I do not believe the main posters on NLM (The big 3) want an exclusive contract with Landstar, they want competetive bids.
Believe what you want, they want the stuff moved. They do not care how it gets moved or who moves it. They are in the manufacturing business, not the freight business.
I believe that it is open to all carriers who pay their respective membership/bidding fees and that it is a blind bidding system whereas you do not have access to others bids.
The system and qualifications are not like eBay, they don't open the system to everyone who wants to bid.
as far as a conflict that would depend on what the contract between the individual posters and NLM state.
Actually the contract is with the shippers, negotiated with them for the rates and the fees.
If for example Landstar being given the low bid info on loads before they place their bid. I believe the low bid is not always granted the load, so if Landstar can keep loads, when they are not the low bidder it would seem to create some conflicts.
Well first off I don't know if you know how Landstar works, it isn't like Express-1 or Panther, different puppy all together.
Second I don't see this as a problem because the contractors at landstar can refuse anything and it affects them to the point of dealing with that agent who offered the run. The agent system works very well in this case.
The potential for Landstar to misuse their power and cause problems for other carriers including the rating of other carriers, awarding of loads, will definitely exist. This power could result in the posters of loads not getting what they pay for which is a competetive bidding system.
See Doug, the problem is that they can't do all of that. The logistics system that we have right now is not what it was four years ago. There is a lot more interaction between carriers that happens behind the scenes to cover the customer. There is more of a divergence of the industry now than ever before. Our experts have it all wrong, mainly because he doesn't get out of his comfort zone to try different things and he doesn't understand this is not just expediting anymore. We are bluring the lines between generalized freight and expediting. Landstar has something like 8500 trucks in their fleet but only less than 400 in the expediting part of the business, so if they can't cover something, it goes external. I doubt if there is a lot of NLM freight that will go to express drivers, seeing the agents already have access and it is a losing thing for a lot of people.
Hopefully the main customers of NLM will pressure Landstar to unload NLM, I cannot fathom that any carrier controlling NLM is in their best interest.
THEY DON'T CARE.
You act like this is the only place in the world to find freight.
THEY DON'T CARE!
They are concern with moving Product A from Plant B to Plant C cheaply at the same time NLM allowed them to off load the work in finding a carrier to do the work while maintaining their budgets. I doubt that they will do anything to rock the boat right now, they need NLM for the next few years in their condition.
Oh and the last thing you miss is that Landstar has been pushing the warehousing, which is counter to the JIT concepts and practices but still useful for the customer. If we apply the same concerns to another company, FedEx, then we should say that their freight customers should force FedEx to dump Custom Critical.
