Low Paying Load Opps

[mypie]

We have also noticed a number of changes in rates . . . beginning last August with a 25% drop in rates. Over the course of this past year Terry told us to go ahead and negotiate loads on the Accept/Decline screen. But, in March our owner told us that we were no longer allowed to counter offers. At the same time we had noticed that we were now running 3-4 days a week instead of the previous full 5-6 days. Load pickups were being extended out and sometimes 2 or 3 days (ie, receive a load offer on Thurs evening for pickup Mon).

I have heard some rumors, and they come from honest sources. First, with so many carriers being forced out of the business over the decline in the economy FECC has taken to increasing their business on the "load boards" which could account for the lower rates. If FECC cannot cover that load they will farm it out to our competitors (ie, Panther, etc.) for the same rates as they would pay their own contractors. FECC is looking to add on new dedicated route "teams" @ .90/mi.

I have also heard on Sirius Radio Roaddog that there are 7 trailers sitting for every 1 tractor available to haul the freight. I'm hoping this means that when shippers and receivers begin getting desperate enough to receive their freight we will get busier and rates will increase accordingly.

On a personal note . . . we don't take a load unless it makes sense. Receiving multiple load offers on the same load is annoying, but sometimes on the second offer they will not add the Run $ on the Run $ line and only add it to the bottom line - make sure you're checking to see if the bottom line has changed. We keep DH miles to a minimum and will only accept a cheap run if a great run landed us in a deadend location and its the only way out, considering it does pay better the DH $ and of course it has to take us to a better location. We only do this once in a blue moon thankfully. But, even with all the challenges in rate decreases, running less days, etc. our dollars year-to-date are up 30%. This past week we have been predispatched on every load and all paid well. We have set a goal of no less than $5K/wk to the truck and make it most weeks. So, I guess I'm saying keep your heads up.

 

[BigRed32771]

While I agree that I have been seeing a lot of low price offers, I have no problem turning then down as often as necessary. I do get tired of seeing the same load over and over again, especially when there is no change or just $100 added as though somehow that's the magic amount that makes an unprofitable load suddenly profitable. Usually on second offer I give them my price. Seems like they often figure that is a starting negotiation figure, though, and will send a counter offer price that is still low. If I'm annoyed enough, I raise my price, otherwise I just turn it down flat with no further reason given.

As for the cause of this phenomenon, I can see the various time points that get suggested as when the decline began, but I place it at that point several years ago when the company folded FDCC into Freight and told us how great it was all going to be because we would have so many additional agents booking for us. I think the actual effect was to divert some of our work to Freight and National LTL because the agents had more choices to offer from. I also am convinced that a big source of the decline in our rates is the result of FedEx Brokerage skimming a big chunk off the top before the rate gets to FDCC to offer to us. The corporation gets a bigger total piece of the pie, and our percentage is on the smaller piece left to FDCC.

All this aside, my July was the best month I've had all year, though for the amount of work we did it was about $5 or 6K short of what I have received in the past for a top busy month.

 

[mypie]

We drove and parked about 12:30am to setup for delivery Fri morning. We had about 6 hours to get some shut eye before we drove the last 90 miles to delivery. I'll be dambed if we didn't start receiving load ops on the phone. Our C-Link was on, but the load ops didn't hit the C-Link at all and we were available for dispatch on the C-Link (we checked that too). Same crappy load offer, over the phone, sent 3x between the hours of 1:30-3:30am!

Me thinks that me wants some rude dispatchers home phone number and bedtime.

 

[ATeam]

I may have stumbled upon a solution to the problem of load offers that are repeatedly sent while our refusals are not honored.

It happened again today. We are on an overnight run now. We received a load offer this morning that we declined by sending in C-Link code 33, 2. Just after I went to bed this evening, we received the same offer again, despite the fact that we had declined it earlier today.

Instead of using C-Link to decline the offer a second time, I called and spoke to the dispatcher who sent it out:

"The offer you sent out, we already declined it earlier today."

