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George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008
I see alot of threads about people looking for decent paying jobs, but haven't seen too many mentions of logistics, so I figured what the hell, I'll offer my insight and maybe it can help a few people out.

Freight logistics is easily one of the biggest industries in the world and has a variety of facets in which you (yes, you!), could work. With the economy on the rise and our generally consumer driven culture that's spreading across the world, a lot of stuff needs moved.

I myself work in intermodal logistics. This means freight that is transported by a variety of different means, most often in shipping containers. I specifically work for a subsidiary of a major US railroad coordinating the movement of containers and truck trailers between the railroad and trucks. Dispatching, essentially. My company is what we call a third party logistics provider. We handle one component of supply chain management, and that's transportation. The vast majority of our customers are freight brokers, outside firms that are hired to go out and find means of transportation, warehousing, whatever. You need a license in the US to do this. We occasionally work with steamship lines as well, which is a whole 'nother animal.

Intermodal is quickly taking over the industry. About 90% of goods brought into the US come in a shipping container. An increasing number of domestic shipments are being put in containers as well, or specially designed trailers that can be put onto a train. I'm fairly certain most still go over the road though.

In my job, I mostly communicate with drayage companies, which are trucking companies that specialize in port/rail transportation. Drivers try to make multiple short runs per day instead of one long haul. As a general rule, my company doesn't dray anything over 200 miles. The customer basically loses all the cost benefits of intermodal transportation after that. I enjoy my job, but it can be stressful. The trucking industry is filled with shady, unreliable people and you're often forced to work with them. Some, on the other hand, are fantastic and will make your job much easier. I talk with customers about 40% of the time, but we have a department to deal with them exclusively. Same deal, there are good ones and bad ones. Freight brokers can also be shady in their own right. I rarely know what we're actually transporting unless I need to or if it's a restricted material (guns, ammo, explosives mostly).

I could go over all the details, but it's a big, big industry, so I figure I'll let people ask their questions and hopefully myself or another poster can answer them. If you work in the industry, feel free to chime in.

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Econosaurus
Sep 22, 2008

Successfully predicted nine of the last five recessions

What is your average day like in this industry?

What's the growth potential like?

How did you break into it?

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

Econosaurus posted:

What is your average day like in this industry?

What's the growth potential like?

How did you break into it?

1. I work evenings currently. When I arrive, I get all my necessary software up and running first and foremost. Mostly tracking software and equipment software. Since we're owned by the railroad, we can track any container or trailer that's on it. Then I make sure everything has coverage for the next day. The daytime guys are usually pretty busy with at-the-moment problems during the day, so sometimes a load or two can fall through the cracks. I have several equipment related reports I run so I get those out of the way. I also pay invoices for repairs, so I do those as well. By the time i'm done all that, the daytime guys are out so I take over. I make sure drivers get there on time and let our customers know if they won't. I make sure all of our pick ups have containers for the next day. I make sure all inbound trains will be in and the containers will be on wheels for tomorrow's deliveries. I run another report to reconcile the listed locations of our equipment with their actual locations. This is a basic sample of my day. Occasionally you'll get the inevitable huge gently caress up that needs addressed and can take up all of your time. Other times you'll be scrounging for things to do (or just browse the forums :thumbsup:).

The gist of my job is ensuring freight is moved on time. My job is a lot of on the spot problem solving. A guy shows up and needs a number to pickup and we don't have it, a tire blew out somewhere, a train got derailed (surprisingly common but rarely very serious), etc. For me specifically, I look after any repair requests that are made for equipment we're using, along with my manager. Most of that is determining whose responsibility it is to pay up, which can sometimes lead to conflicts with drays or customers. My job does require a good knowledge of DOT transportation stuff, especially weight limits and hazmat freight.

