How to understand the way this works!!!!

Yeah absolutely. I can't believe Mercer's freight network out here is so awful. This is eye-opening. I live in Arizona and needed to swing thru to pick up mail, but in hindsight I should have just had it sent to me in the midwest somewhere. Thanks for the response good sir.

 

I hope it gets better this summer. Last summer and then on into this winter have been pretty dismal on my end. I'm hoping come March things start to look less bleak?

 

Honestly, if history repeats itself, which when it comes to the freight market it almost always does, it's going to be next March after the election before we see a real upswing. We will get a slight uptick this spring but not the normal big swing up we get every spring and summer. Obviously I'm not an expert economist so just another ahole with an opinion. but I've been doing this longer than i like to admit and have seen the trends.

 

That's great information, thanks. I like to hear it from people that have been around a while and have seen the trends and have a better feel for how it works.

 

Just to add sometimes when I'm looking at the board instead of searching for a orgin I clear it and search for the best paying load going to X then maybe see if anything in the area where I'm delivering is going that way. For example. I dispatched on a load to Oklahoma so I see there's s great paying load going to South Carolina from Wisconsin, so I'll see if anything coming out of Oklahoma can get me within x amount of miles of Wisconsin. Obviously it's spaced out and not next day stuff. But you could pre plan your week like that. The few times I've seen ridiculous paying loads which only happened a handful of times I'd book it anyways and just gamble that I'll find something or have a huge deadhead. If it's two weeks away then I get on the phone with the agents and let them know when I'll be in their area which direction I'd like to go and most times within 3-4 hours a load pop up that I need. Get with these agents and tell them you need to get towards AZ and you should make good getting out there. I've seen good paying loads going that way but of course I don't run out there. Another thing is look at all the loads going to Phoenix let's say next week and then book the best paying one and just look for fillers to get you to that area where it's coming from. If you have to get by the house. I know I've rambled on but I hope this helps

 

Remember, If you want to develop a relationship with an agent. When you book these loads in advance, you have given your word. If things don't work out and you need to have a longgg dead head to cover a committed load, then do the dead head.

If you don't honor your word, the agent may feel he was lied to. Just as we feel if an agent lies to us.

 

That's right. If you agree to do something, you do it. Even when it cost you.

 

I bet this is a better tactic in the summer when there are more plentiful loads to work that out? I have had a hard time getting anywhere specific with the reduced load offerings, at least in the west .. But maybe the west is just a hugely different story altogether.

 

Yea I've only been as far as Utah once and NM twice. I use this tactic now. Not all the time but from time to time. Other than that I'm usually just booking a week out

 

In this depressed market nothing works like it did. You just gotta be willing to adapt and change the way you run. Almost on a daily basis. For the last couple years I've concentrated on getting up to the Midwest and running short haul, that isn't working so great anymore so I'm searching for something different.

Just whatever you do, try not to run haphazardly all over. That just doesn't work very well. Any time i do that, i end up with four cheap loads for every good load.