CH Robinson Cheap Cheap Cheap!

If this were me ... the next time this agent calls and really needs something done, I would really put the screws to them .. Make that 1250 rate look like a bargain. If they don't give you the load, who really cares. If they continue hiring the cheap guy, things will go sideways, they will loose the customer, and you can pull it for the next broker who should have more money in it. It is just a cycle. I think sometimes they forget that they are not the ones who actually get the job done ...

 

Typical customer rates from NJ to OH are between $.82 and $.89 for van freight. They have been in that vicinity for several years.
Rates from OH to NJ hover around $2.00 to $2.40 not including fuel and those have been pretty constant for several years.
I am talking about the rates the customers want, not the rates trucking companies, large and small, want. For several years JB Hunt offered a rate of $.70 per mile out of the NE and Canada on Fridays and Saturdays so shippers waited to ship until then to get the cheap rate. They don't do that now....but they did it for 5-6 years and killed that market.
The megas will haul freight from NJ to CA for $1.00 per mile including fuel any day of the week. (I'll let you all figure out how they can do that on your own)
I don't have any customers in the NE because of the rate and the only place I'll let my truck go is New York City because I get $3.00 + to go in there so I can run back to VA or NC to load back to TN and still average around $1.75 - $1.80 + fuel to my trucks.
The cure for this is hard because the megas keep killing the rates but if everyone else stopped going there or refused to haul for less than a reasonable rate it would force the shippers to raise rates.
Some brokers depress the market too because they know megas will haul for dirt coming out and they can still make a profit.

 

Because someone will pull it to cover the fuel like a fool.

 

agreed but people do it everyday. hell, the vast majority of owner operator's pull for rates that leave them at company driver wages( or less) after expenses.