Brokers, Please explain the plummeting rates these days.

My rates have went up alot. If your rates didnt go up then that is on you... The "market" rates are nothing but a average rate across all the companies competing on the spot market. If people left the cheap #### sitting on the dock. Then the "market" rates go up... Simple simple stuff... But not understood and implemented by many...

Some brokers will tell you a lane pays x amount of money.. I could care less. You want my truck, it cost this much... Take it or leave it... Plenty of other dip ####s to call.

 

Idk ran a load for $60.241cpm today. Yard to Yard.

 

Exactly. Only fools try to undercut each other or some imaginary number a scumbag broker pulls out his rectum. Don't like my rate? Call another truck. Racing to the bottom playing the rate game is a recipe for failure.

Broker: "I get it moved for xxx amount all the time".

Me: "Why are we talking right now then? You should have those other trucks on speed dial and buying them lunch because they gave you one hellova deal!"

 

How have your rates not gone up?
My fsc alone is close to $1 per mile
Almost everyone I know has been preaching for about two years how much the rates have moved and personally my rates have gone up more than the extra cost to move the load

Sure. Everything has gone up but I’m no worse off than I was 4 years ago

 

Your post just confirmed what I said. You just illustrated how fuel is up but the rate is not. They may go up or down together, but not always. It more in the realm of coincidence if they do. Hell, the past few years illustrated my point in dramatic fashion, rates were at ALL TIME HIGHS with some of the lowest fuel we had seen in years. Overall, rates are still well above average, and have slid a little. As fuel shoots up to all time highs. They may be distantly related, but they aren't linked directly. They are both separate, complex issues.

 

My rates always change with my operating expenses to insure I make the same no matter what fuel is doing. However, my area is a ghost town right now. Very little being moved. If it wasn't for my usual freight opportunities I'd be parking the truck. Still may happen. It's only a matter of time before my regulars fall too.

 

This is EXACTLY what everyone is talking about in this thread. The supply of capacity in the market out numbers the demand for said capacity, so the cost to get a load covered is going down. Given enough time everyone's rate gets close to the market norm, because for hire trucking acts more like a commodity market than a service industry. You can charge what ever you like as a business owner, but you may end up without any shipments to run, especially once regular customers benchmark your rates.

As a side note, the exact same thing happens inversely as well. We saw it during the pandemic when the shoe was on the other foot. It didn't matter if you were a good shipper or broker, or that cost to the truck didn't increase much during that time period, there was a large surge in rate to the truck across the entire domestic market.

 

Yup... and then a TON of new entrants flooded the market. Which drives rates back down. Hopefully, I can pick up a truck cheap once they all panic and run.

 

I got to put you on ignore. Your badgering me is getting tiresome. You just can't seem to let it go, broker. I get my rate. I can't control the availability. Have a good day.

 

You keep saying that your expenses dictate your rate. Does that mean when fuel was cheap but rates were high that you lowered your rate?

You have to get all you can all the time. It seems like when fuel is down rates are almost better then when fuel is high because economic output is higher.

Its ok to get squeezed for periods of time because you should have been doing much better then average also for periods of time.