¶ Topic Intro
Meeting the aggressive deadlines associated with Project freight shipping takes a high level of oversight, comprehensive planning and a reliable mix of transportation options. A fact that's not lost on you. No one yourself included wants their project to be thrown off track due to a lack of options or an inability to find timely cost effective
transportation solutions. So it's understandable that you would look to mitigate this risk and expand your reach by working with as many providers as you think it'll take to get the job done. But contrary to what you might believe, this won't actually be your best route forward. Let's talk about why.
I'm your host, Eli Simonson and in this episode of beyond the road, let's speak to a transportation industry professional who will explain the advantages of working with a single well vetted freight brokerage for your project shipments, and how using multiple may actually hurt your supply chain in the end, stick around.
¶ Meet Derek Ertl
Welcome back to this episode of beyond the road. Joining me today is Derek ERTL. Derek is a key account manager with ATS logistics. Derek, thanks for joining me.
Thanks for having me, Eli. It's always a joy to talk logistics.
It sure is. Yeah. Let's go over your experience in the transportation industry.
Yeah, I've been at Anderson trucking now for almost three years and continue to learn something every single day. But it's been it's been great. And I've enjoyed it. And I really liked the industry. I started at ATS. And as a carrier rep, I was working directly with drivers, I felt that was a great way for me to really get the hands on experience talking with them. You learn their worries and concerns. You learn what they enjoy what they don't like.
And you really get the meat and potatoes of the industry when you're talking with drivers every single day. Right? After about a year of that 14 months or so I transitioned to our
sales department. And that really gave me a whole new perspective, being much more price driven, doing projects, quoting freight, and kind of learning about the new position on managing some of our key accounts here at ETS, I got a group of employees with me and we handled day to day and provide the customer service and really make sure things are
going smooth. And so that's really allowed me to hone in and build a better relationship with with some of our select customers and right, definitely something I've enjoyed and again learning more every day. But that's kind of my tenure here at ATS so far.
Yeah, it's really cool. Sounds like you've had a lot of different experiences that, you know, together, you can apply to your current role and in, you know, nurturing customer retention and, and kind of solving those those key problems that customers might have.
Yeah, it's, it's something I do enjoy. And I like being a solution provider and working through solutions or issues to create solutions. And so I think it's going to be a great fit for me, and I really enjoy it so
far. Yeah, well, congratulations on that. Let's
¶ What is a Shipping "Project"
jump into the topic at hand. The title of this episode is using one freight broker for Project shipments, when it makes sense to do so. I think we should probably cover the pros and the cons. And really what what shipper should keep in mind when they're sourcing project quotes and maybe managing their projects with the help of a alone freight broker? Just to kind of start us off here, let's kind of let's just define
projects for the listeners. So when we're when we're talking about a transportation project, what does that what does that really mean?
You know, projects for each customer can look very different. Some are very similar. For some a project might be one shipment today for 30 days. For other customers a project might be seven shipments in one single day, some projects go on for months, others go on just for a short period of time. So really a project is really specialized each customer and how they define it. But at the end of the day projects are usually similar either similar
commodity, similar lanes. And really at the end of the day price price really drives projects, because they usually larger volume.
Sure. So it's a larger volume of some kind of freight, our origin and destination locations. Does that vary? Or is it typically, you know, a single a single set,
typically a project is going to be from one shipper to one receiver, but I've had it where multiple shippers are shipping to one job site for a particular project or build at that job site. So it can vary but I see a lot of projects have one pickup one delivery location.
Sure. And as far as like commodity types, we're thinking like anything from anything that's shipped in inside of like a driver then all the way up into those like larger projects, or is it more? Would it more be just larger? Like, I don't know, pieces of construction or?
I would have to say building supplies is most project based. More of our van and reefer shipments are a little less project based, although during produce season, you could consider one shipper having a large, you know, large project to get a certain amount of produce shipped. But I typically see more construction based materials being used in projects.
Sure. And companies are planning these things out well in advance, you'd say?
I've done quotes, one, two, even three years in advance granted their budgetary, you know, some of these are large enough where they really take some time to put together
So a budgetary quote would be what so that would be
a particular customer might come to us for a budgetary quote, so that when when their customer says, Hey, what's this project going to cost a to z, they at least have some sort of ballpark, hopefully as accurate as we can get it, including the transportation cost, so that when the time comes to get this project going, we don't have a significant jump in price, because there's transportation costs not yet tied in
Sure. So it gives them some handle on on what's going to next, you know, the executing that project is going to take so they can budget accordingly.
That's correct. It really is to help budget and as everyone knows, transportation market changes, but it's a good ballpark and allows them to really plan ahead. Cool. So
as a broker, when companies coming to you presenting maybe a
¶ What Kind of Needs Must Be Met on Shipping Projects?
project or offering you their project to service, what kind of needs do these companies have? And what makes it different from just a one off shipment
projects, in particular, really have requirements. You know, a certain shipper might have secured a project or a delivery that needs to go on to military bases, and it's not something they're familiar with this might be out of their norm. So they're coming to us with just maybe general advice, hey, we're looking at this, what do we need to look out for on the flip side, if it's something they're really familiar with, they might have a set price that
they're looking to find. So they're reaching out to multiple carriers knowing kind of the value of this to the broker, and they kind of set their budget based off that they're coming to us for really the expert on the logistics side of the project, they know the freight the best, and we know the trucking world the best. So teaming up to make that project go as smooth as possible is important.
