Why You Should Choose The Long-Haul Partner & Not Just The Long-Haul Rate

Logistics and traffic managers can be operationally minded and sometimes are only concerned with rates and not the big picture, which is why it sometimes takes executives to lead the charge of choosing logistics partners and/or freight service providers. The LTL market is vastly different than it was just a few years ago. Even though the roughly 25 LTL carriers who own the vast majority of the market compete for business against each other, they do talk to one another, and going behind carrier’s backs is hurting shippers wwhether they realize it or not.

We are in the midst of a carrier’s market, and the carriers overwhelmingly favor working with shippers who are willing to form strategic, long term partnerships with a commitment to carrier collaboration as opposed to shippers who consistently rate shop. In reality, taking the rates of one carrier and presenting them to another thinking you’ll get them to go back and forth lowering their price is a surefire way to get on the bad side of carriers these days. For the most part, in today’s market only less than reputable carriers will play that game, and some of those carriers won’t even do that anymore. Capacity is at or near demand. Carriers have no problem finding someone who’ll gladly pay a reasonable rate for their services. Carriers are now choosing the shippers when for the longest time it was the other way around.  

Smart shippers look beyond rates at the big picture. They understand there’s more to it than just rates. Intelligent shippers understand that guaranteed capacity, quality, and consistency of service plays important roles when it comes to their supply chain and the true cost of shipping.

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