FECC New DIspatch System
- Thread starter iceroadtrucker
- Start date
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Ark, Easytrader was clear on his intentions and I think many are on the same page as he is, including you.
Exactly right.
nightcreacher
Veteran Expediter
you want to know about negotiation,in 1995 thats exacty how I lost my lease,if you feel safe trying getting extra money,dont be asking,you better hope they offer
Perhaps it is in the way it is done.
On a load we recently completed, it was initially offered at an unprofitable rate. We declined the load. That did two things. It earned us a refusal, thereby reducing our acceptance percentage. It also let dispatch know we were serious about the refusal. There was no negotiation. Load offered, load declined, refusal charged, end of story.
As we sometimes do, we next sent a message to the offering dispatcher. We responded to the "load opportunity" with a truck opportunity. Knowing there was a load out there in search of a truck, we let dispatch know of the opportunity to cover that load at the price we named.
We did not take anyone's time over the phone. We sent a message that takes only a moment to read. What they do with our truck opportunity is entirely up to them.
In this case, they decided the opportunity we offered was their best option of many they had. In a few minutes, the Qualcomm beeped again with the same load offer but with our price. That converted the refusal to an accept, enabled our carrier to cover the load, and made us money on the run.
If push came to shove and we lost our lease because we were providing too many truck opportunities in response to too many low paying loads, we would probably be gone before they ever asked us to leave. If the runs don't pay, why stay?
I should add that we are careful to not price ourselves out of the market when providing truck opportunities. By being good money managers and making good business decisions, we do not need to charge an arm and a leg to run profitably. We offer truck opportunities at competitive rates.
On a load we recently completed, it was initially offered at an unprofitable rate. We declined the load. That did two things. It earned us a refusal, thereby reducing our acceptance percentage. It also let dispatch know we were serious about the refusal. There was no negotiation. Load offered, load declined, refusal charged, end of story.
As we sometimes do, we next sent a message to the offering dispatcher. We responded to the "load opportunity" with a truck opportunity. Knowing there was a load out there in search of a truck, we let dispatch know of the opportunity to cover that load at the price we named.
We did not take anyone's time over the phone. We sent a message that takes only a moment to read. What they do with our truck opportunity is entirely up to them.
In this case, they decided the opportunity we offered was their best option of many they had. In a few minutes, the Qualcomm beeped again with the same load offer but with our price. That converted the refusal to an accept, enabled our carrier to cover the load, and made us money on the run.
If push came to shove and we lost our lease because we were providing too many truck opportunities in response to too many low paying loads, we would probably be gone before they ever asked us to leave. If the runs don't pay, why stay?
I should add that we are careful to not price ourselves out of the market when providing truck opportunities. By being good money managers and making good business decisions, we do not need to charge an arm and a leg to run profitably. We offer truck opportunities at competitive rates.
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I do agree with Phil here on this issue. Many times drivers will price themselves out of a load opportunity because their figure is based on emotion rather than common sense.
When I have been at dispatch, you will see people demanding thousands to go into NY, wanting a buck a mile for FSC, extra money to drive in the snow.......and the list goes on. Then they wonder why they are broke?
With regards to flat or percentage, it doesn't matter as we do both. It really is what the ending numbers are.
And "it is business". Everything is negotiable. Just a short while ago, fuel was a couple dollars a gallon, and now it is over four.
Again, depending on the carrier, some negotiation is likely required.
When I have been at dispatch, you will see people demanding thousands to go into NY, wanting a buck a mile for FSC, extra money to drive in the snow.......and the list goes on. Then they wonder why they are broke?
With regards to flat or percentage, it doesn't matter as we do both. It really is what the ending numbers are.
And "it is business". Everything is negotiable. Just a short while ago, fuel was a couple dollars a gallon, and now it is over four.
Again, depending on the carrier, some negotiation is likely required.
I agree with davekc, you cant base your decisions emotionally.
When I refuse a load, most of the time they want a reason. I tell them, the owner gets
his 38% off the top. The truck gets its .60/ mile off the top or it runs out of fuel ( this also takes care of additives, washer fluids and the like).
On a load paying a total of $1000.00 ( including FSC and tolls ) for 750 total miles,
I am faced with the owner getting: $380.00, the truck using $450.00. Leaving me $170.00.
Does the team run for $170 for 13 to 15 hours?
This example paid $1.33/mile.
I would be hard pressed to say yes. Unless it served my purpose to go home or it got me out of a slow spot and paid me to a little to go to a better freight lane vs my paying to deadhead there.
An O/O getting the $380 + $170 may as well be hard pressed depending what he needs for the truck payment and upkeep.
When this info is given as the reason why I am refusing the load, often the dispatcher will
ask, what do you need to say yes.
I will give them what i need and sometimes they call back with that offer other times
not.
Did I negotiate, maybe, I think, I set my parameters.
We havent encountered the new dispatch system. When we do, it'll be just another day.
