Carrier Blog

How To Find High-Paying Loads in a Down Market

2008-07-30T21:14:00Z

First, the bad news: In the first quarter of 2008, 935 trucking companies closed their doors, according to Donald Broughton, a transportation industry analyst with Avondale Partners. In total, an estimated 42,000 trucks - 2.1% of the nation's capacity - were idled in the first three months of 2008, Broughton said. Economic growth has slowed in the U.S., and overall freight levels are flat. Truck tonnage rose by 0.5% in May, but the market is likely to remain soft through year end, according to American...(read more)

Brown saves customers up to $1M per year with trailer tracking

2008-07-30T20:55:00Z

"Companies that don't use satellites to track trailers? If they have more than 50 trailers, they're probably not competitive any more," warned Kevin Slaughter, vice president of Operations for James Brown Trucking in Lithonia, Georgia. "If you're running 100 trailers you'd better be tracking them...probably six are not producing. Of those six, two or three are gone and you're never going to get them back. The rest are idle and you don't know where they are," he said, adding that the financial blow...(read more)

Set Smart Goals and Save Fuel

2008-07-30T20:48:00Z

In TransCore's recent webinar, produced in conjunction with Transport Topics , we discussed programs and technologies that carriers are deploying to improve bottom-line profitability. The webinar is called "Survive & Thrive: Fuel Incentive Programs and Bottom-Line Tools." Download and view the fuel incentives webinar , or read more about fuel incentive programs. To get started, here is a three-step action plan, adapted from our Survive and Thrive webinar: Step 1: Set SMART goals: Set quarterly...(read more)

Load boards connect carriers with reliable partners and freight

2008-07-30T20:30:00Z

Need a load for your flat? You’ll find it faster on the 3sixty™ Freight Match or DATconnect.com ® load boards. Powered by the legendary DAT ® Network, these TransCore freight matching services enable carriers and brokers to post and search by equipment type and lane. You can set alarms in DATconnect.com or 3sixty Freight Match, so the system will alert you automatically when additional loads are posted that fit your requirements. These and other smart searching tools are unique to TransCore load...(read more)

Freight Facts: Spot market shows uptick

2008-04-29T13:41:00Z

Load Trends (March) According to TransCore’s Market Research, availability of exception freight in March continued to improve both on a month to month and year over year basis. March exception freight volumes improved by 40% when compared to February. Looking at volumes a year ago, March ’07 volumes were 32% below March ’08. In connection with the increase in load volume, we’re also beginning to see a slight tightening of capacity within our freight marketplace. Looking forward to May, the best combinations...(read more)

25,000 or more truckload lane rates in less than 10 minutes with Rate Index Pro

2008-04-26T01:41:00Z

Rate Index ™ Pro for Bulk Rate Pricing and Real-time Negotiations Based on 12 Million Actual Freight Bills Respond to RFPs quickly and painlessly with Rate Index Pro. Anyone involved in truckload lane rate pricing and contract negotiations will appreciate the speed and efficiency of this web-based service. Perform single-lane lookups in real time or submit a multi-lane request to receive prevailing market rate data in minutes. TransCore’s Rate Index Pro is available by monthly subscription, and is...(read more)

Transport Topics Webinar May 15: fuel incentive programs to help you survive tough times

2008-04-26T01:14:00Z

On May 15, at 3 pm EDT, TransCore and Transport Topics will host a webinar featuring survival tactics for carriers, including fuel incentive programs to control the ever-escalating cost of fuel and asset utilization analyses that have saved companies like Brown Trucking hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mike Weaver, Director of Sales for TransCore's trailer tracking, monitoring, and in-cab communications solutions, will be joined by representatives from Brown Trucking, TFG Transport, and others to...(read more)

Satellite trailer tracking and monitoring lets TFG Transport speak with facts

2008-04-26T01:12:00Z

Tom Genecco has seen it all during his career in freight transportation. He’s a carrier-broker based in Buffalo, New York, and his family has been in the business for three generations. Genecco rolls his eyes when he talks about life before TransCore’s GlobalWave satellite trailer tracking and monitoring. “I had an owner operator leave one of my trailers in Baltimore, and it cost me $1,200 to hire a guy to go out and find my trailer,” Genecco says. “It was a three- or four-week ordeal.” Since installing...(read more)

With TruckVote.com you can Keep on Votin’

2008-04-26T01:10:00Z

2008 offers one of the most interesting political races in recent memory. For the first time since 1952 the presidential race contains neither a sitting president nor a vice president, and we could see the first woman or African American president in U.S. history. With issues like the economy, immigration, NAFTA, national health care, the future of Social Security and the War in Iraq on voters’ minds, this could be an election that resonates for decades. Drivers face special obstacles in voting because...(read more)

"Hot Fuel" burns a hole in drivers' pockets

2008-04-26T01:04:00Z

The phrase “hot fuel” refers to diesel fuel or gasoline sold at retail pumps at temperatures higher than the century-old government standard of 60 degrees. That is the temperature used in the petro-chemical industry to measure all petroleum liquids. At the 60-degree standard, a gallon of diesel delivers a certain amount of measurable energy to move a truck down the road. But when expanded by higher temperatures, a gallon actually contains less fuel and delivers less energy. Let’s say your tanks hold...(read more)

4 reasons why you should try 1click2call in 3sixty Freight Match

2008-01-22T01:37:00Z

1click2call is a great new feature of our 3sixty Freight Match load board that lets you place calls to prospects and customers directly from the load board. 1click2call uses Skype, a free PC-to-PC phone service that lets you call any other Skype user, anywhere in the world, for FREE. 1click2call is a fast, easy way to boost your business’ bottom line. Here’s why: 1) It’s easy to install. Already use Skype? 1click2call will instantly recognize your Skype service and activate. What could be easier...(read more)

5 reasons why fuel cards make sense for your business

2007-12-18T23:12:00Z

By Michael Lee, Fleet-Tech Transport Services We’re all (painfully) aware of the rising price of fuel and its effect on the bottom line. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that diesel fuel averages about $3.33/gallon across the U.S., or a more than 70 percent increase since this time last year. EIA isn’t predicting much relief for 2008, either; some analysts say we could be paying as much as $4 per gallon at the pump by mid-year. That means that if business is slowing down,...(read more)

NEW 3sixty Freight Match: You wanted better searching (and we delivered)

2007-12-17T22:39:00Z

We've been asking the carrier industry what we can do to make our load boards better. You've been telling us...and we've listened. This week we've released a new version of 3sixty Freight match that answers a critical carrier request: Make it easier to find the right load...(read more)

FMCSA releases Interim Final Rule on hours of service: 11 hours still OK

2007-12-15T23:10:00Z

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or hanging out on a sunny beach someplace—lucky you), you probably heard that the FMCSA decided to retain the maximum 11-hour driving limit and restart provision for carrier fleets (along with most of the other provisions), at least for the time being.

They cited studies showing that driving for 11 hours is as safe as driving for ten, a claim that’s hotly disputed by many drivers’ organizations.

What’s your experience? Do you think the FMCSA will change its mind? Do you think they should? Post a comment here (by filling out the "Leave a Comment" form, below).

We're helping our troops to phone home. Want to join us?

2007-12-14T23:07:00Z

It’s always hard when family members can’t be home for the holidays, but it’s especially tough when they’re soldiers, stationed overseas. Many of us at TransCore have loved ones serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait and, proud as we are of them, we sure wish that they were home. Our fleet trailer tracking group donated 30,000 minutes’ worth of phone cards to American troops stationed in the Middle East, to let them call home for the holidays. The cards will let soldiers in base camps and forward...(read more)