Where's my freight?

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/wheres-my-freight

 

From the article:

What is happening?

A well-known national shipper approached one of our mid-market truckload clients in January. This shipper was worried about capacity and wanted our client to commit to a specific number of loads per week on a specific lane. The carrier positioned spot trailers, secured capacity by increasing a commitment at the destination, mapped EDI, implemented service tracking metrics and trained personnel. The business worked well for our client and appeared to work well for the shipper, until last week when our client inquired why they had received no tenders as of Thursday. The shipper’s emailed response:

“The carriers that are accepting the freight are large brokers who have a lower rate, so they are receiving the tenders first and they are accepting them. "Any movement on your rate to get you in a better position?”

Those few words convey a lot. This business morphed from a “commitment” and “partnership” to a transaction. It was a “commitment” when the shipper was concerned about 2019 capacity. The same business turned transactional when the supply and demand relationship changed and provided an economic incentive for the shipper to utilize the spot market."

 

So the carrier made the commitment to the loads, repositioned trailers, etc, and the shipper still STABBED them in the back!

There is NO loyalty in practically every industry or field I have ever worked, none. They'll cut your throat and leave you bleeding for a hundred bucks.

 

Gotta love the language they use LOL

In other words, "would you like it with some lubrication, or none at all?"

 

It's a tough call, especially when millions of dollars are at stake. Just look at what Amazon did to XPO awhile back.

That backstab cost them about a half billion dollars.

 

The author of the article mentioned contracts, whether the client he wrote about had a binding contract in place, who knows, you would assume they had something in writing.

However, what I have learned over the years, is that contracts usually provide some out language.

Carriers and shippers need to get on the same page and support each other. Fortunately, there are shippers and carriers that currently enjoy this relationship. The long-term success of the industry depends on fair rates, driver-friendly freight, and most importantly real and binding agreements that specify freight lanes and volumes. Unfortunately, until something changes to lower the entry barriers to the industry, the invisible hand of economics will continue to favor the shippers and impede consistent and long-term carrier profitability and viability. Thus has it always been, and thus shall it ever be.