auto transporters

That's why you work to get yourself a dedicated customer or two, like a small dealership. The more of those you have, the less you end up having to fight all the rate-cutting vultures hanging around Central Dispatch. I don't think I have to tell you that car hauling has become crazy competitive in the past few years; everyone saw how much we were making and thought, "I'm going to get a piece of that action!" Now you have every Tom, Dick and Harry with a ragged-out dualie and a rickety 3-car wedge trying to horn in on the scene, and a lot of those guys like to cut corners as well as rates.

Besides, the last couple of month of the year always seem to be the slow part of the season; things will pick up again after about February or March. Just another reason to have those regular customers to keep the bills paid while you wait for the action to pick up again.

And, yes, I agree; there has to be a limit to just how cheap you're willing to work for. Just the other day our broker contacted us about hauling a Ram 3500 from Florida to Arizona for $600. The forum's rules on decency won't allow me to write what we told him he could go do with that load. Too much work and too much wear and tear on the equipment for rates that stupid.

 

We are now where the freight industry was about 10 years ago. Our problem is two fold, first it is way too easy to enter the car haul world. We need higher barriers to entry, years ago when I started as an independent owner operator I had to knock on doors to find work. Today the computer boards make it too easy. Buy a wedge and you are a car hauler. Then just underbid the old timers that are "ripping off' everyone.

That brings me to the second part, the internet load boards. It used to take connections to move a car, so the brokers took care of the quality carriers, not any more. The internet boards killed the old, decent brokers in favor of quicker, cheaper service. I have been facing this harsh reality lately, lost a dedicated customer, and a big one, that I had a personal relationship with for over a decade because of a internet broker. It got to a point where quality service did not out weigh the price, cost became more important to them.

Lastly, these idiots that are cutting rates. My current largest customer is now Manheim auction through their wholly owned sister company, Ready Logistics. Don't get me started on them, they came in and were forced down my throat, another long term direct customer gone because of a corporate decision. Well now us direct carriers have to deal with lane rate averaging, meaning when some low baller bids on a non contracted unit in my normal lane and the rate is lower than my contracted rate, the lower rate becomes the new normal rate for the next 90 days. This means my contracted rates mean nothing any more and I am being forced to deal with rate cutting that is beyond my control.

 

Does the opposite hold true? If someone takes a car in your lane for more than your contracted rate does the rate increase for 90 days?

 

Speaking of Internet brokers. A friend of mine moved a extremely low and customized BMW M3 for 375 from Miami to New York. The car owner admitted to paying 1200 to get the car shipped

 

I'm not saying its right, but this time of year, they will take anything just to get back north for southbound snowbird traffic

 

Yea I remember those days... But the broker made 875 dollars for doing absolutely nothing. Talking about highway robbery

 

Sadly that is a big fat NO, but it sounds like a great idea.

 

Good for the broker. I don't blame him at all. It's the cheap *** carriers I hate. Had I known there was this many idiots who would move this crap so cheap I would have started a brokerage.

 

Reading this thread made me question, just how low are the rates per unit now on average? Sounds terrible through a broker now...