florida produce

Yes, if you look at load boards for posted brokered freight, you will get spot market rates.

 

Which tend to be higher than contract rates. There are some REALLY good contract rates but there are some REALLY good spot rates too. You gotta remember how much 1.20-1.50 a mile contract freight there is.

 

Said the spot market salesman....

 

Said the guy who claims that he's getting the USDA rates but won't say from which market or what commodity. And don't tell me you're protecting your customers because we both know that there are easily 10+ shippers operating out of any given produce generating zip code much less state. And if they are paying you all that money they definitely aren't taking other people's calls. If they took my call you'd be out of work the second they realized that they don't have to overpay to get trucks to show up. But most likely we're both right...

More likely than not you handle some kind of specialized deal like berries. That's cool. It's also not in conflict with anything I've posted. If your claim is that you are getting the USDA rates without a giant catch (like moving a commodity that is really ###### risky or being required to come back empty) I'm going to have to call you a liar. And be right 100% of the time. You aren't touching those USDA rates moving potatoes/carrots/celery/melons/pumpkins/onions. And you aren't touching them this time of year out of FL no matter what. Not even with berries/tomatoes/flowers. Kroger pays contract flower carriers a buck fifty a mile out of FL year round and has people banging down their door to get it. These are like 1p8d loads going into the midwest. And they HAVE to be run year round. You get to run the FL produce season at a buck fifty a mile to secure that buck fifty a mile. With risky freight.

 

You're so full of crap it's funny. Because you can't sell a service at that rate you think no one can. Our customers know they can get it moved cheaper short term, but in he long run it costs more. When there is a problem they can talk direct to the driver, not have to deal with multiple people who know nothing. They have long term relationships with the companies. There are customers out there that see the value in that. Those rates go no matter what the product is. When you want to deal with those that the rate is the only thing, then the rate is lower. We broker a lot of loads, so keep convincing everyone how low it is. Helps me out.

 

It doesn't cost more long term dude. I moved over a thousand loads for my customers this year. I didn't have any major claims and I only had a dozen or so trucks just not show up. (My on time % is very hard to track because I move produce and being late is so frequently not the trucks fault) I'm not the one who is selling ######## to people. I live in the real world where things have a market price. You may have customers too dumb to know better, but some day that will end.

The long term trend on freight pricing is down because of technology. The average truck moving produce in 2016 probably made somewhere around 1.80 all miles, which isn't as good as it possibly could be, but was certainly profitable for all but the worst truck owners.

The only thing I'm 'selling' is reality. Something that I think the members of this forum have already figured out. Most of them anyway.

But go on spinning your yarns about what a big fish you caught and how much money you get for every load you do. There is great freight in the world, but good luck getting it without knowing somebody. You might know that somebody or you might be that somebody but pretending that it's the norm is unethical. You know it isn't and communicating that it is to people is very misleading.

The money from great freight belongs to the guy with the connection... Not to the guy hauling the load. Most of us have very small amounts of great freight and vast quantities of normal freight. I've made most of my money from the normal stuff, and that's what people should build a business around. You can be a complete idiot and run a very successful trucking company if the freight is good enough. Those people don't need to come here and get help.

 

Dude,(LOL)1000 loads. 3 per day 365 days in a row. And a 1/10 of a % failure rate? Now you're showing pure BS. I never said that rate is the norm, just that it is out there. Requires a commitment that few will provide. Our customers are approached every day with cheaper rates, sometimes they try it for a few loads and then tell them to go away.

Not "spinning a yarn", just many years of hard work. Something that most give up and take the easier way out. Takes a lot of work and knowing a lot of people. And most of all, doing what you say you will regardless of cost to yourself.

If I didn't know better, I would think that you were one of my agents. Sound just like him.

 

I'm talking just completely whiffing the truck. Not the truck being late. Not the usual stuff... Just we thought there was a truck and it never showed. Also it's more like 70 loads a week during my busy season and 5 loads a week now lol. That's why I have all this time to be posting on the internet.

We had tons and tons and tons of fallouts obviously. The relationship I have with my customers allows me to give freight back in those situations no harm, no foul as long as it isn't too late in the day. I've recovered most but by no means all of my fallouts. Similarly I've recovered a ton of trucks for my customers late in the afternoon when someone else had a fallout. It's not an adversarial deal at all.

I'm doing meaningfully better performance wise than the other brokers in my line of work though. I just pay slightly better and know how to get what I'm paying for. I started out with produce like every other broker on earth, but unlike them I was GOOD at it. Then it snowballed and here I am.

I've mentioned in other threads the kinds of special situations that lead to *GOOD* freight. Everyone has a different idea of what good freight is. I want freight that is at the market rate, relatively easy on pickup and delivers nowhere worse than a grocery store warehouse. Bonus points if I can get the same rate going to a packing shed instead of a grocery store warehouse.

I'll cover 10 of those a day in the season.

 

I don't think I ever said the produce rates were good. Do other refrigerated that pays as much for a 1&1 with a lot less hassle. With the exception of a few, most of our customers use asset based as core carriers and brokers for the overflow. They won't use a broker on the majority of their freight. They give first shot on that to the carriers with dual authority first.

Last week I had a guy do 107 flower loads. Not one late/no-show or any other problem. I think he's been sleeping since Saturday.

 

So you're saying you have no incentive to talk rates down?