I Say Yes to Cheap Freight

I hauled some salt this year that payed above average rates. Cheap freight but great rate.
You're right about shippers and brokers transferring risk; that's where knowing the law and negotiating the contracts come in. That transfer can only occur also with the cooperation of the carrier. I'll bet most carriers, or at least most small carriers, just accept whatever contract they're given and don't even read it, let alone object or negotiate terms. And many of the contracts out here are very bad for the carrier. That's why I often tell carrier/o-o's to at least buy the book Protecting Motor Carrier Interests in Contracts by Henry Seaton. It doesn't cost much and it's a good introduction to the subject. If you don't know this stuff you can't protect yourself. The contract already set the rules of the playing field (or battlefield) if something goes wrong with a load be it a minor thing like detention or a major thing like a claim for a total loss. It isn't uncommon for carriers to agree to pay for significant amount of damages that are not covered by their insurance.

 

There may be some special expensive salt out there somewhere, but the stuff I was hauling definitely didn't approach maxing out my cargo insurance unlike some other commodities. Its total value was probably barely over my deductible. So even expensive salt is cheap freight compared to a load of electronics or chestnuts.

 

Not relative to high valued freight which is what I mentioned in my original post (choosing between a high value load and a low value load). A very high rate won't necessarily make cheap (low value) freight expensive. A full load of salt at a very high rate still won't come close to $100,000 worth of salt.