Can a one man operation really compete with the bigs

Mike learned a new trick with BNSF off of ITS. He got tired of burning up cell phone minutes making wasted calls on cheap offers. So he decided to click the email and shoot them a quote instead of the usual haggling. He's gotten several loads like that at good rates. They come back with, "well, we'd like to move it for this - lesser amount" and he emails back, if you don't cover it at that and can do my rate call me. In the past just calling them they can play difficult but he has been impressed with this method recently. It's worth a shot drivers,nothing to lose, see if it works for you and work on pushing rates up. My theory on why it seems to work better is it seems to offer an easy solution to them,which psychologically they want "to cover a load", and the human interaction removed,well,it's easier to get down to business without parties having to play old Jedi mind tricks..

 

I remember my dispatcher at my old job was telling me that she would talk to some brokers over Google Chat. I still don't know how Google Chat works, and I don't use it, but she said it made things easier for her, she was more efficient and could talk to multiple brokers at once, looking for multiple loads for multiple trucks.

 

They have some nifty wrapped trucks and curtains. Those guys are always hammer down on the highway, they seem too fancy of a place to get 90% so what's the catch? Lease purchase?

 

Does Bill pay the liability and cargo insurance?

 

But the Jedi mind tricks are the fun part.... (It's a good idea though, emailing the rate... I'll probably try this on a Monday and see what I think) Anyway, I usually get BNSF to pay pretty good.... I think it likely that they keep track of the loads that I've previously hauled and refer back to their notes, once you establish a rate it's pretty hard to go up substantially. I had a SPC broker on a Friday a couple weeks ago trying to get me to do some lowball, out of their minds, cheap rate... Jay ME to Jville FL to Little Rock, 44,500, 2 stops at $1.25....As much as I wanted to laugh and hang up on him I instead came right out and politely asked if he normally moved a load like that for that price, and he said yes. I said, politely, "well, at this time I will not even consider a counter offer as the rate is so ridiculously low that I feel it really just a waste of time, trying to negotiate." (the broker already knew I was in Dover NH and would have to DH for his load) I simply said, "that I'd rather pu 15,000lbs in Keene NH going to Jersey for $875.00, but hey, maybe next time we can talk"... I let him end the call by saying, Ok, maybe next time"... I think he probably waited for me to call him back, caving in to his lowball rate, while I was driving to Keene, wondering if he was gonna call me back... lol..., anyway, now, establishing all that, you can bet that the next time time, if he wants to move a load on a Friday, he'll put a much better offer out there, initially... and then we can get down to business... I wouldn't consider hauling his load for anything less than $1.90...(I donna know, I might do $1.80), but, I'd like to get $2.20... I'd sure like to know what Hartt is hauling those paper loads for....probably $2.50-$2.60... I sometimes wonder if they get as much as $2.70...I think next time I'll give him a rate quote around there and listen carefully to his reaction, hopefully he won't swear at me....lol...If he does then I'll counter with, "hmm.. now you know how I felt when you offered $1.25 last time we spoke...." lol... yes, the Jedi mind tricks are what keep it interesting.....

 

Hmm...I've read that any time you go to Florida, you should get at least $3.25/mi or thereabouts to make it worth getting $1/mi out of there. But you would go there for $1.90/mi and two stops? Not trying to be critical, just curious.

 

They say Jacksonville area is ok, for flats. Probably ok certain times of year with a van. My problem with coastal areas they were always full of cheap to get back inland and difficult to get away from. South GA only seemed marginally better than northern FL - they have no trouble finding trucks to haul freight in south GA for everyone coming out of FL empty.. I wouldn't go to either area without close to a round trip rate because of it. So now you see why it can be difficult to get a rate like that when so many have in their head $2 a mile to anywhere is great. Reality it is the low end of where you want to be after deadhead. But if lots think it is good money to JAX then they're welcome to it,seems more like a losing proposition to me though.

 

A couple things, 1. unless the amount you've "been beat out of" exceeds 20k you're not going to see the inside of a courtroom as the amount is too low to litigate, you'll spend 20k on your lawyer and the civil court process..... I could be wrong, but my experience says that the court system tries to limit lawsuits by requiring litigants to "pay they're own way", meaning, the odds of recovering your legal fees in litigating, even when you prevail, are pretty slim, so if you spend 20 to get 20 then you just wasted your time....

2. After you win, you have a judgment. Different lawyers and a different process..... welcome to the world of collection, collection attorneys and chasing people with lousy credit and no money for what they already owe you....have fun...

But your'e right, a handshake is a lousy business contract. A legal contract at least keeps people somewhat honest as the fear of litigation is something that tends to keep people in check, as they also have to pay for a lawyer when you bring a lawsuit against them......

 

I'm not sure if this is a reply to my above post, but the final was Little Rock AR.

Back in Nov I had a round trip out of PA going down into FL and returning to PA, but I ran the UPS stuff in December cause they paid over $2 for crazy Christmas freight miles..... Haven't been able to get the PA load back yet.... they say they don't have it. I think someone else is on it and I won't hear anything till they give it up and the broker needs me. I was getting $1.90 on the round trip.... I'd like to get that back

 

That's a discussion for you and Bill to have. I am paying both. Direct to my insurance for bobtail, deduction for cargo.