Check Call

Check Call: Do you even onboard?

Hot Takes

Image: memecreator.org

After months of building trust and showing how dependable you are during the prospecting phase, you finally get the customer to take the plunge and sign with you. New customers, new business, new opportunities for growth and growing pains.

Onboarding new business is oftentimes seen as a necessary evil. Some don’t see value in having onboarding calls with carriers that are new to the account because “we don’t want to bother the customer” or “that’s not an...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-do-you-even-onboard

Check Call: Trust the experts

Hot Takes

Image: SONAR Market Dashboard

TRAC us out! Yeah … that was a bad pun. Moving on. FreightWaves has formed the Trusted Rate Assessment Consortium (TRAC), which provides the freshest view of spot rates in the U.S. Fresh rates PLUS SONAR data. I mean, what else could you want?

TRAC is a little different from other spot rate measurements in several ways:

  • Data is collected at the time a load is covered or accepted by the carrier. 
  • There are a minimum of five contributors with no single...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-trust-the-experts

Check Call: A higher level of service

Hot Takes

Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Turning and burning, these wheels don’t quit moving. Stuck trying to get a carrier to go to a certain market but you have another shipper within about 100 miles from there? I smell a continuous move in your future. Continuous moves are a result of stringing multiple loads from one or more shippers together, which allows you to negotiate a slightly better rate. 

For example, if you have a shipper that has a load from Bardstown, Kentucky, to Fayetteville,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-a-higher-level-of-service

Check Call: Cloudy with a chance of profits

Hot Takes

Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

At the beginning of 2020, no one could have predicted the transportation market would be where it is today. With a pandemic that shut down the world for weeks, spot market rates reached the highest they have been in years and capacity has gotten tighter than a lid on a pickle a jar.

In this industry, more so than others, you have to be ready to change your course of action at any moment. Most days aren’t the same in the freight world. You come into various...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-profits

Check Call: Data is everywhere

Hot Take

Image: memecrunch.com

Getting useful metrics that actually help provide an accurate picture of what is happening can be challenging. Metrics can simply be on-time rates, bounce percentages and visibility. Or they can get more in-depth with margin, revenue and service per carrier/shipper. 

Scorecards for carriers, shippers and brokers aren’t going anywhere. They’re here to stay and through some proper planning and development, you can make them work for you. 

Using the data collected...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-data-is-everywhere

Check Call: Teenagers scare the living heck outta me

Group of people huddled around desks

Hot Take

Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Every year there are over 400,000 truck drivers who enter the market, with a 90% turnover rate. It’s no secret that driver retention has always been a struggle in the industry. Between the often poor work-life balance and new regulations popping up, it’s hard to keep people who aren’t in love with the business around very long.

The average age of all truck drivers on the road is about 48 years young. The age that federal retirement benefits start to kick in...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-teenagers-scare-the-living-heck-outta-me

Check Call: Amazon Freight of tomorrow

Hot Takes

Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Last week we took a little trip down memory lane to learn just how Amazon Freight got its start. Some may be more intimately familiar with the origin story than others. Amazon Freight is primed to become the next UPS and won’t stop until it achieves that status, regardless of the cost.

Amazon Freight has around 40,000 trucks through independent contractors that do one-way trips, with the goal moving forward of getting backhauls or partnerships with...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-amazon-freight-of-tomorrow

Check Call: Amazon ‘Gone Getcha’

Group of people huddled around desks

Hot Takes

Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Last Sunday through Tuesday, Amazon had Deal Days on top of its three-week Holiday Beauty Haul event wrapping up next Monday. In an effort to kick-start the holiday shopping and sales early, Amazon has amped up its efforts to get people buying. It has select days throughout October and November when certain big-ticket brands have deep discounts. 

We all know Amazon is king in the retail market, and at the rate it’s going, could it be the king of the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-amazon-gone-getcha

Check Call: Flatbed is alive!

Group of people huddled around desks

Hot Takes

Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

“Hey, can you handle these flatbed shipments for us?” A sentence usually followed by “Jaws” music in the background. In almost every organization, there is usually the “one guy” who handles all the flatbed moves.

Flatbed is weird, involves a bunch of requirements and has a very small network of drivers. In a previous life, I was “that guy” who handled the flatbed moves. We love a lowboy, with overweight, overdimensional permits, and everything in between....

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/check-call-flatbed-is-alive

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