"Yes?"

"So why did you send it to us again?"

"Because it's not covered and I have to keep sending it out until it is covered."

"So, after I go back to bed, and if it is not covered, you're going to send it to us again even though we said no to it twice already?"

"I'll show the refusal. Sorry to bother you."

It's obvious the dispatchers are not aware of or sensitive to the problems these repeat offers cause. It is also clear that they have the power to honor our refusals but are choosing not to.

Polite phone calls from contractors directly to the dispatchers that send repeat offers may help them understand a bit more about the futility of doing so and the problems it causes in our trucks and out on the road. At the very least, your call will get your refusal logged so you won't see a repeat offer a third time or more.

It's sad that our first refusals are not honored, but if a phone call is what it takes to keep me in bed by keeping already-declined offers from coming again and again, the phone call seems wise to make, does it not?

If readers have a better solution, I'm all ears.

 

[LDB]

Playing devil's advocate and presuming the first offer was at say 0930 and the second offer was at say 1830 it could just as easily be that the second offer would be welcomed and accepted when the first offer was declined. There have been many offers through the years that were unwanted early in the day and desired but not available by evening. An average load picking up the next morning comes to mind as an example. I may not want to say yes to an average load picking up in about 24 hours but might be glad to say yes to it late in the evening after not getting anything that day. Your solution seems to be a good one but I'd have to consider a repeat load offering 8-10 hours later to be different than a repeat offering in 30-60 minutes like a lot of them are.

 

[ATeam]

What I said above did not work after all. The same offer, now twice refused, was sent to our truck this morning, despite the fact that the dispatcher told us last night that she would "show the refusal."

I called again this morning to talk to the dispatcher who sent it out, a different one than sent it last night, although the offer showed last night's dispatcher's initials on the screen. It took 11 minutes, 30 seconds to get through to her.

She cut me off, saying she cannot hear me, just a whisper. I asked her to call us back on our primary number (Diane's phone). She said OK but did not call. The whisper complaint was legitimate. A test call made later showed the same problem.

The load offer timed out, making it the third time we have now declined the same load. So, my idea about calling in the load offer refusals did not work after all. Disregard.

Playing devil's advocate and presuming the first offer was at say 0930 and the second offer was at say 1830 it could just as easily be that the second offer would be welcomed and accepted when the first offer was declined. There have been many offers through the years that were unwanted early in the day and desired but not available by evening. An average load picking up the next morning comes to mind as an example. I may not want to say yes to an average load picking up in about 24 hours but might be glad to say yes to it late in the evening after not getting anything that day. Your solution seems to be a good one but I'd have to consider a repeat load offering 8-10 hours later to be different than a repeat offering in 30-60 minutes like a lot of them are.

I understand what you are saying, Leo, but this is not an average offer. We do not play the home run game, turning down average loads in hopes of getting a great load later. If the money works on a load, we generally take it, even though the pay may be average. We have a baseline price below which we do not run. Runs offered above that price are accepted. Runs offered below that price are declined, no matter how many times they are sent and re-sent.

All I'm trying to do is find a way to stop repeat offers from coming that we have already refused.

 

[LDB]

I agree with you primarily however my cutoff amount varies depending on time/location/day/etc. so if it's been 10-12 hours or more and an offer is repeated I may reject it again or I may find it acceptable when I hadn't earlier. Now, if it's one that I know I'll never take unless it's paying insanely ridiculous high amounts which it never will and I've told someone by phone I don't want it and don't want it sent again no matter what then I'd be annoyed if it was resent or if it was only a half hour or so and sent again with identical terms.

 

[layoutshooter]

You just gotta love these low ball load offers. Under a dollar a mile with the long DH. Below ANY reasonable rate without the DH and they want you do babysit the freight too!! We just say NO WAY JOSE, give them a rate at which would run it at, and zip it out. I loved getting woke up 3 times last night for .90 a mile garbage. What fun!

