Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

Well I got my high paying load through Convoy and canceled the load through Uber. I noticed as soon as Uber re-posted the load on their app, the rate went up .75 cents per mile. I don't like load shopping and canceling on shippers, but for as bad as it's been for the last 3 months it's nice to be in the driver's seat for a change.

Just did a search on reefers within 75 miles of my home which is the entire bay area and up to Sacramento. There were only 10. We need to get it while the gettin is good.

 

I don’t mind load shopping if it’s with a bottom feeder broker. That means only the biggest 3pl’s that treat me like a number not a name and I know they can and have done the same to me.
Still, it doesn’t happen often. Probably just 2 or 3 times ever.
With automated brokerages like Uber I can see it happening a lot more. No personal connection, no soul, so why not.

 

Do you think eventually those apps will create a way to track ( if they dont already ) how many times a driver/company backs out of a load that they have already committed to and then in turn just block that driver/company completely out of the app?

Kinda giving you a taste of your own medicine type deal?

 

Convoy absolutely does, and if you drop off of 3 loads or are late too often you get suspended. Needless to say, I'm very careful with Convoy. Uber doesn't seem to care, but they don't usually have loads that pay as much as Convoy, and they've screwed me out of detention a few times, so I don't really have much in the way of loyalty toward them. I run a lot of business through Convoy, and they treat me well, even calling me on loads that don't appear on the app and offer them to me first. I think if you reach a certain dollar amount with Convoy you get special service. It's improved a lot for me since I started with them. Last year I ran over $100k in business through them.

 

I consider Uber a bottom feeder. Compared to Convoy they suck. The very last load I did for them before the one I cancelled today they screwed me out of 10 hours of detention claiming that I didn't submit it. When I showed proof that I did, they ignored it. I swore I would never use them again, but the current situation requires that we swallow our pride and get creative booking loads. I may even get really daring and post my truck on DAT in a week or so just to see what happens.

 

I cancelled too many Convoy loads, at the time when they were not transparent. I did not want to go certain places. Now it is much easier as they show you commodity, shipper and receiver. However, even if you cancel a Convoy load 5 days ahead, due to unexpected schedule changes, it will still count against you and fall offs do not become obsolete. Yeah...they have no soul, just some algorithmic determination.

Uber sent me one warning at the very beginning, 2-3years ago, and I was using them, at the time, like they were a load bazaar allowing returns...they count fall offs too and also they track service performance. I stopped messing around with them at some point, thinking that they may eventually count it against you.

 

I feel more committed to a load that I booked with a person, especially the person I dealt with before, than the one I clicked on in the app.
It is also different, when you allow enough time for them to recover the load - at least one business day - vs cancelling it at the very last minute.

BTW I liked it
"No personal connection, no soul, so why not."

LOL

 

Finally, while I do not have any moral restraints about load shopping, seeing the spot market as unscrupulous place where the last crumbs of freight are sold anyway, it should not become a bad habit. These big brokerages are moving towards app - isation and part of it is to keep record of how you perform.
I would not like to be banned from any of them, including TQL. So, better not to be too frivolous about load shopping