Trucking Industry Foresees Modest Improvement

Despite up-and-down numbers over the last quarter, U.S. freight volumes are slowly improving. Tonnage is still down over last year but the gap is narrowing as 2009 comes to a close. The American Trucking Associations (ATA) believes the trucking industry is on the road to recovery.
The ATA advance seasonally adjusted for-hire truck tonnage index decreased 0.3% in September, after increasing 2.1% in both July and August. ATA argues that the recovery will be moderate and choppy and that the industry shouldn’t be alarmed with the “miniscule” drop in September.
Business researchers appear to generally concur with the ATA’s analysis and cautioned the industry “not to get too excited” over the monthly numbers through the last quarter of 2009 and first quarter of 2010. They project a second quarter 2010 recovery due to dropping inventory levels.
The trend towards industry recovery is not yet translating into higher freight rates though. Businesses are still in belt-tightening mode and are continuing to operate a reduced inventory levels, even as consumers are beginning to buy again. The lack of freight demand has created excess capacity, which has resulted in carriers dropping freight pricing to compete for the little business out there.
While the drop in freight rates has been damaging to the freight industry, this competition has been a boon for Freightquote’s customers – those companies which are still shipping. As rates drop, Freightquote’s online freight management system helps shippers find the best shipping solution available – from the best rate to the best delivery options – all from reputable carriers. As the economy recovers and rates inevitably rise again, Freightquote is the best place for shippers to stay on top of the rate changes. Whatever the increase, Freightquote’s shippers are assured of the lowest prices as a result of its experience, relationships and technology. These factors – and the efficiency of Freightquote’s system – will assist its shippers in weathering the economic storm.

What Does F.O.B. Mean in the Freight Industry?

Many people have seen the acronym F.O.B. in shipping documents and never known what it meant. Even those in the shipping industry often are confused as to its true meaning.

F.O.B. stands for “free on board.” There, now you know.
But what the heck does that mean? The FOB designation is used to indicate when liability and ownership of goods is transferred from a seller to a buyer. When used with an identified physical location, the designation determines which party has responsibility for the payment of the freight charges and at what point title for the shipment passes from the seller to the buyer
In international shipping, for example, “FOB [name of originating port]” means that the seller (consignor) is responsible for transportation of the goods to the port of shipment and the cost of loading. The buyer (consignee) pays the costs of ocean freight, insurance, unloading, and transportation from the arrival port to the final destination. The seller passes the risk to the buyer when the goods are loaded at the originating port.
“FOB” can be used in four different ways in shipping documents:
1) FOB [place of origin], Freight Collect
2) FOB [place of origin], Freight Prepaid
3) FOB [place of destination], Freight Collect
4) FOB [place of destination], Freight Prepaid
The first part of the designation determines where the buyer assumes title of the goods and the risk of damage from the seller (either at the moment the carrier picks the goods up for delivery or at the time of actual delivery). The second part indicates responsibility for freight charges. “Prepaid” means the seller has paid the freight; “collect” indicates the buyer is responsible for payment.
It is important for shippers to understand FOB designations in damage situations. Some receiving docks will refuse delivery of obviously damaged goods, rather than accept with a damage notation for future claim against the carrier. However, a shipment designated FOB Origin technically belongs to the buyer/consignee at the time that it is shipped. So, the consignee would be refusing delivery of goods it legally owns and bears the risk for. The seller has no legal reason to accept those goods back and the return shipment could possibly result in additional damages.
If all of this seems too confusing to follow, consider allowing Freightquote.com to handle the placement of your shipment for transport. The legal issues raised in FOB designations are old hat to Freightquote’s experienced customer service agents – the right designations (and, on rare occasions, any damage claims) can be managed quickly and efficiently by the Freightquote team.

How To Get A Good LTL Quote

Getting a Good LTL Quote

Many shippers have come to Freightquote having previously negotiated their own less-than-truckload (LTL) rates – and some have even negotiated very good rates. It is not unusual, however, for Freightquote to immediately be able to offer additional savings off of those well-negotiated freight rates.

LTL contracts though are fairly complicated. There are actually several variables involved in producing an accurate LTL rate. These include the discount, the base rate, weight, classification, minimum freight charges, length of haul, service points, fuel surcharge, and other additional/accessorial services.

When quoting a load – when accurately quoting a load – these variables must all be considered. Freightquote’s online quoting system takes each pertinent variable into account before presenting quotes from multiple carriers. The system then allows the shipper to compare these quotes including rates and delivery times and assess the strengths of each carrier.

