Ron....Experience...that gut feeling....look at a map and triangulate...pick 3 zips and look around for the units and take your best shot....
Our new website!
- Thread starter jelliott
- Start date
Yes, we looked at that product but it is analyzing old data. What it also doesn't reflect what opportunities existed. An area may show just a few loads moved, but it doesn't reflect loads that could not be taken or covered. Especially if that customer does not allow you to broker. It also doesn't reflect what customers and boards are doing today. Today is what matters in this business.
golfournut
Veteran Expediter
I think it is Trutle that as said more the a few times that "you can't schedule emergency freight".....you could add "predict" to thatt...
But it does at least get you in a general area of activity instead of sitting in a lesser non productive area. Closer to the customer base. At the moment, most of us have no idea where the customers are. Sure, we have all picked up loads multiple time from a single customer, but how many other customers are in that same area that would warrant a lengthy DH.
chefdennis
Veteran Expediter
Ron wrote:
In all honest, alot of my DH's are more about a good place to eat more then where the freight is....not all, but more then you would think!!!
That WAS the exact reason for the ending locations of my Last 2 DH's....
In all honest, alot of my DH's are more about a good place to eat more then where the freight is....not all, but more then you would think!!!
That WAS the exact reason for the ending locations of my Last 2 DH's....
I think in expedite most people learn the general areas for freight. They tend to be mostly the same for most carriers. It would be an expensive project that would not produce quantified data. If you were in Colorado and pulled the data it might show 3 loads last week. Well if we had 1 truck that is great. If we had 8 that would be bad. I would rather hire another operations person or sales person. Operations is the real time answer for this. Expedite is a real time business. I think if it was data that could be drilled down to a useful historical number you would see extremely large carriers with deep pockets and big IT departments mandate the equipment moved based on it for their own profitability. But you don't see anyone in expedite doing that.
Panther breaks up their board into large areas, regions called "Virtual Terminals" and it shows historical data as an average per day for the last 5 days. Online the data is very current. The QC data can be 24 hours old (for a reposition suggestion). They used to have boards that were just ridiculous, where nearly every single Zip Code was a board. As ridiculous as it was, though, it told you where not to go, as a board with zero loads a day for the last 5 days was probably a bad place to relocate to. It told you how many loads came out of Lexington and how may came out of Louisville, and it told you where the trucks on both of those boards were located, to within 10 or 20 miles, anyway.
The new boards are like 11,000 square miles in size, and are less than useless. The Lexington board may say 8 loads a day, but you have no idea how many came out of Lexington or Louisville, not to mention when it says there are 9 trucks on the board you have no idea where they are, either.
Panther's data is historical, so it doesn't really predict a thing (although the historical data is certainly better than not knowing anything at all), nor does it show loads that were turned down (although the number does include loads which Panther brokered out).
When the boards were smaller and you could really narrow down where the trucks were and where the loads have been coming out of, it was a useful and effective tool in having the fleet self-position and reposition itself. But they way the boards are now, the information is largely useless.
Using historical load boards like like can work for a large carrier with trucks on every corner, but for smaller carriers it's far better and more efficient for a load planner or fleet manager to take a look at the trends and where the freight is located right now, and reposition individual trucks accordingly, so that more trucks get loaded more often.
The new boards are like 11,000 square miles in size, and are less than useless. The Lexington board may say 8 loads a day, but you have no idea how many came out of Lexington or Louisville, not to mention when it says there are 9 trucks on the board you have no idea where they are, either.
Panther's data is historical, so it doesn't really predict a thing (although the historical data is certainly better than not knowing anything at all), nor does it show loads that were turned down (although the number does include loads which Panther brokered out).
When the boards were smaller and you could really narrow down where the trucks were and where the loads have been coming out of, it was a useful and effective tool in having the fleet self-position and reposition itself. But they way the boards are now, the information is largely useless.
Using historical load boards like like can work for a large carrier with trucks on every corner, but for smaller carriers it's far better and more efficient for a load planner or fleet manager to take a look at the trends and where the freight is located right now, and reposition individual trucks accordingly, so that more trucks get loaded more often.
golfournut
Veteran Expediter
10-4, oh well sounded like a good idea at the time . Thanks for all the input.
I know where most of the freight lanes are, its the grey areas, fringes and bfes that can be tricky.
. Thanks for all the input.I know where most of the freight lanes are, its the grey areas, fringes and bfes that can be tricky.
golfournut
Veteran Expediter
That's kinda what I do, sometimes I guess wrong.
Thought maybe there was a way to take the guess work out of it.
Not all if us have that crystal ball ya know! *l*
golfournut
Veteran Expediter
Ron wrote:
In all honest, alot of my DH's are more about a good place to eat more then where the freight is....not all, but more then you would think!!!
That WAS the exact reason for the ending locations of my Last 2 DH's....
You're gonna get fat and loose that girly figure!