 

[MissKat]

are you in dallas by any chance?

 

[layoutshooter]

are you in dallas by any chance?

Nope, Houston, but I bet you saw a few of the same ones!! We turned them ALL down. Finally got a good one for Monday. Houston, a second pick up in Ft. Worth then on to Denver. WAY more than .90 per mile!!

 

[BigRed32771]

Though I was turning it down for reason other than low pay (I needed to get to Green for a HazMat training), I kept receiving the same load offer the other night. The dispatcher wasn't adding pay to the run, just kept sending it out. I turned it down again a bit after 10PM with a "reason" given as "The answer is still no. Please do not send this to me again." Low and behold it popped into my QC again within 10 minutes, and at a slightly lower pay (same dispatcher initials). Instead of responding at all, I took my truck out of service till the next morning so we could sleep without this stupid load getting me up every 15 minutes. My reason for going out of service given? "Dispatcher harassment"

 

[ATeam]

... Instead of responding at all, I took my truck out of service till the next morning so we could sleep without this stupid load getting me up every 15 minutes. My reason for going out of service given? "Dispatcher harassment"

Company people may take your "dispatcher harassment" reason as a joke. I understand that it is not. Your comment should be taken seriously, and it's profound implications should be taken to heart by anyone listening who cares about recruiting and retention.

 

[MissKat]

hey. we took the Ft Sill to CA load just after we had checked into a wonderful campground in Lewisville (N35) for $16! Seniors are half price-8.00! Giant lake, nice showers, wonderful for the hour or 2 we were there.. But we are from OR so we were happy to be running over the weekend. Kat

 

[BigRed32771]

hey. we took the Ft Sill to CA load just after we had checked into a wonderful campground in Lewisville (N35) for $16! Seniors are half price-8.00! Giant lake, nice showers, wonderful for the hour or 2 we were there.. But we are from OR so we were happy to be running over the weekend. Kat

My dad and his wife sort of ran the Corps of Engineers campgrounds on and around Lewisville Lake for several years in a row back a few. They ran the gatehouses and collected the funds from all of them, etc. We had a couple of nice visits with them while they were there, and I never cross over the lake without thinking about (and missing) him.

 

[MissKat]

this was owned by the City, by the golf course. Really nice. Good memories of your Dad, Doug. I miss mine too. Mel

 

[buddy]

something we have noticed is, the "low ball" offers sent out again only this time they have added monies to the run pay but took away all DH monies. Bascially shifted monies as to make the the run pay look better. Not that this happens on a routine basis, but, it does happen.

We have 2 responces when they call us and ask why. 1) not interested and 2) call our owner and tell them what your offer is.

 

[layoutshooter]

something we have noticed is, the "low ball" offers sent out again only this time they have added monies to the run pay but took away all DH monies. Bascially shifted monies as to make the the run pay look better. Not that this happens on a routine basis, but, it does happen.

We have 2 responces when they call us and ask why. 1) not interested and 2) call our owner and tell them what your offer is.

Have not noticed that one yet. We will have to look for it.

 

[Doggie Daddy]

something we have noticed is, the "low ball" offers sent out again only this time they have added monies to the run pay but took away all DH monies. Bascially shifted monies as to make the the run pay look better. Not that this happens on a routine basis, but, it does happen.

They can put any amounts anywhere they want in those columns,and they can call the load anything they want (A,B,C,D,E ) but the only thing that matters to us is the final amount,and if that is not what we want then we don't take it.

 

[buddy]

Oh Yes Doggie your are right.. We have seen many loads start out as "B" rate and then a little while later it comes across as a "C" load, with the same "B" rate.

What really disturbs me is, that there just might be some Fed drivers that will run for those rates.

 

[Doggie Daddy]

What really disturbs me is, that there just might be some Fed drivers that will run for those rates.

You can bet your a** there are some Fed drivers that will run for those rates, and
if you want to know who some of them are,look at who is on the list of 4 star drivers year after year after year.