Rates Dropping????

gotta have options, cant rely on one loadboard or one broker, gotta have plan a,b,c,d,e,f,etc.....

 

As a company our rates are up about 15-20% year-over-year and we are up 5% from last month. July was flat from June (better than expected).

Capacity is very tight in much of the country. For much of the year we haven't seen any red on truck capacity (red is when you have more loads than trucks) in every state. I have never seen that happen.

In terms of our rates I think we are seeing the numbers we are seeing for two reasons. First being I have more drivers that have established relationships and get the rate with no hassle. Time in the business.

The other is we have added over 20 trucks in the two months and many of these drivers have figured it out from the get go. Plus they are new and more aggressive and not tied to certain markets. The lanes have changed but the market seems solid.

Also, a 3rd reason is we have two accounts that have combined over $1.5 billion in annual freight that will give us the top dollar right from the word go. So when we call on Monday for a Wednesday load we get the Wednesday morning rate and not the Monday rate. If that makes sense.

 

Thanks for your input Danny, i'm just wandering how you get into shippers email list, call them and ask them to be on the list or there in any other source to get into shippers list!

 

I had a load booked out of Renton, WA for next week. Agent called today and ask me to take a cut on the linehaul or the shipper will have to find someone at a lower rate. I guess the shipper is looking for someone to haul it at a lower rate.

 

you must be picky on where you load to

 

No that's total BS what he is saying is people are moving loads cheaper this week so you should also haul cheaper.
I've been looking at the boards all day for flatbed out of Akron,oh area heading south same thing every load I call on 45,k+ and $1.70/mi and needs tarped sorry ant going to happen I'll just find a hotel and start Monday if I have to!!

 

Monday and/or Tuesday might be better anyways with the end of Q3. This week's second half should be also.

 

Thanks for the pep talk!

 

what kind of rates have you been getting now? lets say from ga to los angeles?

 

I see rates have improved the last week in TN (Van) We pretty much run dedicated ATM so we didn't get the drop in rates. One of the advantages of having a good working relationship with agents.