Surface Transportation
“ Carriers dynamically adjust these rates ,” said Curtis Garrett , CEO of LTL technology provider RateHero and a consultant to the LTL industry . “ It ’ s a lever they have to fill capacity .”
Garrett said the newest transactional pricing development is that some carriers are using it as a quicker way to onboard customers , either direct to shipper or through small and midsized brokers .
“ It cuts down on the admin back and forth and length of time to get a new customer set up and quoting ,” he explained . “ Some carriers are putting this in the hands of their sales reps when they go visit a prospect . They can set them up and turn pricing on for them on the spot , which means more business quicker , but it usually falls into that transactional or dynamic bucket .”
“ Everybody has a TMS now , and that makes tendering an irregular , smaller LTL shipment outside of a contract easier .”
Not all LTL carriers are taking this route , however .
An LTL carrier executive who asked not to be identified told the Journal of Commerce that it is not seeing any major shift away from contractual business but added that the carrier doesn ’ t encourage that type of business , either .
The executive said brokers are getting a bit more transactional business and that some LTL freight that moved to full truckload when truckload rates were low may be shifting back to LTL in drips and drabs .
Digital tools are making it easier for LTL carriers to provide transactional pricing . Shutterstock . com
“ Everybody has a TMS now , and that makes tendering an irregular , smaller LTL shipment outside of a contract easier ,” the source said .
A more ‘ layered ’ market
Wider access to TMSs , whether it ’ s a shipper TMS that can manage across multiple modes or an LTL carrier TMS through which to offer dynamic pricing , is impacting the market .
“ The rapid acceleration of technology , particularly through TMSs that offer multiple rate options , has created new opportunities for smaller clients ,” said Dean Jones , chief commercial officer at third-party logistics provider AFS Logistics . “ These systems allow them to access competitive rates without the need for traditional contractual arrangements .”
Jones said 3PLs are also luring shippers outside contractual rate structures through ancillary services , whether via access to diverse rate options , a bundled TMS , freight audit and payment ( FAP ) or fully managed transportation . “ This bundled approach eliminates the need for individual rate negotiations and provides clients with a streamlined , end-to-end solution powered by transactional rates embedded within the broader program ,” he said .
Jones added , however , that the majority of AFS ’ s clients operate under client-specific pricing contracts .
“ Across our customer base , we don ’ t see any transactional spot quoting happening with LTL carriers ,” said Shannon Vaillancourt , CEO of RateLinx , which provides TMS and freight audit tools to shippers . “ All of our customers are on contract rates and are rate-shopping between the carriers .”
Vaillancourt said customers he spoke to about an increase in transactional rates were skeptical about relying on spot quotes .
“ They really like the certainty of their contract rates and also were very confident that their contract rates were the ‘ best ’ rate out there ,” he said .
The uptick in transactional rates then speaks to a more layered market , with some carriers embracing dynamic rate availability and others more than happy to rely wholly on contractual pricing for shippers .
The emergence of MyCarrier , a technology platform that lets LTL carriers provide a digital quoting and booking interface direct to shippers , is an example of this evolution . In early January , FreightWise announced a partnership to incorporate rates from LTL carrier Estes directly into its TMS and that of Kuebix , a shipper-oriented , LTL-focused TMS that FreightWise acquired in 2023 .
Garrett said his company is working with a few LTL carriers on streamlining the process to get small and midsized brokers set up so they can push volume to those LTL carriers . The intent is to use technology to offset the high cost and risk that carriers have historically seen with small or infrequent LTL customers due to poor data and shipping practices .
Senior Editor William B . Cassidy contributed to this report .
email : eric . johnson @ spglobal . com www . joc . com February 3 , 2025 | Journal of Commerce 39