Picking my own freight baby! My journey to & of being on Schneider choice, the Adventure & Numbers!

Feel the need to address this...

Soooo for a while others have commented on less loads and lower rates at Schneider, as a whole this is true.
While I am still doing very well it's mainly because I focus on staying in heavy traffic lanes with lots of contract freight.
Elsewhere though in other markets it's made things a lot more difficult. When I do escape my area and leave go home for example I already can see I will be taking a bigger beating and there's a lot less loads.
Things like this made me do even more exploring because well if Schneider is shafting us ICs and there's bigger money elsewhere then I'd probably leave.
In my research though things have gotten even worse elsewhere vs here. I have a friend at Landstar who has been taking a huge beating. I asked about one lane OH-VA and he showed me loads going between $1.20-$1.35 loaded to the truck
So nope.. lol I ain't going anywhere.
What appears to me is going on is the freight market as a whole is tanking.
Also solely working with brokers at this time is more dangerous.
Load to Truck ratio is the lowest I've seen since I started following over 2 years ago.

Just to give one example according to "DAT":
Sept 2014 vs Sept 2015 Load-to-truck
Van -42%
Flatbed -66%
Reefer -48%

Spot rates (rate alone not including FSC)
Across the board is down 13-15 %

Yeah yeah don't know if you could trust those numbers but it goes in line with less loads and lower rates here at Schneider so at least I feel I'm not getting shafted by Schneider in that extent, rather it's simply the market now.
On this forum in the O/O section others have complained about lower rates and less loads too.
Now just came across this:

"Swift Transportation to Halt Fleet Growth on Weak Demand, Pricing"
...
"Analysts said Swift’s move to halt capacity growth is aimed at bolstering freight rates amid a soft patch in the economy that has hurt transportation companies across the board."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/swift-t...leet-growth-on-weak-demand-pricing-1445968928

Then saw this...

"Trucking Stocks Hit Reverse"
...
"Trucking company stocks tumbled Tuesday after several firms gave bleak outlooks for freight demand, raising fears that the industry may soon need to cut shipping rates.
... Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc., which operates a midsize LTL fleet, cut its guidance for future profits and revenue on Monday, citing weak demand and “aggressive pricing activity,” indicating lower rates offered by its competitors.
... A prolonged downturn would likely result in a surplus of available trucks, forcing carriers to cut prices as they compete for fewer loads, analysts say, a battle for business that would weigh on profitability."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/trucking-stocks-hit-reverse-1445974036

Yup... not looking good.
Just my opinion but if you're thinking of joining Schneider's IC side it's important to know it's more difficult now and money ain't flowing like it use to.
There was a period where many times I use to get on the board and say to myself: "wow look at all these great paying loads, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself and where to go."
Now it's more so.. "this pays great, I better assign it and not think about it for one second before someone else beats me to it".

If you are thinking about running under your own authority wooo buddy, I hope you've customers and contracts lined up before hand. Brokers will be pushing lower and lower rates as well they can because loads itself are becoming more of a premium over trucks.
In a market where there's less freight to be moved, the little man will be squeezed out first.

 

yup I remember reading that from you in another Schneider thread.
Another sign that there's simply less freight needing to be moved across the board.