Shippers Need to Prepare for Rising Freight Rates

5 months ago

Freight expenses often represent 2 to 10 percent of operating expenses. For shippers seeking to maintain stability in their freight spend, they should begin preparing their next freight bid or freight RFP project. An RFP allows shippers to negotiate multi-year agreements with a team of dependable business partners. These agreements can be solidified with annual […]

Mid Year Report on Freight Transportation

6 months ago

As we approach the mid-point in 2024, here are a few observations on the current state of the freight transportation industry in North America. The Economy The consumer and media focus on the inflationary pressures on costs has masked the positive performance of the economy. Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for […]

It’s Freight Bid Season Again

12 months ago

Shippers across North America are in the process of conducting their annual or mini freight bid exercises. What is in store for shippers and carriers this year? This is a unique year. The supply/demand curve shifted during the early stages of Covid. Consumers transitioned to working from home, cut back on travel and dining out, […]

Freight Rates, Inflation, and the Economy

2 years ago

The White House and the media are touting the tentative agreement reached last night between the major U.S. rails and their unions to avert a strike. The agreement, if ratified by union members, would help avert a work stoppage that would have crippled supply chains and passenger trains and would have restricted the movement of […]

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Shippers, will your Freight Bid Secure the Capacity you need to Move your Shipments?

4 years ago

Freight volumes are at record levels on many lanes this fall. Load rejections, freight embargoes and rate increases are now becoming the norm. Even driver shortages, which started to dwindle in the early stages of the pandemic, are once again a factor in securing capacity to move freight. Motor carriers have leverage as to the […]

Mini Bids can be a Key Tool in Finding Capacity this Fall

4 years ago

Shippers throughout North America are trying to cope with the tight freight capacity that has been driven by Covid-19, truck and driver shortages, freight embargoes and the surge in eCommerce activity. While many manufacturers and distributors conduct annual and bi-annual freight bids, this methodology is proving to be too static and rigid for shippers experiencing […]

Shipper Strategies to Address a Tight Capacity Freight Market this Winter

4 years ago

Truck capacity remains tight during this peak season and this is expected to continue into 2021 as inventories are replenished. We are seeing all-time highs in the number of loads in the spot market. Despite the impact of Covid-19, capacity has been reduced by a decrease in the truck driver workforce that occurred during the […]

Freight Bids are Back in 2019

5 years ago

During the wild and woolly 2018, freight bid activity subsided as shippers searched for capacity wherever they could find it. As we have seen, 2018 was an anomaly, a one of a kind. As we pass the mid-point of 2019, the dynamics of the freight market have changed significantly from the prior year. Business […]

Conducting Freight Bids in 2018 – It’s a New Ballgame

7 years ago

The New Year has started off with a bang. With the stock market at record levels, unemployment at historic lows in Canada and the United States and a new U.S. tax bill that promises to put extra dollars in the hands of American purchasers, it is not surprising that consumer confidence is at a high. […]

Get your “House in Order” Before Conducting a Freight Bid

7 years ago

One of the most frequent complaints I hear from carriers, in person, on social media, or at conferences, is about the number and quality of freight bids that they receive. Carriers complain about the poor quality of the data, the number of carriers in the bid, and about the lack of professionalism in the […]