The Secret to Small Carrier Profitability | The Road I bought my first truck at 22. By the time I was 25, I had 11 trucks. And that sounds great, but at one point, I was close to filing bankruptcy—all because I didn’t understand one important part of the business. I didn’t understand the financial [...]
Bundling Lanes Can Improve Truckload Rates and Service [Infographic] | Transportfolio Even in a down business year (e.g., 2008-2009) where transactional truckload shipments dropped by almost 80%, spot rates still cost more than contract rates. Aggregating low volume lanes can help save even more on truckload rates.
The Road: Top 3 Blog Posts of 2016.The Road by C.H. Robinson From the ELD mandate to autonomous trucks, 2016 has been an eventful year for the trucking industry. As things continue to change in the transportation industry, we’ll keep covering the topics that impact and recognize carriers. Let’s take a look back at the [...]
Chapter 1: What REALLY Impacts Carrier Rates and Service—Lead Time.Transportfolio Truckload service may seem like an art to some. But it’s most definitely a science. Over time, you develop ideas about how to improve a process. But until you can actually prove it, it’s just a hypothesis. That’s why truckload and supply chain research is [...]
Just the concept of ease of doing business can make certain shippers more attractive than others. Does the shipper do their best to load quickly?
The majority of capacity in today’s truckload marketplace comes from a fragmented base of carriers. Handling so many carrier relationships internally can be cost prohibitive. It doesn’t make sense to manage 50 relationships when you’re shipping in only a few lanes. It’s kind of a double-edged sword though because without a lot of carrier relationships, [...]
Top Way to Make Freight Attractive: Reduce Detention Transportation prices fluctuate with supply and demand. When equipment is scarce, increase load acceptance by fixing carriers’ most-hated issue: detention. In the “perfect market” of transportation, no single carrier and no single shipper control enough of the market to influence pricing. That makes things challenging as the [...]
Transportation has been referred to as a “perfect market,” meaning no single party controls the entire market enough to affect rates. Instead, the market fluctuates based on supply and demand. If supply (equipment) is abundant and there is less freight available, rates go down; if capacity is tight and shipment volumes are greater, prices go [...]
This year I feel it is still just as important to declare my continued appreciation for the 3.5 million men and women who drive trucks.
