The cost of using a load board is often less than the cost of using a broker, and some provide free

they have an ongoing need to ship vehicles from the seller s location to the rental office. When the cars they need aren t available travel agency home based business locally, shipping can be a challenge since rental companies might not have relationships with auto transportation companies outside their general area or an understanding of an appropriate price for the service.
Traditionally, we try to buy as close to home as possible, but sometimes it s hard to buy close to home because travel agency home based business the inventory is just not there or because what we need is far away, DeLorenzo says. In the past, if we bought something in Florida, we d either try to network with local transporters and ask if anyone is going our way, and maybe make some calls, but even then we still didn t know if we are getting a competitive rate. Then we started using brokers.
Simply put, load boards are systems that match those who have cars they want moved ( shippers ) with those who can move them ( carriers ). The concept is similar to eBay s system of bringing buyers and sellers together in an online marketplace.
An auto rental travel agency home based business company looking for a carrier to transport its latest shipment of cars can connect with a driver or dispatcher looking travel agency home based business to fill an empty truck in a timely, cost-effective way by using a load board. Because thousands of carriers connect to load boards it can be easier to find a carrier even if the location is far away, meaning managers no longer need to make multiple travel agency home based business phone calls to find a long-distance carrier.
John Skelton, founder of Seattle-based CarrierRates travel agency home based business , released his auto shipping technology in 2005 after working more than three decades in the auto shipping industry. CarrierRates is a no-phones-required system in which shippers, such as car rental companies, post loads and then carriers can bid on them. Shipping costs are lowered by the bid process, and the broker s fee is eliminated. The system also provides online load tracking.
Skelton developed travel agency home based business CarrierRates because he believes prices were too high for transport. Some business owners or employees never pay attention to pricing, he says. That is a common practice the employees will take the road of least resistance without any thought of the expense to the business.
Load boards have been around a decade or more, says Dean Xeros, vice president for sales and general manager of motors and relocation at uShip.com. The idea was to connect shippers and brokers with carriers and allow them to negotiate a price.
Shippers can post a description of the load how many cars, what kind, where they need them shipped and when and wait for bids to come in from multiple carriers. Or they can enter the price they re willing to pay to have the load shipped, and see if a carrier will take the load at that price.
[Using a load board] has been quite easy, DeLorenzo says. We have been buying cars from much farther away than we have in the past as far as Denver travel agency home based business or Dallas which we haven t done before. By posting the load on the board, it gives us access to a lot more transporters.
The cost of using a load board is often less than the cost of using a broker, and some provide free options. Certain load boards charge a per-transaction fee, while others collect a flat monthly travel agency home based business fee. CarrierRates offers blocks of postings at various rates, starting at $240. The cost of using a load board can be recovered by the money saved over a number of loads.
The basic uShip.com plan costs nothing for auto rental companies to use; there is a transactional fee that is paid by the transporter. If a shipper has more than basic needs, then they might upgrade their participation and pay fees of $3-$7 per shipment, a relatively small number when looking at the overall cost of moving vehicle, Xeros says. They pay only when a carrier actually moves something.
The fee structure travel agency home based business that is best for a particular auto rental company depends on the number of transactions it makes. travel agency home based business If volume is high, auto rental companies can save money using a load board compared with using a broker.
Brokers provide a needed function, DeLorenzo says. Sometimes it s easier to use them because it saves me time rather than posting it myself, but if I want to save myself a few bucks, I use the load board. He adds that the billing process can be easier with a broker.
If I use a broker five times a month, they ll send me one monthly bill, he says. If I m using all load boards, I will use five guys and will pay five different guys five different checks. Brokers save time in managing the process.
Brokers are very popular in the shipping space, Xeros says. A number of auto rental companies employ a brokerage to find the carriers and negotiate a price. They help facilitate the transaction on behalf travel agency home based business of their client.
If you have an auto rental company that uses one carrier, a trip can cost $700, but with three or four carriers bidding, travel agency home based business now the cost is $550, Xeros says. Or, if an auto rental company can only spend $600, it can put that offer out.
Xeros says the bidding process gives the shipper more options. The amount of overhead allocated to managing your transportation gets reduced, he says. It was a highly inefficient process, and now the process is managed through one system and you can negotiate better travel agency home based business transportation rates.
travel agency home based business Before, we didn t consider buying cars from places like Denver, because using a broker would bring the transportation cost to $800 or $1,000 per car, he says. But using load boards, it s 30% less. Once we realized that, we thought, OK, it s no big deal to buy in Denver.
Price is always a factor, DeLorenzo says. I will post a price that I want to pay. CentralDispatch has a guide that shows what previous loads have gone for, so I have an idea of what I should be paying, or from general experience, I have an idea what it would cost.
Once the post is made, DeLorenzo says he typically gets calls within minutes. I know if my phone doesn t ring for a couple hours, my price is probably too low or I m just buying in a slightly obscure place, and it might take a day, he says. But most of the time, I m getting travel agency home based business multiple calls within 20 minutes.
Both uShip.com and CarrierRates employ a registration process travel agency home based business that aims at protecting users from fly-by-night transportation companies, such as requiring carriers to provide DOT and insurance certificates.