Yeah, and we've worked together a little bit in the past and actually did an article covering, you know how this, this single using a single provider, a freight brokerage, for your projects, and when you're receiving quotes, and when you're scheduling trucks, can actually be beneficial in a number of ways. And I think that we should kind of just jump into that. Now, if we could, I've got a number of things written down
¶ What Are The Advantages of Using a Single Freight Broker For Projects?
here. But let's just talk about those benefits of using a single provider, particularly a freight broker for projects, I think
the biggest thing using a large freight broker is the number of resources they have.
And resources can be a broad term, it can mean you know, additional capacity, it could mean internal sources with resources within the company can mean a lot of things, but having those resources, whether it's financial resources, number of employees just to have that help on a specific project, the access to you know, other organizations and be able to partner with our network, a large freight broker has those resources, that's a huge
advantage. The other thing is a large freight broker is going to be able to honor a contract further due to having the larger network and the more resources they can work through that navigate it as markets change, to be able to adapt and stick to the plan. You know, some smaller freight brokers might have their hands tied in certain situations. And the last thing I would imagine a shipper or customer would want as a change of plans halfway through a project. Right?
Right. So you just touched on the importance of that large freight brokerage, large or small, is obviously gonna make an impact on your on the number of freight brokers redos, right. So, let's circle back to that that number of freight brokers and why using a single, maybe larger or midsize freight brokerage would be beneficial for a project.
Being able to have one single freight broker really large or small, I guess whatever you choose is right for your company is important. It limits the number of people you're working with daily. It can limit communication issues, communication and the logistics and transportation world is by far one of the most important assets to accompany and working with them.
Right. And when you're thinking about communication, you're thinking about, okay, having that single point of contact, but at the same time, especially at maybe a larger, more seasoned provider, right? They have internal teams, right have maybe project professionals or in house permitting services are are the things that you need to get those pieces in place.
And that's correct if a large freight broker has all those resources available within ATS, for example, if they've come to me being the The customer facing point of contact, I can delegate those tasks within our company, and really solve a lot of issues right here within the brokerage to avoid my customer having to go elsewhere and get those those needs taken care of takes work off their plate, and again keeps everyone in the loop in a very tight connection on the
communication really provided an advantage to just using one freight broker, your one stop shop, everyone enjoys that.
And when it comes to pricing these loads, a freight broker has pretty unique way of securing capacity, right, because they they're not necessarily the ones that own the on the asset right there, the third party connecting the carrier with the the shipper. So let's talk about how how actually, increasing the number of freight brokers that you utilize can impact the pricing that you receive?
Having freight brokers can definitely increase your cost of your project, which not sure that that benefits anybody really being able to go to one freight broker allows them to have the leverage within that market, that particular market, where the freight is coming from. And their ability, they're able to use their network to the fullest potential. Every freight broker lights have say they have the best relationship with a
carrier. But the end of the day that carriers best interest might be, you know, simply to take the higher of the two rates. We've had it many times where we call a carrier and they say hey, I've already been offered the same lane for X amount of dollars. You know, if you can beat that, that's fine. I'm interested then. But if you can't beat it, the price is important to us. And we get that in a price driven market, we get
that a lot. So if we're the only ones with that freight, or if that particular brokers, the only one thing kind of hold their card there, negotiate rates significantly better, and kind of reduce the competition in that market, which benefits the customer, being sure that we can secure additional capacity when needed to get that project moved more seamlessly,
right? And it's kind of a funny thing, right? Because just just on the surface level, it seems like having multiple providers and having them you know, kind of bid against each other would drive your price down, right? But when in reality that those carriers right, in that area market are not going to be changing, right, you have a finite number of carriers in that area market. And as you're pricing the freight, you are as a freight broker going to those carriers presenting the freight.
And if they see multiple brokers doing that it actually increases the price of their services.
That's correct can drive the price up. And our goal really is to drive that price down, save the customer some money. And it really ties our hands when other brokers out there offering you know the fleet of connection we have the same lane.
Is there ever a situation where doing this and soliciting multiple brokers within an area for a project actually hinders a company's ability to get a truck?
It does for sure. Anytime, you know the dashboards are referenced commonly for for carriers to find freight and anytime that a load is posted out on the dashboard, from multiple brokerages, that carrier immediately has the ability to negotiate further, they understand that each broker wants to service that customer and so they're gonna run that brokers rate as high as they can, knowing that that brokers
competing. So anytime that there's loads out there like that it does not help capacity in the meantime, while they're negotiating with the two brokers for that lane, you know, maybe an additional third party comes in offers him a separate Lane unrelated takes that capacity from us. And now we've kind of both lost it. And in the end our customers ultimately the one that has freight sitting on their dock still
Okay, so we talked we touched on pricing a little bit right so using a single broker can actually help you with that pricing as as their buying power within that within that area within that region within along that lane increases. The second thing is that the convenience of that single point of contact, right so you're not getting those wires crossed by having multiple providers to communicate with to line up your shipments. What are the other benefits of having that one? Broker
There's a lot of increased flexibility when it comes to having one broker many times on projects, you know, there's 200 trucks involved and you get towards the end of it and the freight you know, the quote, on volume of trucks was slightly off, you got a few extra pieces laying around or a few you know, few less pieces.