We're assigned regions at my job as well. I look after the upper midwest as well as all of the south in the evenings. We're an eastern railroad, so we only go out as far as about Nebraska, but have affiliate railroads that go into Dallas, some parts of Canada, and down to Mexico. We also handle transportation for an automaker in the south which involves steamship lines. I only do handle this occasionally, we usually have dedicated staff on hand for it.

This is probably a good time to throw this in. This job can be stressful. You're going to deal with lots of lovely people and you're going to do it alot. I'm able to manage my stress well and keep a cool head. If you want to do this line of work, you should too. There are good jobs here, but as always, they come at a price.

2. Very good. The industry grows year after year and I see lots of job postings. Alot of people in my company have gone up the ladder significantly after only a few years. My company will also pay me to go to grad school provided it's related to my job, which I'll be pursuing soon. Companies are constantly expanding and taking on new people. I haven't heard of layoffs in a long time.

3. I worked in a warehouse after graduating college. I started out picking stuff on shelves, assembling orders, that sort of thing. I eventually worked my way up to processing all the outbound orders. I was doing some late night browsing on Monster and found the job listing, so I said what the hell, seems like a good gig. Got a call back for an interview later that week and the rest is history. My job is entry level and required a college degree. My employers we're looking for some logistics experience of some sort as well. If you have a degree and did anything supply chain or logistics related, you could probably find a decent job.

Ultimate Mango
Jan 18, 2005

What tracking systems do you use? What do you like/dislike about them?

Do you have or plan to get your CTP?

bytebark
Sep 26, 2004

I hate Illinois Nazis

George Zimmer posted:

The trucking industry is filled with shady, unreliable people and you're often forced to work with them.

I used to work in the rail industry (for a couple of railcar leasing firms) and this also rings true for that whole business. Never before have I seen so many people trying to screw eachother over (both competitors and some of your co-workers!).

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.
What kind of money we talking about? Can you ballpark it for a few of the more common jobs?

Cicero fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Mar 31, 2015

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

Ultimate Mango posted:

What tracking systems do you use? What do you like/dislike about them?

Do you have or plan to get your CTP?

The tracking software we use is proprietary and was developed by the railroad. It's only usable when one of our containers is on a train or in a ramp (railyard). None of our units have GPS tracking. We have to reconcile what we see in our transportation management software with what we see on the rail tracking software. To give an example, a box is sent over via rail. While it's doing so, I can track where it's moving. When a container is laoded onto a train, our software logs what flatcar it's mounted on.The flatcar the unit is located on is scanned by hundreds of scanners positioned along a rail lane. As the train moves, the flatcar passes the scanner and tells us where it is. Once the train reaches it's destination, the software logs when it was unloaded, mounted onto a chassis, and trucked out of the ramp (we call it "outgating"). From there, I need to rely on my TMS, which tells me this unit is supposed to go to Lowtax's Discount Warehouse in Bumfuck, USA. Once I confirm with our drayage company that the delivery was made, I update our TMS. Is the unit actually there? Most likely, but I'm going by my dray's word. Once the driver is loaded/unloaded, he goes back to the ramp to ingate it, where I can track the container via my tracking software. Our tracking system is nice because it gives you a quick, reliable zero on the box you're tracing. The downside is that it's old as hell DOS based software that is kinda clunky to navigate, especially to someone like me whose first operating system was Windows 98.

As for the CTP, ehhh, maybe. I consider myself to be more intermodal minded than straight trucking, but everyone uses trucks so a CTP wouldn't hurt.

bytebark posted:

I used to work in the rail industry (for a couple of railcar leasing firms) and this also rings true for that whole business. Never before have I seen so many people trying to screw eachother over (both competitors and some of your co-workers!).

Oh god, gently caress the equipment game. The west coast ports chassis fiasco sums it up perfectly.

Cicero posted:

What kind of money we talking about? Can you ballpark it for a few of the more common jobs?

My job is about as common as it gets in logistics. I started at $41,500 ($19.95/hr). After my yearly review, my first, I'm up to $22/hr. Most jobs start at around 38-42k per year. This is working for a third party logistics provider or a brokerage, mind you. Dispatching at a trucking company will likely pay less as these companies are smaller.

