hey brokers, has elogs changed business/rates etc?

I saw a lot of our customers trying to push loads a lot cheaper than normal thinking guys would take them just to get home. So my truck is sitting at the yard in Louisville and i got home via enterprise. And of course that same shipper doubled the rate once i got south of nashville.

 

I don’t do a lot of excessive pick/drop loads like that but some of my loads are on less than desirable lanes. Not the worst of the worst but not great. This past year I have made a lot of calls to carriers in situations where I could most likely get them whatever money they needed to get the load done. Not FEMA rates or anything too crazy but good enough money to make it worth while.

It amazes me how many people I call on the spot market that cut you off after you tell them the pickup and delivery cities and nothing else. As you said in these situations I’m looking for an option, at least put something out there, you never know what could happen. I know my customers well enough to know whether what you give me for a rate is doable or not. If not I’ll let you know and move on.

However what I try not to do is beg someone to haul my customers loads. I at least leave it to the carrier to recognize when an opportunity presents itself.

 

I'm guilty of cutting people off based only on the start and end cities. I'm always posted up as going only to zones 2, 3 & 4 which is mostly the southeast and midwest. But Maryland just happens to be on the fringe of one of those zones and I don't go there. Virginia is too and I seldom ever go there.

The thing is when someone cuts you off based on the city state it's likely because, or at least in my case, that they know specifically what they are looking for and when the right load comes along they'll be all ears. Sometimes I hear irritation from brokers when they get cut off and rejected, "but you're posted for blah, blah, blah". Of course..

But that doesn't mean any and every load within that area is something of interest. There's a lot of choices out there even when it's not a truck's market.

 

Right, I try not to be the guy that calls when your truck is posted for Nashville and offer you a load to Maine or California or something like that. When I have to make call outs on a load I try to at least give myself some sort of success based on what information is on the board. It does get a little tricky when someone has a zone posted that includes your delivery location, you never know what someone has in mind, as you say those zones include some states that people don’t care for.

I totally understand when people have specific plans with their truck and just wouldn’t be able to make a load work, no matter the rate.

 

All those IL carriers on the board that say destination 'anywhere' don't really want to go anywhere. They want to go to Chicago. They all want to go to Chicago.

 

Yeah true, it doesn’t take more than a few calls when your are first starting out to figure this out.

 

You folks would not believe how many calls I get from people asking if I would go to CA or ME and the only way I ever post is to Z2Z3Z4. Usually it's in a situation where trucks are tight and they are desperately seeking options. So I don't yell at them or anything. I get it. But I do quickly decline. Had several brokers begging for a truck going to CA this past week. I noticed posted rates to the west coast were almost double what they normally are and have been for a couple of weeks now. A holiday spike that will quickly dissipate in the days ahead. Then those calls will become rare again. Another sign that trucks have loosened up and the desperation of those looking for them is gone.

 

I think, a good initial test will be in the first quarter of 2018. Typically, it is supposed to be slow and cheap. If it isn't then we'd need to check whether it is capacity or freight volume, if it can be measured somehow (?). Decreased capacity may be a good indicator of ELDs having any impact.
The latest rates equal those I was getting in October. November was good too. It seems that the 4th quarter is the harvest time. If I could get at least 2 quarters like the last 3 months, then I'd be optimistic with or without ELDs. For those applying for their MC# , it is best to wait until the end of May to become active, otherwise frustration and disappointment may be something to overcome.

 

I'm anxious to see how this big corporate tax rate reduction pans out. It should be good for business and that'd help take the sting out of EOBR .