CH Robinson good or bad

You know who publishes the info claiming "this market is down", "that one is up" it's the same fraternity brothers of as the freight brokers... I never have trusted published load/truck ratios or lane indices. Spot market is about seat of your pants and gut instinct. If you listen to other drivers you will hear what is moving and what is not. Of course take some of that with a grain of salt and for obvious reasons most of that info will be vague. But I put more stock into that than I do what the suits and titans of the industry are putting out for mass consumption Never forget, they've already got theirs and don't want to see the likes of you or me out here. As JD Rockefeller famously said "competition is a sin"

 

If there was truely a shortage of trucks to haul freight, rates would be much higher than what we are seeing.

 

This is all to blame for companies like SWIFT, PRIME, and other company drivers. Trucks are NEW and Drivers drive for mile ratio payment!
Truck industry is on a BOOM for drivers and that means rates will stay low as long as these companies exist. Thats why owner operators dont get paid good. Simple as that.

 

I just don't think atrucker understands how business people negotiate.... he doesn't recognize the tactic of "beating up" the other person in the negotiation.... they quote these lowball rates deliberately, so that you "feel good" about getting a $1.40.... what he should try, instead of asking for a rate, is offering a rate instead.... if you know the initial offer is going to be a dollar a mile, then counter that by coming out of the gate and initiating an offer to do it for $2.60, and calculate what this is in terms of an offer, like saying, "I can run it for you for $2600.... (using a hypothetical 1000 miles for our example load)... when they counter offer with their ridiculously low sounding, "we're paying a thousand", you are now in a position to negotiate towards the center... you can laugh at them and say, "yeah, well that's not going to happen, but if you want to talk seriously with me about a rate maybe we can come to terms..."

 

First thing, if you're sitting in SC not near the I-85 corridor for more than an hour or two, you need to move. Just sayin'

Second thing, when you're looking at those freight indices, divide the numbers bigger than 1 in half or a third to get a more realistic view of what's going on. You know those loads TQL posts with 10 different load/delivery cities? They're in there counting as separate. You know when Stevens has 50 "daily" loads posted in a market that may or may not exist? Those are figured in too. If that's not enough, remember trucks are allowed to come in from a neighboring state to pick up. Don't let those big numbers in DE make you think it's some kind of lotto win or something. SC too for that matter. I'll bet a third of the freight that moves out of SC is loaded on a southbound truck passing thru from an even worse market.

 

So what if you sit? What is the hurry? Be patient and work things. However you're feeling, that's how you'll come across on the phone. Brokers can hear it in your voice if you're unsure, impatient, or apprehensive. They prey on that. I can hear it in them once in a while, you know what that is? that's blood in the water.

 

I don't know. After he's been calling on Columbus loads for a week they might have stumbled upon a clue, Sherlock. Even without the mob rules caller-ID magic.

Speaking of OH, I was surprised at the world of suck there lately. About two weeks ago I took one from Dallas to Cincy for a Fri morning 0-dark-thirty unload. Figured I'd be able to snag a quick pickup out of there and sit on it at home for the weekend. Instead of sitting there a week, I held out till the afternoon then dropped $300 in the tank from the decent inbound load and bounced. I was less mad about the DH than I was about missing the chance to juice up the rate on the DFW-OH load even more than I already did.

 

Back when I dealt with them, they booke loads that were not sold and then would'nt know where it was goin, just say head east and call us from OKC. I hated them.