Tokyo Sex Whale
Oct 9, 2012

"My butt smells like vanilla ice cream"
This is trucking side, but can you talk about pricing at all? We don't buy our own freight that often. I got asked to estimate costs a couple weeks ago on some stuff and said "I'll have to quote it out, but here's what I figure" and I was embarrassingly wrong. Like, pretty much I got asked what a full load was from Detroit to Toledo and what most people were quoting was what we're already paying per pound for an LTL to Topeka. I've had this happen the other way too which is fine because when that happens everybody thinks I'm special but I cannot at all figure out if there's an underlying principle to freight pricing. I just want it to be $2/mile or something.

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

Tokyo Sex Whale posted:

This is trucking side, but can you talk about pricing at all? We don't buy our own freight that often. I got asked to estimate costs a couple weeks ago on some stuff and said "I'll have to quote it out, but here's what I figure" and I was embarrassingly wrong. Like, pretty much I got asked what a full load was from Detroit to Toledo and what most people were quoting was what we're already paying per pound for an LTL to Topeka. I've had this happen the other way too which is fine because when that happens everybody thinks I'm special but I cannot at all figure out if there's an underlying principle to freight pricing. I just want it to be $2/mile or something.

This is tricky since our prices include both drayage and rail linehaul. To move a 53 foot container from Chicago to New Jersey is about $2000, not including anything like hazmat, detention, stop offs, etc. Freight pricing in intermodal is a little different since the vast majority the move is on the railroad and at a relatively stable price, with really the only variable being the fuel surcharge. We have a program that offers a set price for a door to door move that's priced according to current market conditions, but if a specific lane has relatively steady traffic, the price shouldn't fluctuate much.

When you really boil everything down, it's all priced per mile. That's definitely how the drivers are paid unless they have an hourly arrangement which is rare. A trucking company might jack up prices depending on the facility they need to go to or the commodity being hauled, but they calculate the bulk of their rate by how many miles they need to cover. Local markets can play a big role too. A price to dray a load in the NYC area will cost substantially more than to dray a load in Kansas. Classic supply and demand.

EAB
Jan 18, 2011
I'm a soon to be owner operator. I looked into intermodal hauling and man, it doesn't seem worth it. Not only are the rates worst than most other freight but having to do 2-3 loads a day would suck and the wait times at railyards and ports holy poo poo. I don't see why anyone but a megacarrier would want to get into the intermodal business. I was only interested cause it seemed like I could be home most everyday but doesn't seem worth it.

tsa
Feb 3, 2014

Cicero posted:

What kind of money we talking about? Can you ballpark it for a few of the more common jobs?

Good on the data side of things, but that sorta goes without saying. It's not impossible to get 6 figures with no real experience, though high 5 is more likely. Attracting people with good qualifications isn't the easiest thing since the work is kinda boring versus other areas that use similar techniques.

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

EAB posted:

I'm a soon to be owner operator. I looked into intermodal hauling and man, it doesn't seem worth it. Not only are the rates worst than most other freight but having to do 2-3 loads a day would suck and the wait times at railyards and ports holy poo poo. I don't see why anyone but a megacarrier would want to get into the intermodal business. I was only interested cause it seemed like I could be home most everyday but doesn't seem worth it.

It's all about getting into a good, regular route. Guys who have routine business do alright. However, the heavily cyclical nature of intermodal can, and at some point likely will, leave you in the dust. When Chicago was buzzing this time last year, rumors were going around that drivers were clearing over a grand a week. You had to call a week in advance to get a load covered. Now we got drays calling us everyday for work. Most drivers I've talked to said they went intermodal because their wives wanted them home every night. Otherwise, they'd be over the road.

The ports are indeed a nightmare, especially west coast. Until the "pool of pools" gets up and running, I'd avoid the California ports like the plague. Most rail ramps are okay though. In Chicago, we've had good grounding times and plenty of equipment.

ladyweapon
Nov 6, 2010

It reads all over his face,
like he's an Italian.