And if you have one single broker, you might be able to slide that around and at the end of the day, cut three or four trucks off the project because you were able to, you know, organize freight amongst their trailers to the fullest
potential. If you have multiple brokers in there when you start taking freight from one moving it to the other can really complicate things especially with invoicing which is another additional you know positive using one you have one invoice can really change your flexibility having multiple broke because it might sound like, Hey, I have all these options, my flexibility is
increased. And then when the time comes to it, you're like, can I have four people who's the best for confusion goes about trucks end up getting anxious waiting for solutions to be done, and at the end of the day, doesn't help out.
Yeah. So it really in the end makes a lot of sense. Is there is there a threshold for when this when this stops making
¶ When Should Multiple Brokers Be Used?
sense? I know that in within within any given market, there's just a finite number of trucks Right? And, and a good freight broker with those solid relationships with those carriers will be just as capable of sourcing a solution as multiple brokers, right? Because it's, it's a finite amount. That is, it's not like another broker has like a secret sauce or like a hidden Rolodex of trucks that they can they can lean on. But is there ever a situation when you would need more than one broker,
I think it's important as a customer to ensure you at least have other connections, every broker wants to assume they can take on a full project, right. And depending how much planning they do, they either will or will not succeed at that having a broker that has that huge network and capacity might be the best. And then maybe you have a small local company that
you know, has some capacity. And even if the rate is slightly higher, you just go to your broker and say, hey, please do not use this local company, we might have our own contract with them, please stay away from calling them that keeps the rates from being crossed. Because as soon as you find out that broker, other carrier has more money than you then the word gets out in the area and
rates start going up. But as a shipper, it's important to have at least a Plan B, especially if you have any questions on the ability for your broker to cover it all. Yeah, that's also a good point there, ask the questions. How prepared are you? What are your options? You know, ask the broker, what are their options? If if their capacity tightens? What if the market changes? How are you going to come to me and present it?
Right? No, yeah, that's a great point.Yeah, that's a that's an excellent point, especially when you're when you're selecting your broker for these projects, and important that you have the right set of, of questions at your disposal.
And here Anderson trucking service has put together a checklist of freight brokerage selection checklist that you can download in the show notes below to kind of help you vet your your potential project carriers, I do want to circle back to that what you said about that local
company, right. So you have a freight, maybe you have a freight brokerage, but you would also based on my understanding, recommend that they reach out to maybe an area, trucking company and asset carrier and kind of weigh their their prices.
If it's something that's super time sensitive, and to ensure it gets all at the right time. Having a trailer or someone close by with that capacity might be important. Something ATS does is we will sometimes if it's that important of a project, just pay an extra driver to stay on site. That way, if a truck doesn't make it, we have a plan B there, if that can be worked into the budget ahead of time, it's kind of your
insurance plan as a customer. I know that by having a truck here at all times that if one breaks down like trucks commonly do, I now have the ability to load this truck. It's one broker, there's no confusion, right? It's all there for me, I can feel good about them taking care of my whole project.
Man, we're just touching on all kinds of things. So you're talking about having a standby driver on site.
Yeah. In mean, on a big project, if it's time sensitive, a standby driver can be the difference between, you know, paying a crane charge on the receiving end, or whatever it may be, that can be worth their value on projects, that's for sure. Right?
There's so many things that can go wrong. . .
¶ Wrap Up and Offers
Transportation, we're all familiar with it and the tires only pop when we don't want them to. Yeah, good point, you know, at the end of the day, whether one freight broker is right for you or not, it's important to ask those questions before you didn't do it. Plan ahead, challenge your freight broker to take on those tasks, and really ensure they have their ducks in the row for you. So that way, you know you're getting the best
bang for your buck. And you're, you're using a broker that you trust, and that hopefully has taken some work off the plate of yourself. So you can go do other things, you know, yeah, or focus your time elsewhere.
So for your listeners at home, I have linked in the show notes below that article that I talked about earlier that using one freight broker for project shipments, and when it makes sense to do so that outlines you know, several advantages of using a single freight broker and then a few of your other options. So I invite you to check that out. At this time. I'd like to thank Derrick for coming on. And joining me today on this episode of beyond the road. This is this has been fun.
It has, like I said at the beginning, it's always a joy to talk logistics. And when you really start breaking down some of these topics, there's a million ways to go with them. And there's a lot of questions that surround them. So it's always fun helping people out with the solutions and and that's what we come to work every day for
Yeah. Well, thanks for tuning in. We will speak to you next time and I'm sure we'll have Derek on again. So
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you.