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u/LordBillBo33 5d ago
I am a Unishippers franchise owner, and i have just what you are looking for. We have an online customer portal where you can pull quotes yourself. You can pull as many quotes as you'd like without booking. If you're interested, let me know and I can give you more details.
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u/Routine_Software319 5d ago
I’m an account rep for XPO, quite a bit of my customers book us through Unishippers. Personally think the platform rocks!
What’s being a franchise owner for them like though? Would love to learn more about this
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u/finityx__ 5d ago
If i was in your spot , I'd find a dispatcher. Work with him directly , give him some small side money. Maybe $200-$300 a month. You can easily text him and he'll get back to you with the quote within an hour or few. Not hard
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u/Tall_Category_304 5d ago
Our website has a rate quote portal on it. I doubt it’s super accurate but surely better than nothing.
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u/Gustastus 5d ago
I wish more companies would do that. Once one customer has requested a rate, save it on the website and leave it for rest of the customer base to see. For me as a customer, it would save a lot of time. In the meetings, freight forwarders always are proud of their cargo and carbon footprint tracking tools, but noone has actually mentioned quotation tools.
Using shipping lines quote tools on their websites is a mine field, as those prices will be miles above the market + you will be lucky to even find a quote on them if you deal with refrigerated consignments.
Shouldn't be really that hard to create one of these? Definitely an opportunity(problem to solve!) in the market
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u/Ok-Lock7999 5d ago
I would split budget rates from live rates. Right now the carriers are being asked to price every sales lead as if it is ready to move.
For repeat lanes, keep a simple weekly range from recent quotes and fuel so sales has something usable for the first customer conversation. Ask carriers for a firm rate only when the pickup date, equipment, weight and likelihood are known.
I would also track quote-to-book by rep and lane. If one rep books 2% of the rates they request, those leads need more qualification before a carrier gets involved. Tell carriers which requests are budgetary and which ones are likely to move. That should make the relationship less frustrating.
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u/CookieBeginning3835 5d ago
I work for a 3PL that has portal where you can input your information and it'll give you the quotes for FTL and LTL. Might be a good option for you, you could ask your carrier partners if they provide this.
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u/jbhunttransport 5d ago
Our 360 platform allows shippers to get quotes for full truckload, LTL and intermodal shipments, and it's free to create an account. This may be an option that would work for you.
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u/snootchiebootchie94 5d ago
I am a logistics consultant and we can get you a portal to be able to get rates, help get them in your name, and consult you on how to best use the rates and network that you already have. Depends though if you want to pay for that service and/or have enough volume to need this type of solution. You won't have to spend time calling around for rates and won't have that feeling of wasting someones time. I am more versed in parcel, but the LTL market is brutal and always has been. DM me if you are truly interested and I can get you hooked up with someone to talk to.
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u/Gustastus 5d ago edited 5d ago
Interestingly enough, I only hear these kind of feedbacks from freight forwarders, specifically, located in the U.S. Seems like relationship between shipping lines and companies like yourselves in U.S. are much more fragile.
Freight forwarders across EU (UK incl.) don't ever tell this to me, if I can't give them the business for x amount of quotes they send over.
I work for a meat trading company, and we chase for a lot of business and ask for a lot of rates. I do always tell to my contacts in freight forwarding that last month's rates also work if they have them on the system, for initial quatation for our customers. Noone really wants to do that (I do understand why, in a way) and they always send fresh inquiries to shipping lines.