George Zimmer posted:

The ports are indeed a nightmare, especially west coast. Until the "pool of pools" gets up and running, I'd avoid the California ports like the plague. Most rail ramps are okay though. In Chicago, we've had good grounding times and plenty of equipment.
My company imports a lot and a majority of my job is dealing with the truckers / ports / terminals. Seattle/Tacoma rail is giant nightmare right now due to Port of Portland losing Hanjin (thus, everyone rerouting to Washington). Last I heard there was a ~4 week wait to get on rail and it's not expected to get better in the next six months. :suicide:

George Zimmer posted:

The trucking industry is filled with shady, unreliable people and you're often forced to work with them. Some, on the other hand, are fantastic and will make your job much easier.
I have two truckers who are straight up honest and I treat them like gold.

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

ladyweapon posted:

My company imports a lot and a majority of my job is dealing with the truckers / ports / terminals. Seattle/Tacoma rail is giant nightmare right now due to Port of Portland losing Hanjin (thus, everyone rerouting to Washington). Last I heard there was a ~4 week wait to get on rail and it's not expected to get better in the next six months. :suicide:

I have two truckers who are straight up honest and I treat them like gold.

drat, sorry to hear that. The only work I do with ports is the drayage/rail moves we do for a certain auto manufacturer in South Carolina. Really really easy since we have an inland port to rail it to. Very easy to manage chassis that way. Is the 4 week wait on the rail end? Wasn't sure if they were putting up an embargo. I'm guessing it's CP?

I've found that alot of the drivers are alright, but the operators can be scumbags. No offense.

Uncle Jam
Aug 20, 2005

Perfect
How often is government oversight employed, like random checks for hazmat conformance, illegal goods, etc?

Do you have to deal with that personally or is it kind of a just keep chugging while management handles it?

Veskit
Mar 2, 2005

I love capitalism!! DM me for the best investing advice!
What industry were you most surprised by how important freight logistics were to them?

Rudager
Apr 29, 2008

EAB posted:

I'm a soon to be owner operator. I looked into intermodal hauling and man, it doesn't seem worth it. Not only are the rates worst than most other freight but having to do 2-3 loads a day would suck and the wait times at railyards and ports holy poo poo. I don't see why anyone but a megacarrier would want to get into the intermodal business. I was only interested cause it seemed like I could be home most everyday but doesn't seem worth it.

I do the occasionally truck driving to the ports as a sidejob for the company I work for as a dayjob as the IT Manager, but I first started here organising containers into the terminals so I've been one of the lucky few in the world to have to deal with the container terminals as both a logistics coordinator and as a driver

Firstly they're just complete cunts to deal with, in regards to the ports in Sydney, they have 2 classes of carriers, A's and B's, I don't know what it's liked to be an A, but being a B basically means you're going to be completely hosed over constantly. They use a timeslotting system, there's X number of slots for each hours, they release these timeslots at 9:00am for A carriers and 9:15am for B carriers 2 days in advance, so Monday's release is for Wednesday's timeslots.

For us B's they release 2 time slots for each hour, loving 2. here in Australia we can run B-Doubles so we can 2 containers at a time which just about everyone but the local guys do, so 2 time slots is enough for 1 truck. To get these time slots you have be sitting at your computer ready to hit the F5 at 9:14:59 and you get about 0.05 seconds to claim your time slots at the 9:15 release or you're hosed, if you miss them then by the time you've hit the back button every other time slot is taken because everyone just takes whatever the gently caress they can get in a mad panic, you can sit there and refresh the page every 10 seconds waiting for someone to give their time slots up though, and I know of multiple companies where this is literally a full time job, yes someone sits at a computer for 8 hours straight refreshing a web page waiting for a time slot so they can rush in a mad panic to be the first to claim it. All this then leads to a whole seperate black market trading ring for time slots.

