CH Robinson The Good, The Bad, The Ugly?

[OntarioVanMan]

The parts are so much greater then the whole...

 

[CharlesD]

From our perspective, C.H. Robinson loads are pretty good for the main reason that they're not posted on Sylectus. You still have to bid on them, but we seem to be able to get a sensible rate from them compared to what we get from something posted on Sylectus.

 

[BigBadBill]

?...Most of what you see posted on Sylectus is all double brokered freight. I know of at least one carrier on there who claims they have their own customers and all they do is get emails from one broker, bid on the load, and then turn around and throw it up on Sylectus. lol.

It's more than one carrier that does that by the way. I can't tell how many times I've been bidding a GM load and someone is calling me to offer us the same load because we have a truck posted in that area. I always quote them the same amount I'm bidding from the source, so they'll have to quote higher than me to get it.

Note to OVM. Yes, those companies are not technically part of the alliance, but Landstar does have a login so their agents can search for posted trucks and they have some kind of filter that only shows them carriers who are approved to haul their freight. Also, some of the agents have joined under other business names.

I don't see a lot of duplicates on the board but do get a few calls from those double brokering off others stuff. But I'm of the same mind set. Give them our bid or a bit higher.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

From our perspective, C.H. Robinson loads are pretty good for the main reason that they're not posted on Sylectus. You still have to bid on them, but we seem to be able to get a sensible rate from them compared to what we get from something posted on Sylectus.

Now the way I understand it from my carrier....Sylectus is only the software that the Alliance uses to post loads. JohnE says one thing, you guys are saying another...

 

[Tennesseahawk]

Now the way I understand it from my carrier....Sylectus is only the software that the Alliance uses to post loads. JohnE says one thing, you guys are saying another...

Like I said... splitting hairs.

 

[CharlesD]

I don't see a lot of duplicates on the board but do get a few calls from those double brokering off others stuff. But I'm of the same mind set. Give them our bid or a bit higher.

When we were still fairly new and first got on there, I didn't really realize where a lot of the freight was coming from until we started getting hooked up with more non Alliance freight sources and started seeing the same loads posted that we were seeing elsewhere. It was a bit of an eye opener. Basically, anyone with first tier NLM access and a bond is a broker now.

We got one of those calls yesterday and we had a bid in on NLM already for the load. I just quoted the guy who called the same rate I had bid on NLM. He called me back five minutes later that he didn't get the load. Of course he didn't, because it had been awarded to us shortly after I got off the phone with him, probably because he took our quote and marked it up. Either that happens or people will tell me, "We don't have that much in it."

 

[CharlesD]

Now the way I understand it from my carrier....Sylectus is only the software that the Alliance uses to post loads. JohnE says one thing, you guys are saying another...

Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Sylectus is really all of the above. It's a great software package if you're at the Pro level and if you're a small carrier just starting out it's a pretty good source for freight because it puts you in touch with a lot of companies you can partner with to start building business relationships. That last part is really the main strength of the system. It allows a lot of companies to build relationships with one another.

Eventually though, you realize that the freight on there is probably seen by a lot more sets of eyes than the first tier GM or Ford freight, or loads from some of the other non Alliance sources like the expedite office of C.H. Robinson. It's just a numbers game. The more carriers seeing a load, the more carriers bidding, and the lower the price goes.

 

[BigCat]

I'm running a c.h.r load right now and it pays decent. The only problems I have with them is 1.) they want every load tarped and 2.) they want check calls at 7am every day you have their load. This is only a problem if I'm on my 10 hour break.

 

[CharlesD]

I'm running a c.h.r load right now and it pays decent. The only problems I have with them is 1.) they want every load tarped and 2.) they want check calls at 7am every day you have their load. This is only a problem if I'm on my 10 hour break.

We set them up with auto alerts from Sylectus and a login for the track and trace feature on there. They're pretty good about checking that when they want a position update on a truck and they hardly ever call us for tracking. We don't run any of their non expedite freight, with the exception of a tractor load we did a couple months ago.

 

[BigCat]

We set them up with auto alerts from Sylectus and a login for the track and trace feature on there. They're pretty good about checking that when they want a position update on a truck and they hardly ever call us for tracking. We don't run any of their non expedite freight, with the exception of a tractor load we did a couple months ago.

But we don't use sylectus so that's why they always call me or I have to call them. We don't run expedite loads for them either though. We are a small flatbed t/l carrier.

 

[CharlesD]

But we don't use sylectus so that's why they always call me or I have to call them. We don't run expedite loads for them either though. We are a small flatbed t/l carrier.

You could look into something like Macropoint.

 

[rollincoal]

I see/hear the same things you mention Charles and I do get better rates from non-sylectus sources more consistently. That's not to knock sylectus, because I have had great loads from it, just calling it how I see it.