Should I Hire Additional LTL Carriers? Avoiding Common Mistakes when Hiring LTL Carriers

Posted On 8th January 2024

Unless you ship LTL in large volumes, you have no way of knowing on average how your current LTL Carrier, whether a regional LTL carrier or nationwide LTL carrier, will perform over the long run.

The other issue you have as a small LTL shipper or occasional shipper of freight is that you generally will not obtain the best rate possible even if you focus your shipping program by giving it to all one LTL common carrier. The LTL carriers prefer that 3pls, or 4pls such as FreightRun.com, LTL bundlers, or consolidators to move your business for a variety of reasons.

The proof is in lower price you will obtain at FreightRun.com vs. with a direct LTL carrier. The additional benefit of using a bundler like FreightRun.com is that their customers are constantly ranking the carriers, thus you will see 2-star and 3-star carriers that you might want to avoid if on-time delivery is a necessity.

You might see a 3-star carrier whose price is so much better that you want to try it, and in addition most of the comments were about tardy delivery and not about damage, and your shipment is not time-sensitive. You can make these judgements yourself, without wasting time talking to people, talking to trucking salespeople, and constantly googling all from one place online.

FreightRun’s online freight calculator and matrix will display the 10 or 20 top carrier choices along with their price and transit time and client rankings, in order of price. You or your clerk can quickly make a Price: Quality optimizing decision and book the freight right on the site; the bill of lading will be emailed to you. You can pay via credit card or ask for credit terms with FreightRun.

Now here are the main mistakes to avoid when hiring LTL carriers:

  1. Don’t just hire the LTL carrier whose nice salesperson buys you lunch – and don’t let them buy lunch for your employees or shipping managers either! You are paying for those lunches! Shipping with them will be 25% more on every shipment!
  2. Don’t trust an LTL company’s Weights and Measures of your Freight. Buy a scale! Weight every shipment – take a picture! Measure every skid – take pictures. Save them to fight inspections! You will need this info!
  3. Don’t just hire any brand name Carrier – some of the companies might have fantastic reputations as couriers handling next-day air; but a HORRIBLE reputation handling pallet size and larger freight!
  4. Don’t just hire the cheapest LTL Carrier – there usually are excellent reasons they are cheap – for instance, these are some that apply now with the bottom 3 LTL carriers we know: a) they don’t actually track shipments they old school b) they have no customer service no one to call for information c) their transit times are at least double what they say and they take a few days just to pick up the freight d) they damage a LOT of their freight and don’t pay claims.
  5. Not to compare their rates EVERYDAY EVERYSHIPMENT against the competition – the best way of doing this, of course, is with a Matrix system like at FreightRun.com so ALL the major carriers have a chance to offer you their best price THAT DAY for your freight – this gets you to the bottom dollar cost to move your freight!

FreightRun is beloved by many clients because:

  1. You need a quick and transparent way to choose Carriers at the best value possible.
  2. You don’t have the time to have Salesmen or Saleswomen distracting you or your staff with calls and lunches.
  3. You don’t need to hire a Logistics Director as it is overkill if you spend less than $2 million annually on freight.
  4. Any employee or owner can use the system, it is simple and fast to use.
  5. Your loyalty needs to be to your bottom line and not to a particular LTL freight company, not to their charming salesperson who wastes your or your employees' time.

Get online today and book your freight – it is fast, efficient, and inexpensive.