Then there's actually going to the ports, like I said the time slot is for an hour window. There's huge queues out the front to get in, and if you start queuing before your time slot starts you get told to gently caress off and your time slot gets cancelled, if they're having a bad day and everything is going slow and you get there right on when you're time slot starts, but then they take longer than an hour to get to you, they tell you to get hosed and cancel your time slot.

The best part was 6 months ago the loving empty parks decided they had to start time slotting bullshit too, so now you get completely hosed dropping off your full containers, and then double hosed when you go try and pick up your empties.

It's the loving worst run thing I've ever seen in my life, everything from top to bottom is completely hosed about Port Botany in Sydney. I only put up with it because I like driving trucks and making money, I have no idea how anyone stays sane having to deal with that poo poo on either the admin or driving side.

Rudager fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Apr 22, 2015

MisterTurtle
Jul 10, 2001

Cecil Rhodes owns your life.
I too work for a 3PL, a small family-owned company with <20 employees. Our company deals with a few Fortune 500 companies and a couple of other smaller clients. Being a 3PL we can handle any aspect of the logistics chain but at the moment the majority of what we do involves maritime shipments, drayage as well as decent number of air shipments. About a year ago we were contracted to operate a warehouse on behalf of one of our clients so we're in that business now too. Our bread and butter is freight forwarding and raw materials sourcing. We're also a licensed NVOCC which makes up a small but growing portion of our revenue. In my role I focus primarily on legal compliance - I deal with customs clearance, tariff code classifications, as well as export controls (mostly BIS CCL for those in the know). I also frequently audit shipment paper trails to ensure brokers and other services providers are doing their jobs properly. However, being a small company I frequently am tasked with projects completely outside of my day-to-day work. Sometimes I'll be on the phone with suppliers getting quotes for various components one of our clients needs or speaking with a shipping line getting quotes on certain lanes and plenty of other random grunt work. We kind of unofficially specialize in getting cargo into and out of 'difficult' countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, India, Iraq and a few others.

If you are looking to get into this industry 3PLs are a good place to start as you'll be exposed to many different components of the logistics industry. Pay in this industry generally isn't great (what the OP mentioned for starting salaries is pretty accurate) and you probably won't see any real money until you get into a managerial role. The industry can be very old fashioned or even a straight up luddite sometimes - lots of paperwork, filling out forms, checking lists, sending faxes, etc not to mention complying with myriad regulations both domestic and foreign. Most of the time the daily work is fairly clerical and tedious but you do have to deal with hilarious, bizarre and frustrating situations which tend to crop up more often than you'd think. Last year we had a situation where upon unlading in Rotterdam one of our clients' 40 footers was found to contain a stolen Mercedes buried in a pile of cranberries. We've had issues with truckers showing up at warehouses with empty containers to be stuffed only to find horrendously vile odors once the doors are opened. We've dealt with truckers who were arrested enroute with cargo in tow for DUI. Any problem you can think of probably has happened at least a couple times.

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

Veskit posted:

What industry were you most surprised by how important freight logistics were to them?

Junk mail. One of our best customers is a freight broker that moves a shitton of those flyers in the newspaper that you throw away on sight. We're talking about six 40,000 lbs. loads a day, atleast.

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

Uncle Jam posted:

How often is government oversight employed, like random checks for hazmat conformance, illegal goods, etc?

Do you have to deal with that personally or is it kind of a just keep chugging while management handles it?

For domestic freight, very, very little. You can put just about anything onto a container, make up a bill of lading for it, and nobody will ask twice unless you state it's hazmat. Imports/exports are a different story though since you need a licensed customs broker to do that, but even then there isn't much. See MisterTurtle's post about the Mercedes.

