Hauling us army equipment

Must be hauling them to a museum.

 

^^^^^ Made me laugh ^^^^^

 

The DOD requires that carriers put up a performance bond. The amount depends on how many states that you want to haul out of, as I recall. I think the minimum bond is either $10,000 or $25,000. It has been some time since I checked into doing business direct with them. There are other requirements, but the bond keeps most smaller carriers from doing business direct with the government. I have known a couple of small carriers that have personal contacts at military bases and they were able to get loads without having to put up the bond. The government has been trying to consolidate logistics for several years. Menlo is part of Conway and is the primary source the government has been using in recent years. It has driven rates down considerably. Menlo has been brokering to other brokers and then to carriers. Before Menlo got involved you could look at the bills and see what the government was actually paying. Now, we don't have any idea what Menlo is taking off the top or what the military is actually paying for those load going through them. We used to do a fair amount of military freight. With most of the rates I have been seeing lately, it isn't worth it. I only haul a military load every now and then. If there is a major move going on then they will pay a decent rate. Other than that, the rates are pretty dismal. You would be better off concentrating on other freight unless you have someone you know well who can offer you consistantly good paying freight.

 

Most big units have Contracting Officers/NCO's. I would get a hold of the contracting office. You might need a secret though.

 

US Govt doesnn have to pay til they are ready either so checks are slow to come and Freight rates are bottom $ like US Mail.

 

It's a several month process to get set up with DOD (SDDC) or Menlo. Some bases ship through the SDDC and some ship through Menlo or both. It is not worth the time to get set up with Menlo. We did about two years ago and just recently got a request for a move. There was actually more hurdles to overcome getting set up with Menlo then the SDDC. For the SDDC you'll need a performance bond anywhere from 25k to 100k, depending on the amount of states you want to haul from and to. You'll have to set up your tenders under your scac and you'll have to make some contacts to get anything. We got set up two years ago and are finally seeing some things happen. You'll find every base and every transportation officer is different. Some will go by the book and start with lowest biddernwhich typically doesn't get a truck. Some will go with who they know, and some will go with what seems to be an insanely high rate. It's all over the board. The learning curve is huge.
One good thing about the SDDC side is you can see what everybody is getting to move the load. You'll also find that some brokers have multiple companies (scacs) set up so they can have a range of tenders to cover from low bid to high. On a typical move you'll see rates low in the begining and middle of the week and then they'll shoot up on Friday to finally get the equipment moved. Often the brokers offering the higher rates on Friday are different companies owned by the same ones that were offering the low rates earlier in the week.
This load I'm under right now is a perfect example of this. Earlier in the week you'd see loads posted at $2200 to $2800 for 1141 miles. On Friday it was $3700. Of course the military people are ticked because they don't get any trucks in there until Friday and everything is moved at the last minute. Even if they gave out the higher tenders earlier in the week most brokers would try to take a larger commission and wait until the last minute to jack it up.
Talking with military people, both systems are messed up. The governments idea of trying to get the lowest cost really doesn't work that way. I've often wondered why they don't go to a type of loadboard system. They essentially already have the software in place. Approved carriers could log on and see all the available loads and what the pay range is (or something to that effect). There would have to be stipulations for it to work like only somebody with an actual truck could secure the load and that they would be bound to haul it under penalty if they failed to do so.
Of course here lately there was an article about some mega carriers lobbying congress to exclude all but the most financially sound from hauling dod loads. So in the end they're trying to get rid of the little guy, which is who hauls the majority of the dod loads anyways.

 

Just requiring the high performance bond prohibits the smaller carriers and independents from doing business with the military. Unless you are doing a lot of business with them it is a cost you don't really need. I still don't see the need for the military to require a performance bond. They could check safety records and insurance just like is done in the private sector. If the bond is required to help reduce fraud, it hasn't worked. There is much fraud going on with some of their contracts. If they do want to continue using Menlo or others, then they need to require them to be transparent in their rates and even have a fixed rate for them to charge, such as 10%. Since Menlo doesn't put the amount the military is paying on the BOL, they are likely taking a very high percentage off the top. Cheap rates only attract the lowest quality carriers. Most contracts are bidded out. In years past, they were published in the "Commerce Business Daily." It is a publication from the federal government. I don't recall a performance bond being required on other types of contracts, at least back then.

 

Being the government, there are no doubt special considerations and set=asides, such as if you're a dyslexic cross-dresser of mixed asian, hispanic, and other non-european parentage, etc.
I just quit three years of working for government contractors. Each year I had the same job only with a new name on the paycheck because that particular contract was put on annual renewal.
Of course each year the bid went to the lowest bidder, but being a services contract where the contractor actually provided nothing but the bodies to do the work (in this case, education counseling),
every year meant taking a pay cut just to keep your job. Some of my co-workers had been there 14-16 years in the same job only under 7-8 different contractors.
During my three years there, you couldn't help but notice that each of the contractors were officially owned by minority females for the obvious government set-aside purposes.
Wherelse can you go where the longer you work and the better you do, the less you make? That's government contract work. So go Inc, LLC, or LLP with you wife as owner/president (mine already thinks she owns me ) and put in your bids. Also be prepared for Contracting Officers that don't know anything at all about what they are contracting. They may know the paperwork, but that doesn't mean they know the business their contracting - and they got hired and promoted on government set-asides as well.

 

DOD loads are paid through U.S. Bank Power Track Program, electronically.

 

I worked in the shipping/recieving departement for a military contractor for 6 years. Call the contractor and sweet talk them a little. there were a few small companies that the shipping guy would just call up and give him the load. It depends who's paying for the load, which hoops they gotta jump through. I can say that the system they use is very corrupt. I saw one load of 2 humvees going to nebraska from michigan that they paid the company $21,000. One going to Mississippi for $14,000. I told them they were getting ripped off but I think somebodies pockets got greased so the investigation died. Shipping companies used to buy us lunch all the time. So just find out if a contractor runs shipping there and give them a call.