Eagle Logistics Services. Indianapolis, IN

Good you answered the question. However. You can't guarantee that you have negotiated the best rate. That's not always the case. Many times shippers/customers will bid loads out. It's not always who has the best rate, it's the rate of the carrier that surpasses expectations in many cases. Those with the less service failures. If it's a contracted rate, many times customers will go back to the original Company they were dealingvwitj, pay higher rates to insure good service. No not all brokered freight is less, in many cases it's more. Although, in some cases you may be able to to get a decent rate. Which is difficult for newer Companies in this business. However. One thing Eagle has going for it, is the apparent Company has been in business for some time.

 

Easier, well that depends on the shipper. As You well know.

 

Good, so no commissions off the top. That's great news for your driver's. But some customers are not always easy. They can eat up your drivers time, not load correctly, put to much weight on etc., which drives me crazy. Then you have your customers are great in and out. So, really it depends on the shipper.

 

Well, there's never a guarantee that you're getting the best rate. Sometimes you may catch the person in charge of negotiating shipping rates for a company when he's having a great day and just got a huge raise. He's in a great mood so he'll offer you $2.25/mi when he'd normally offer $2.15. People are always different and there's no way to know when you get the best rate.

What we do know is that the fewer hands in the pie, the more there is for everyone. If you have a broker and a carrier both taking a cut out of a rate, it's very likely to be worse for the driver then if only one of them is taking a percentage.

I would estimate that our avg. rate on brokered freight is somewhere around $1.80 for Dry Van. On our customer freight, it's closer to $2.05/mi, and part of the reason is because there is no broker involved who is also taking a cut.

Oh certainly, shippers can be a pain, but in general, the fewer steps the better.

On a brokered load, if a driver is running late, the OM has to call the broker, who calls the shipper, who tells the broker what the options are, who calls the OM back, who talks to the driver.

With a customer load, if the driver is late, the OM walks across the office to the CSR and finds out what the contract says for late deliveries and then calls the driver back. It's almost always a much easier process.

 

1.80 is such an ugly rate. Are you talking about lanes coming out of the north west? Or backhaul lanes like CO to Indy? As far as your OM walking across to talk to the customer service rep, I could have talked directly to the driver and given a heads up to my customer. I know of other brokers with other Companies that deal directly with your drivers. Adding an additional few steps is unnecessary. Unless you have a driver that relies solely on dispatch and doesn't book their own loads. Remember rates are a reflection of time in business and service failures in most cases. Wow, a buck eighty. That's really low. Now that's what I call an ugly rate. Time to streamline your processes. Impressing upon your drivers to follow through on loads, pick up on time and deliver on time you will build a better reputation and require higher rates. I personally offer better rates than the ones your company negotiates, but, I also expect the drivers to arrive on time and deliver on time and to stay in touch with me. In case there is a truck issue, traffic issue etc. Since your MC is so new, brokers and direct customers might be taking advantage of your drivers and CSR's. Which isn't fair, but, there are those out there that will do that. For me, it's all about the driver. I take care of them and they take care of me. Period,end if story. As far as a driver calling me direct and me contacting my customer is much easier than them calling a OM/DM, then them talking to your CSR, then you have to wait for the CSR to tell the DM/OM to call back the driver. Thats, way to many steps and way too much time spent internally. Wow, streamlining processes is very important. Now that's too many hands to deal with on just a load. Creating more work for everyone involved. Especially the driver who is waiting patiently.

 

in addition if your average rate for a direct customer is only 2.05 for a van, that's low, as well. Like I said before, stick around awhile Eagle Ops and you'll see you can do much better. My drivers wouldn't haul load for 2.05. Unless they were stuck in the Northwest.

 

I want to pull loads for YOU!!! haha

Thanks for all of the information you have provided here.

For a beginner, in dealing with brokers, this is all awesome information.

Thanks,
Toby

 

Lsbroker how can some reach you

 

Not surprisingly, everyone tends to suggest they have better freight and that whatever company they're speaking about has low prices.

"Oh you work for Eagle? Come to Great Wide, we can get you $2.20/mi"
"Oh you work with Great Wide? Come to Swift, we can get you $2.40/mi"

And on and on, but those assertions are meaningless without hard data to back it up.

According to DAT's collection data, the average rate for Dry Van freight in the US for the month of June was ~$1.88/mi, which is almost exactly where Eagle was coming in at (I'll have to find the latest reports to give you the exact figure but like I said, I think it was around $1.80/mi).

Whenever someone claims to have "Freight paying $2.50/mi" or the like, I'm forced to question whether or not that's accurate because the data suggests that it isn't.