All containers have a seal on the door that's put there after its loaded by the shipper. Said seal is not to be broken by anyone besides the customer unless something is wrong, such as a suspected load shift (when a dumb shipper doesn't block or brace their freight and it goes all over the place inside the container). Our ramps (railyards where containers are loaded or unloaded from trains) have company police that make sure the boxes have seals. If they don't, they call us looking for authorization to pop the thing open and make sure nothing is stolen. That's really the only time an outside parry will see what's in the box. Otherwise, it could, and typically does, remain completely unknown what's actually inside.

Hazmat is extensively regulated but difficult to enforce. Unless the cops are gonna start pulling over everyone with placards on their trailers, there's really no way to tell if a driver is properly licensed.

Overweight loads is where the government really cracks down since DOT scales are on pretty much every major highway. Driver's operating hours have also become a new regulatory target. DOT can audit trucking companies for potential service hours violations (14 hours of driving, 10 hours of rest. Go over, get fined).

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

Rudager posted:

I do the occasionally truck driving to the ports as a sidejob for the company I work for as a dayjob as the IT Manager, but I first started here organising containers into the terminals so I've been one of the lucky few in the world to have to deal with the container terminals as both a logistics coordinator and as a driver

Firstly they're just complete cunts to deal with, in regards to the ports in Sydney, they have 2 classes of carriers, A's and B's, I don't know what it's liked to be an A, but being a B basically means you're going to be completely hosed over constantly. They use a timeslotting system, there's X number of slots for each hours, they release these timeslots at 9:00am for A carriers and 9:15am for B carriers 2 days in advance, so Monday's release is for Wednesday's timeslots.

For us B's they release 2 time slots for each hour, loving 2. here in Australia we can run B-Doubles so we can 2 containers at a time which just about everyone but the local guys do, so 2 time slots is enough for 1 truck. To get these time slots you have be sitting at your computer ready to hit the F5 at 9:14:59 and you get about 0.05 seconds to claim your time slots at the 9:15 release or you're hosed, if you miss them then by the time you've hit the back button every other time slot is taken because everyone just takes whatever the gently caress they can get in a mad panic, you can sit there and refresh the page every 10 seconds waiting for someone to give their time slots up though, and I know of multiple companies where this is literally a full time job, yes someone sits at a computer for 8 hours straight refreshing a web page waiting for a time slot so they can rush in a mad panic to be the first to claim it. All this then leads to a whole seperate black market trading ring for time slots.

Then there's actually going to the ports, like I said the time slot is for an hour window. There's huge queues out the front to get in, and if you start queuing before your time slot starts you get told to gently caress off and your time slot gets cancelled, if they're having a bad day and everything is going slow and you get there right on when you're time slot starts, but then they take longer than an hour to get to you, they tell you to get hosed and cancel your time slot.

The best part was 6 months ago the loving empty parks decided they had to start time slotting bullshit too, so now you get completely hosed dropping off your full containers, and then double hosed when you go try and pick up your empties.

It's the loving worst run thing I've ever seen in my life, everything from top to bottom is completely hosed about Port Botany in Sydney. I only put up with it because I like driving trucks and making money, I have no idea how anyone stays sane having to deal with that poo poo on either the admin or driving side.

Jesus Christ. This makes the whole chassis/terminal issue at US ports look tame. The tiered carrier system seems like blatant favoritism.

Rudager
Apr 29, 2008

George Zimmer posted:

Jesus Christ. This makes the whole chassis/terminal issue at US ports look tame. The tiered carrier system seems like blatant favoritism.

It's loving corrupt, it boils down to there being a handful of big carriers that have depots right next to the ports (and their main shareholders are the same companies that run the ports, funny that) where everyone dumps their boxes for them to literally drive a km or two around the corner into the terminal for a few hundred bucks each because they're the ones with all the back door connections to get in.

baram.
Oct 23, 2007

smooth.


What's stopping companies from basically setting up a bunch of computers to run a script to try to claim the time slots?

Rudager
Apr 29, 2008

baram. posted:

What's stopping companies from basically setting up a bunch of computers to run a script to try to claim the time slots?

