they aren't expedite companies. You also see a lot more companies hauling multiple loads to compensate fo the lower rates. The lower rates aren't just the Cat and the Fed, it is a lot of sources that drive the rates. That is also why you are seeing a steady decline in rates from the Alliance.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

My question is: If the one who posted the load were telling the truth about how much they had in it, why would Panther even mess with the load in the first place? My guess is they're lying. Panther is smarter than to take a load, where no one wants to go, for that cheap.

 

[davekc]

My question is: If the one who posted the load were telling the truth about how much they had in it, why would Panther even mess with the load in the first place? My guess is they're lying. Panther is smarter than to take a load, where no one wants to go, for that cheap.

Hard to tell. May have had a Panther driver agree/demand to do it for $400. They throw out 380 to see if someone will do it cheaper. If they get it covered from the broker, they just tell the driver its covered. If you do that all day, it starts to add up.
Same thing with nameless carriers that give bonuses to dispatchers to cover loads at the cheapest price.

 

[Jefferson3000]

I know somebody who could run that and make very good money doing it (if he was down there today). If you think outside the box a bit and make a phone call, you could likely end up putting it a Sprinter too. Dock high doesn't always mean dock high. The Kentucky Duke will tell ya!

Yes Piper, you may very well be able to fit that load on a Sprinter. But don't be looking for me to pay your dry run for your little experiment, should you get run off the property for not being dock high.

 

[nightcreacher]

This rate thing is probably the only thing in this world that makes me mad
Before I started with Roberts Express,I hauled produce,coast to coast.My back haul sometime paid me more than the produce I brought from California to New york.I only had excempt authority,so instead of trip leasing I would get excemt freight,which air freight was,except in New Mexico and Illinois.
A Friday pick up delivering on Monday is the same as next day freight.that 2800 miles would pay me over $4000,quite a bit more than the $2100 for general freight
When I Leased on to Roberts express,we had a dual pay scale,out bound was 62% and all others were 46%,you could negotiate,the 46%.All customers were charged the same rate and for a tractor that was $2.42 per loaded mile,sure we had discounts,if customer had more than 5 loads per week,he got a 15% discount.A funny thing would happen though,when freight got slow,Roberts didn't cut the rate,they increased it,and you know what,we got busier.
When other companies found out about expedite, freight rates got crazy,and now are out of control.
Problem is its not about service anymore,its about cost.
If our companies would start preaching our services,rather than falling into the money trap,all our rates would go up.
Those Brand X companies cant compete with any of our services.

 

[x06col]

But, service should be expected when you pay for something. Don't you expect service when you pay?? There really should'nt be any reason to have to state the obvious to a customer. Sadly, that's not how it works in real life. When they get burnt once (or enough) trying to be cheezy, or being clever(on a Carriers part) it'll prolly change.

 

[CharlesD]

A lot of people are missing the point here because of thinking like a contractor. The point isn't whether or not this is a good rate for a driver to get to haul something, but that if they're telling the truth, this is all they charged the shipper. If shippers are being charged $1.74 a mile for in state straight truck runs, what does that do to the rates after the load is brokered or given to a contractor? Several times lately I've called a partner carrier about a load and been told upon offering my price that "that's all we have in that load." Carriers just shouldn't be charging that little from a shipper. That sort of thing will drive the rates lower and it's not the smaller carriers who are doing this.

 

[CharlesD]

Service does still count though. Just yesterday I had a partner offer me a load when there was another carrier with a van much closer to the shipper than I was. I have hauled loads for this partner before and have always given good service. They know what they're getting from me and it does count for something.

 

[davekc]

I think what really happens is somewhere in the middle. I agree with when a bid is awarded, a certain degree of service is expected. In Charles case a known entity won out over someone the carrier had little or a poor experience with. So service does sell in some cases.
The bad news is for every ten loads, it is probably only a factor in one or two. The other eight are purely price driven.
Case in point.
Just take a look at the border and see how cheap freight comes out of there on some days. Its mind boggling.

 

[greg334]

Charles,
Why shouldn't we look at it from the contractors point of view?

We don't have control over what the carrier does nor do we have control over their competition. We need to worry about our bottom line, not the freight trends or why something is.

Part of our reality is still too many trucks, too many carriers and not enough uniform regulations. It is simple to get into this business, even as a broker or carrier but it isn't hard to turn a buck, many want that instant first million without working at it - be it a contractor, carrier or broker.

The real villain here is nothing other than the Internet, it has allowed the ability to build systems that communicate in seconds rather than minutes or hours.

It alone has given shippers the channel they need and in the past, the competition was easier to deal with because the shipper didn't have the "Instant" resources to find the services they needed to move freight. Now competition means cheaper prices on their bills, service may not be as good as it was in the past but then again many don't care as long as the freight gets there on time and they keep their budgets intact.

The Internet also gave us another problem, the "fishers" who all they do is look for loads, find them and then repost them with a percentage taken out - sometimes on the same board you may have five or six brokers doing the same thing.