When I refuse a load, most of the time they want a reason. I tell them, the owner gets
his 38% off the top. The truck gets its .60/ mile off the top or it runs out of fuel ( this also takes care of additives, washer fluids and the like).
On a load paying a total of $1000.00 ( including FSC and tolls ) for 750 total miles,
I am faced with the owner getting: $380.00, the truck using $450.00. Leaving me $170.00.
Does the team run for $170 for 13 to 15 hours?
This example paid $1.33/mile.
I would be hard pressed to say yes. Unless it served my purpose to go home or it got me out of a slow spot and paid me to a little to go to a better freight lane vs my paying to deadhead there.
An O/O getting the $380 + $170 may as well be hard pressed depending what he needs for the truck payment and upkeep.
When this info is given as the reason why I am refusing the load, often the dispatcher will
ask, what do you need to say yes.
I will give them what i need and sometimes they call back with that offer other times
not.
Did I negotiate, maybe, I think, I set my parameters.
We havent encountered the new dispatch system. When we do, it'll be just another day.
nightcreacher
Veteran Expediter
linda and dave,great answer
nightcreacher
Veteran Expediter
Davekc,saw Dan Schultz yesturday,I'm to tell you "hello" from him,says "he hopes your doing well"
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Dave,
One of the issues that they have had is that they are offering to many of the surface trucks cheap rates. Phil may never see the $ .96 a mile rate offer, I have. One such offer was for my truck picking up down the road from me and bringing it to Finlay OH, all for a $1.01 a mile. I offered to do the run in my van and they refused.
Now I was never good at negotiating on the offers, my bottom price are $1.20 a mile but I did runs that ended up being $.89 or even $.86 a mile. not many but a couple. Near the end of my career, I asked why am I getting offers at $1.10 a mile going to NYC when others are getting $1.40 a mile for the same offer, I got my answer and I left FedEx partially because of the answer I got.
The thing is that they won't even consider a counter offer and will move onto the next truck for what ever reason. Sometimes those trucks are hundreds of miles away and it makes not sense to pay a truck the additional DH money to make the run which turns out to be more than what the counter offer is in the first place.
It goes back to failures of many of the FedEx owners and what set them apart from the successes and my point that the company decides who is successful, they are in control.
The new dispatch system is not addressing the real issue, it is addressing the issue of refusals within the fleet and how to trim those numbers down without raising the rates.
nightcreacher
Veteran Expediter
Greg I haul C and D freight sometimes,just havent seen rates that cheap,i did haul a Tractor load from California, that was an NLM load,it paid $1.33 plus the fsc to the GM plant outside of Dallas.Minimal dead head on both ends,as we delivered 25 miles from the pick up,and went to Chicago from Dallas,oh and we got way over 2 bucks going to California
nightcreacher
Veteran Expediter
is it true if your a million dollars in debt,your concidered a millionaire
Not if you are a Billion in debt...Then you are a Billionare.
nightcreacher
Veteran Expediter
Good, then i'm on my way
Oddly, I see and hear issues simular to this and keep hearing a drum beat about being on percentage and what pays.
We do both as many know, but when I see rates of 1.01 1.20,.89,.86,and 1.10. I'm not seeing this huge benefit. I am sure many offers are above that, but many companies that are flat rate are above those numbers consistently. Add a FSC, and it is significantly higher in alot of cases. Since everyone is hauling each others freight, I would be inclined to think the numbers are actually pretty close. I know for sure we couldn't operate at those numbers. Specialty freight numbers are actually pretty close as well between the three big carriers that do them.
The low rates you describe seem like LTL rates. If you pick up a couple of the 1.10 specials it wouldn't be that bad.
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Well the problem is that these are actual numbers. The one that really bothered me was the one for the US army. I wasn't going to run it at all but they kept calling me with the load and offering dumb rates. I started at $1.25 a mile and let it go down to $1.20 a mile on the third call. We finally settled on $1.10 a mile because I wanted to move but they were going to pull another truck 300 miles away to pick it up. 300 miles is a long way and it seems that if they were going to do that, than they could have paid the $1.20 a mile I was asking in the first place. Their excuse was that they could not give me more because they would not make anything on the load. $1.10 a mile I wasn't making much.
It seems that if there I was the only one in the express center, why not come up with a reasonable offer, not a $1.05 a mile - by the way that was a total price including DH.
I think percentage is a better way to go but here is the thing and I have been saying this for a while now, if the company would sell the service as it really is, then money could be made but when they take the approach of sending in freight sales people and working out pricing based on freight, then the flat rate is now a better choice to make money. If I would have made say $1.10 a mile and add FSC on top of it, I would have made good money but.....
I just don't understand why y'all are whining about $!.10 freight, when the Hawk whined bout $1.20 freight that'd set im up for $2.85 blanket wrap freight going 2400 miles, next load. It is all reletave, if ya jes don't wana. Ya never know what's in da box a chocolates.
If,n ya don't like the gamble. git yerself a guanantee.
If,n ya don't like the gamble. git yerself a guanantee.