There probably was people doing that, then they put captcha's in about 18 months ago just as I was getting out of dealing with that bullshit.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
I can answer questions in this thread too, I'm now a purchaser but previously I was a manager as one of the largest trucking firms in the world. When I worked there at maybe a higher level then George Zimmer, I made 6 figures which is pretty common in the industry.

The biggest thing I can say is get to know your drivers, it will help you a great deal as time goes on.

Also Owner/Operators are the biggest suckers in the industry.

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

sbaldrick posted:

I can answer questions in this thread too, I'm now a purchaser but previously I was a manager as one of the largest trucking firms in the world. When I worked there at maybe a higher level then George Zimmer, I made 6 figures which is pretty common in the industry.

The biggest thing I can say is get to know your drivers, it will help you a great deal as time goes on.

Also Owner/Operators are the biggest suckers in the industry.

US based? Does it rhyme with JB Punt? (You don't have to answer that)

Also, go on about the owner operators.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

George Zimmer posted:

US based? Does it rhyme with JB Punt? (You don't have to answer that)

Also, go on about the owner operators.

US based on paper, but the maroon and white bulk carrier. jB hunt is a poo poo company.

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

sbaldrick posted:

US based on paper, but the maroon and white bulk carrier. jB hunt is a poo poo company.

Ah. Pretty sure I know which one. I've heard JB Hunt drivers are a ramp/port's worse nightmare. They have first pick on the good chassis at all our ramps, along with Hub :( We get whatever Flexi-Van or DirectChassis Link vomits up

Serendipitaet
Apr 19, 2009
I work for a large operator of container terminals so I might be able to answer questions on that part of the business. My experience is quite limited at this point, however.

I know even less about inland stuff so this thread is quite interesting - especially how truckers/3PLs experience the interactions with terminals.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

George Zimmer posted:

Ah. Pretty sure I know which one. I've heard JB Hunt drivers are a ramp/port's worse nightmare. They have first pick on the good chassis at all our ramps, along with Hub :( We get whatever Flexi-Van or DirectChassis Link vomits up

Let me say that my old company may in fact that single most evil company in existence.

I also was getting JB Hunt mixed up with Swift transport which I'm surprised still exists. The best of the majors to work for is Schneider National but I believe they still only hire ex-drivers to be managers.

Tree squid
Apr 6, 2011
Seeing as the first job you got required a degree, do you find it worth it to pursue a degree in Logistics, or you could get in just fine without one? If I waltzed into the Los Angeles port (Which I would assume is impossible to just "Hey don't mind me!") what's the chance on getting an entry-level job the old school way by asking a manager there? I've got no warehouse experience, but I've been a Dairyman all my life, which has some sort of Grit cred of working hard and not minding getting dirty.


EDIT: Typo

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

Tree squid posted:

Seeing as the first job you got required a degree, do you find it worth it to pursue a degree in Logistics, or you could get in just fine without one? If I waltzed into the Los Angeles port (Which I would assume is impossible to just "Hey don't mind me!") what's the chance on getting an entry-level job the old school way by asking a manager there? I've got no warehouse experience, but I've been a Dairyman all my life, which has some sort of Grit cred of working hard and not minding getting dirty.


EDIT: Typo

You'd have to get in with the longshoreman union to work at any port, first and foremost. I'm not totally sure what the job situation is like for the guys with their boots on the ground, but alot of poo poo involving ports or railyards requires special training. Forklift, side lifter, gantry cranes, switchers, etc. all require licensing or cerification of some sort. I'd look into seeing if there's some sort of career training nearby for those things.

lord1234
Oct 1, 2008
I have a relatively large(for me) item I am trying to ship across the country. It's located in Massachusetts and I am in TX. Size size, its roughly 2 pallets of stuff that needs to be palletized/crated, and then shipped. Who do I call? I'm not a business, I'm just some guy trying to coordinate a shipment. Due to weight, I can't use UPS, so it has to be a freight co. I tried posting on UShip and it seems everyone wants it palletized first, and the shipper won't/can't do that.

