Should rates be public?

Couldn't agree more-

How'd that OL' SONG GO......."They Smile in your face, all the while they wanna take your place"

Unfortunately,Im a 1 truck carrier- I have to use brokers about 25% of the time for my Inbound moves- If I cant get my regular stuff coming in.

 

There are brokers and there are 3PL/logistics companies, Robinson is a 3PL/logistics company, they handle a lot more than just finding trucks, the same goes for other companies.

I work with Robinson and other 3PL companies that are large, this does not mean they will reveal their rates to the public for any reason.

As much as I understand what you guys are saying but when you get 50 or 60 trucks on the road, you see the reality behind these things and some of you guys keep thinking what you are told is right, especially with these little vignette created by blog writers who just gather their "facts" through a bunch of sources that are wrong to begin with.

 

I don’t want to be rude, but no matter how many times or how you change the wording to your question. The overwhelming answer is no.

 

If you a set yourself a minimum rate per mile and hold to it, published rates or not won't matter because you wouldn't operate for less than your minimum. It's not like you HAVE to take that load for $1 a mile, at some point your salesmanship will have to sink or swim and try to get better rates or just close up shop. Good salesmen shouldn't be punished in this industry because bad salesman are in the wrong business. I'm not trying to be rude but that is reality. No one goes into business to barely get by, if they wanted to do that they'd just go work at mcdonalds.

 

No. Not at all.

 

You know, it's so much that goes into what rates will be given to the prospective driver. Too many times I'll hear an owner tell someone, "I make X money running Y territory and home this much or that much and running this radius." That to me is going public right there, and the prospective owner or driver tries to get the same run that he heard someone else get, then wonders why he didn't get the same rate even with attempted negotiation. Even if all rates are posted publicly, who's to say that same run will pay that good rate next week? Or if it will even be available? Brokers will call their preferred drivers with the good stuff first a lot of times. The point I'm making is that even if it goes public, what works for one driver is not guaranteed to work for the next driver...public posting or not.

 

FLATBED_REEFER_MADNESS SAID: ↑
At that point, it’s on us truckers to reveal those 3pl rates to each other right? What if we got together and got a data base of JUST 3PL rates? Do you think that would helpful or be useful?

Bad idea and the thought that there're shippers out there paying gobs of money more than necessary is also absurd. There are ebbs and tides in the industry that allow for big margins and times that allow for small margins. No different than most industries.

 

Or who’s to say the first driver wasn’t lying his ### off?