Over the last decade, Freightquote has continually re-evaluated, tweaked and updated its technology to ensure that its shippers receive the best and most accurate quotes. Because of Freightquote’s years of experience and enormous volume of freight shipped, it knows exactly how to best navigate every carrier’s tariff and other variables to provide the best possible quote.

Most often, because of the experience, the relationships and Freightquote’s shipping volume, this LTL quote will beat the rates the shipper could negotiate on its own.

All Air Freight on Commercial Airlines to Be Screened for Explosives by August 2010

On almost every commercial airline flight, the cargo hold contained more than just your luggage and a pet carrier or two. Airlines make substantial income by filling their passenger flight holds with a wide variety of cargo.

About 10 million pounds of cargo are shipped on passenger planes in the U.S. every day. While the luggage has all been screened for explosives for years, almost none of the cargo went through security until recently. By August 3, 2010, all the freight that’s shipped aboard commercial airlines must be screened for bombs.

Before then though, a system of private cargo screeners must be established. Federal officials and freight industry leaders are worried that tons of cargo will be grounded because of a lack of certified screeners.
The TSA’s Certified Cargo Screening Program does not currently have enough certified screeners to meet demand.  The problem is that most freight flown on passenger planes arrives pre-packaged on pallets or in large cargo bins.

Federal law though requires every box (even those contained within the pallets and bins) to be individually screened by either humans, X-ray machines, explosive-detection equipment or trained dogs.

The law does not require that the freight be screened at airports, like luggage, but allows TSA to certify private companies to screen cargo at any point in the shipping process, providing secure deliveries to airlines.

Even if the goods are inspected prior to packaging on pallets or in bins, it seems that everyone handling the product from there would need to have TSA certification, to assure a secure chain of custody.

The new inspection mandate does not apply to 100% cargo planes, such as those flown by FedEx and UPS. Carriers with their own cargo planes could certainly see an uptick in business next year while the industry and TSA sorts out the screener issues.

Freightquote.com’s customers won’t have to worry about air freight shipping delays come next August. Freightquote’s shipping experts keep abreast of all industry news and will be equipped to route customer’s shipments to the best performing air freight carriers, for the best rate.

The Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 – “The Highway Bill”

An interesting coalition of organizations representing shippers, transportation providers and government agencies is calling for the creation of a cohesive national freight strategy as part of the six-year Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009, also known as the “Highway Bill”.

The Highway Bill is currently up for debate in Congress .

If one is to believe the authors of the bill, it is intended to “transform Federal surface transportation to a performance-based framework to reduce fatalities and injuries on our Nation’s highways, address the mobility and access needs of people and goods, improve the condition, performance, and connectivity of the United States intermodal surface transportation system, provide transportation choices for commuters and travelers, promote environmental sustainability, public health, and the livability of communities, support robust investment in surface transportation, and for other purposes.”

The bill opens with that grandiose statement of purpose but critics are concerned that it doesn’t adequately address freight transportation. The Freight Stakeholders Coalition believes that substantial investment in the freight transportation system must be given a high priority by the U.S. legislature.

The Senate’s Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee almost unanimously approved an 18-month extension of federal highway programs from October of this year through March 2011, giving Congress a bit of breathing room to revise the existing bill. The coalition though believes that the delay indicates that freight issues are being pushed to the bottom of the President’s priorities.

Janet Kavinoky from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted that “[f]reight is an issue that should be at the top of the nation’s priority list – but it is not. No matter the differences among industries as to what needs the most funding, we all recognize 18 months is too long to wait to pass a reauthorization bill. What do we need more time for? There’s enough information out there about what we need to do to fill this room 10 times over.”

“The only thing we need time for is to make transportation and freight policy a priority,” she said. “The health care debate has sucked all the oxygen out of the room. But there must be time for us to work on more than one issue critical to our future.”

Currently, the bill addresses the creation of an inclusive freight plan covering roads, rails and ports. However, funding appears to cover only the expansion of highway capacity for freight – ignoring rail freight.

Freightquote.com books an enormous volume of both rail and road freight (as well as intermodal shipments). Freightquote is hopeful that Congress recognizes the importance of freight transportation – both roadway and railway – to this country’s economic recovery and addresses both bill language and funding to the creation of a completely inclusive freight plan as part of the Highway Bill.