Saveonfreight.com Forum

[Valve Man]

Nice Freight forum. I hope this takes off and I'm able to find other guys like me that ship LTL freight to share experiences. Everyone needs freight savings and shared resources while shipping freight. I could really use some help with LTL freight dimensions and capacity limits. Appears the surface freight carriers have different rules in the fine print.

[FREIGHTNINJA]

3PLs are good at offering non-biased advice on helping to determine to right class for your freight. Further, 3PLs know the varying limits of each carrier.

[nmfcguru]

I am in total agreement oon having a 3PL be that person that has the knowledge to make sure our class is right before it leaves, and has general knowledge of LTL to help prevent any problems. Because before I used a 3PL company I had many instances of freight classes being wrong, and changed, and it got ugly and quick!!

[FREIGHTNINJA]

In this economy, carriers are out to make a quick buck and are reclassing everything they think they can get away with. 3PLs handle the dirty of working of dealing with the carrier for you when these like this happen.

[Valve Man]

NMFCGURU and Freight Ninja,

I can see how third party logistics are far superior from a service standpoint. They handle everything from answering the phone on time LOL to making sure things go smooth to track and trace. I get it! They do keep my workloads down. What about rates? My VP's that sit in AC offices handle rates and out of the loop on that one but how do third party logistics companies have competitive rates opposed to going carrier direct?

Valve Man

[FREIGHTNINJA]

3PLs get deep discounts by dealing in volume. Many are subsidiaries of larger companies, and that's where they get their buying power. Even with their markup to the customer, the customer can expect to save 10-15% on their shipping, perhaps even more.

[nmfcguru]

I have found that the customers on the other end, think the shipper is just great. for finding away to get their freight costs reduced. And then the service by the 3Pl to my customers is outstanding.. Wish I had been introduced to a 3PL many years ago!!!

[forklifter]

Have you ever thought about how much time a 3PL save you just in dispatching trucks? We have looked at the cost and saw that Save On Freight is handling so much for us that we have been able to eliminate some positions and increase our bottom line. Luckily the people were able to be absorbed into other departments that had vacancies, but we did not have to hire more help in shipping.....Food for thought...

[Valve Man]

Forklifter,

Has Save On Freight done anything for you on the air freight side. We don't have much and it's not my area of expertise. Guess I want to know if they have good rates and get the stuff there on time. As you know, air freight is so critical it's truly a relationship thing......We are using Trans Air Global Express currently.

Valve Man