But wait! We were told by several people here that it only takes a whopping 10 minutes worth of work for a broker to book a load! What's with all this "multiple calls,wide range of rates,availibilty,qualification" gobbledygook?:rofl:

We handle one customer as a 3PL and the reason they changed to that is they were tired of wasting time on fielding all the calls from people who didn't have a clue as to rates. So now we get all the pleasure. Amazing that the larger carriers are all within a few cents/mile and the single trucks range as much as 2.00/mile difference.
Why as a shipper you would want to deal with it is beyond me. Unless your volume is so low that it doesn't happen often.

That's interesting, about the large carriers being so close in price. This is the part of the business that seems to be the hardest to learn for me right now. How to price freight to potential customers. When I was in construction I was usually close in price to the other bidders, because I knew the going rates for my business.

I have a family member who works for a company that ships freight on flatbeds and she wants me to contact her about putting together a price. I have not made contact as of yet because of my lack of knowledge regarding pricing freight. I never like to be the cheapest guy in town and surely don't want to cheapest guy in town because of my own ignorance of pricing freight. So that's what I'm trying to figure out lately.

Any suggestions as far as educating myself in this area?

Some of the loadboards have a section for what rate freight is shipping is or to a specific area. There is an additional fee. One thing that I have noticed is that the rates they publish is less than I have gotten to the same areas. The rates they post are there because someone took the time to submit them. If others who may be getting higher rates don't bother to submit their rates then they are not included in the mix. Those should only be used as a guideline. Keep in mind that if everyone is reporting rates of at least $1.50/mile and one or two submit $1/mile rates then it can really skew the averages. One way to see what rates are doing is to talk to other shippers.

The rates off of a loadboard is no indication whatsoever of the actual shipper rates. Rates from direct-ship,u-ship are the same. The shipper is acting as a "broker" and seeking the lowest cost. Majority of shippers pay a fair rate for the area/lanes they service. You come in with way high(or way low) price and your info just goes in the trash. If you're lucky they will tell you that you're way out of range.
Eliminate seasonal fluctuations and what ultimately determines the rate is the truck/freight balance. Again getting that number off of some load board is in-accurate.(unless all you want to deal with is brokered freight)
There is no "magic" formula to rates. Thinking that you can "set"the rate is wishfull thinking. You have no more chance of that then setting the price you will pay at wal-mart.
Lot's of calls to shippers in an area and you can weed out the bs and get an average. Just ask what rate they want to pay. You'll find that most are very close in price.