No Butt Stuff
Jun 10, 2004

What do you base what fuel costs should be on? OPIS? Or the EIA reports?

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

lord1234 posted:

I have a relatively large(for me) item I am trying to ship across the country. It's located in Massachusetts and I am in TX. Size size, its roughly 2 pallets of stuff that needs to be palletized/crated, and then shipped. Who do I call? I'm not a business, I'm just some guy trying to coordinate a shipment. Due to weight, I can't use UPS, so it has to be a freight co. I tried posting on UShip and it seems everyone wants it palletized first, and the shipper won't/can't do that.

You'll want an LTL carrier. Means Less Than (truck)Load. How it works is they'll consolidate your freight with other small amounts of freight going to the same place so you can economically move small amounts across large distances. A vast variety of companies offer this service, though to be honest I couldn't tell you who to pick. It will definitely need to be palletized, however. Does shipper have a loading dock?

George Zimmer
Jun 28, 2008

No Butt Stuff posted:

What do you base what fuel costs should be on? OPIS? Or the EIA reports?

No idea, the railroad publishes a weekly surcharge rate that we then work off of in regards to our customers as well as our draymen.

EDIT: it's EIA

George Zimmer fucked around with this message at 23:21 on May 19, 2015

Tokyo Sex Whale
Oct 9, 2012

"My butt smells like vanilla ice cream"

lord1234 posted:

I have a relatively large(for me) item I am trying to ship across the country. It's located in Massachusetts and I am in TX. Size size, its roughly 2 pallets of stuff that needs to be palletized/crated, and then shipped. Who do I call? I'm not a business, I'm just some guy trying to coordinate a shipment. Due to weight, I can't use UPS, so it has to be a freight co. I tried posting on UShip and it seems everyone wants it palletized first, and the shipper won't/can't do that.

UPS and FedEx both do LTL shipments and I don't think you need to set up any special terms or anything. If you don't know what you're doing it's probably best to go with one of the big names. You'll probably not get a great price but you won't get scammed and FedEx sometimes has ok LTL prices.

But if the shipper can't put something on a pallet I don't get how they're going to put it on a truck. A freight company isn't going to come to somebody's house with 2 pallets and a forklift. Maybe look at moving companies or something?

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

lord1234 posted:

I have a relatively large(for me) item I am trying to ship across the country. It's located in Massachusetts and I am in TX. Size size, its roughly 2 pallets of stuff that needs to be palletized/crated, and then shipped. Who do I call? I'm not a business, I'm just some guy trying to coordinate a shipment. Due to weight, I can't use UPS, so it has to be a freight co. I tried posting on UShip and it seems everyone wants it palletized first, and the shipper won't/can't do that.

Try DHL or whoever replaced them in the US, they are generally cheaper then UPS and FEDEx for a one off LTL

Tree squid posted:

Seeing as the first job you got required a degree, do you find it worth it to pursue a degree in Logistics, or you could get in just fine without one? If I waltzed into the Los Angeles port (Which I would assume is impossible to just "Hey don't mind me!") what's the chance on getting an entry-level job the old school way by asking a manager there? I've got no warehouse experience, but I've been a Dairyman all my life, which has some sort of Grit cred of working hard and not minding getting dirty.


EDIT: Typo

I got my job with a degree in history so...

Back it up Terry
Nov 20, 2006

I work for a fairly large 3PL specializing in truckload transportation.

From what I've seen, most brokers will hire people regardless of degree as long as you are a type A person or have decent sales skills.

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tangy yet delightful
Sep 13, 2005



Bookmarking this thread. I've been working in a 3PL for about 18 months now. Specializing in flatbed freight but the company also does dry vans, reefer (refrigerated, or temperature controlled as some things are kept warm), and LTL.

Pay depends on your commission but a good broker can probably gross 45K a year where I'm at.

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