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drat there's a lot to know in tanking. Last contained, center / rear, does the driver has haz / twic. Where's the nearest tank wash? ect. steel trailer vs aluminum. I was hired as a driver manager, then after my 1st two weeks my boss is like I want you to learn dispatch, which I was actually happy with because it's more what I used to do. However, the other guy who does all the dispatching is a guy who won't show me anything (75% sure he knows I'm here to try and replace him now). I'm like 4-5 weeks in now. I'm just frustrated. I knew this was going to be a challenge going to a brand new terminal that is expanding quickly under new management. It seemed like a good opportunity to see how grow from 25 drivers to 100 and learn a whole new aspect of logistics that's a huge industry. My terminal manager every day is like, "Hey, you know how to dispatch yet?" I know HOW to dispatch drivers and assign them to loads in TMW, but the planning before that is what I'm struggling to figure out. The load planning aspect I never really did because at my old company we were so big it was all up to 2 planners, we just did dispatch. Now I need to figure it all out at once. Rant over. It's harder than I thought it would be to start over at a new terminal trying to get back on it's feet. We're gonna take over this city though. We used to be an affiliate terminal here, but they ran it into the ground so we bought it back. That's the good thing. Corporate is throwing a lot of money at us to succeed so it's going to happen. Every week our revenue numbers look better. I'll get there, it's gonna take some time to learn. I'm just going to keep making cheat sheets for all the customers of what I need till I get used to the repetition. Yomofo fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Feb 22, 2017 03:02
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I feel for you man. Your dispatcher sounds like ALOT of people that I've dealt with in the industry. Kudos to your optimism! We've been focusing more on the ELD stuff that's on the horizon and it is not looking good at all. I've talked to a few carriers who are banking on it being overturned before the December cut off 
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Feb 22, 2017 19:12
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It's going to be a huge problem because shippers/customers are not going to want to pay more for freight but ELD will naturally restrict drivers actual ability to deliver freight so much that capacity will naturally have to tighten causing rates to go up. Also customers will have to pay for team trucks or realize that tons of poo poo will take additional day(s) transit because of shipper delay/weather/one wreck that strands the truck 5 miles from receiver when his hours for the day expire.
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Mar 30, 2017 01:48
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Anyone do trade shows? Domestically I can see them being a pain but international is an absolute nightmare. I had to do 3 last month with carnets and the amount of working getting a skid to a convention center on a specific day at a specific time is something I wish upon no one. They GP is always pretty low too considering its usually one skid going air.
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Jun 4, 2017 03:48
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Does anyone in here have advice or good resources for selecting a 3PL for a CPG company in growth mode? Shelf-stable products, non-consumable.
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Jun 19, 2017 17:02
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I assume you mean a contract logistics provider for warehousing? what market?
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Jun 21, 2017 08:46
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I assume you mean a contract logistics provider for warehousing? An asset-based 3PL for warehousing and fulfillment. The company is great at big contract orders, truckload and LTL, but needs help scaling for ecommerce small parcel. I can't get specific on market in public but it's all non-perishable (no refridge needed), typical CPG/FMCG package types.
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Jun 22, 2017 19:16
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I was going to post an Ask/Tell, but maybe this thread can help me. I am looking to ship a container of wine/farm equipment/electronics/clothes/(other stuff?) to Zambia, a land-locked central African country. I live near a major California port, buying a shipping container, and filling it isn't the problem. The transportation part is. Then once it reaches a port in (probably?) Mozambique, how to get it over land to my contacts in Zambia. I would eventually like to start doing this as a business, I have many potential customers lined up. Just need to learn everything that is involved. Any information you have would help.
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Jul 6, 2017 01:50
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Then once it reaches a port in (probably?) Mozambique, how to get it over land to my contacts in Zambia. I would eventually like to start doing this as a business, I have many potential customers lined up. Just need to learn everything that is involved. You need a 3PL. You probably shouldn't buy containers.
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Jul 6, 2017 02:20
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Seconding the 3PL route. Doing this yourself will end in disaster, especially given the somewhat complex nature of what you're doing. In other news, I got promoted to an intermodal asset planning position with the railroad I work at, so that's nice!
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Jul 6, 2017 02:44
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You need a good freight forwarded on both ends, probably a separate freight forwarder in the US and a local well regarded party in Africa. Plus, you're going transborder in Africa which is always a delightful experience.mcsuede posted:An asset-based 3PL for warehousing and fulfillment. The company is great at big contract orders, truckload and LTL, but needs help scaling for ecommerce small parcel. This poo poo is like 101 level so any idiot can do it but if you're going 100% parcel fulfillment I would consider actual parcel carriers. I imagine if you are doing small orders that you want shared space, which is also well managed by parcel carriers.
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Jul 6, 2017 10:03
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Anyone have any companies they could recomend as far as a 3PL? Every website I google looks like it is from the '90s.
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Jul 7, 2017 04:07
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Every website I google looks like it is from the '90s. Welcome to logistics. I don't know any 3PL's in your area, sorry. Check on the receiving end if they have someone who they'd recommend, or check who your supplier is using.
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Jul 7, 2017 04:09
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George Zimmer posted:Seconding the 3PL route. Doing this yourself will end in disaster, especially given the somewhat complex nature of what you're doing. chassis or containers. or are railcars part of that group for your company, too? i wouldnt want to do any of them.
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Jul 7, 2017 04:51
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Anyone have any companies they could recomend as far as a 3PL? Every website I google looks like it is from the '90s. You could contact a full service logistics company like a Kuehne + Nagel or Panalpina. They'd be able to handle everything from point A to B. They won't be the cheapest by any stretch but they are well regarded companies. Also don't forget about cargo insurance. Because of where you are shipping you want to make sure you cover your rear end.
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Jul 7, 2017 11:49
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:chassis or containers. or are railcars part of that group for your company, too? Containers mostly, a little chassis stuff here and there but that's technically under someone else's jurisdiction. Railcars are not in the picture for my job, thankfully.
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Jul 9, 2017 23:41
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George Zimmer posted:Containers mostly, a little chassis stuff here and there but that's technically under someone else's jurisdiction. Railcars are not in the picture for my job, thankfully. containers are easy. identify surplus locations, identify deficit locations(they never change), tell surplus locations to send to deficit locations. chassis are harder because volumes change month to month. even then, you're just yelling at trac to get chassis where they're needed and fix the broken poo poo.
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Jul 10, 2017 01:13
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To the poster asking about getting a load to Zambia, you're going to be hard pressed finding a forwarder willing to accept an inland Africa door to door move. I work for a 3PL in the international dept and only a few of the forwarders in our pool have destination truck leg lanes to certain central African countries. Also from what you are shipping it seems like the consignee is a charitable organization or an individual with no commercial tax presence. This makes it even more difficult because the consignee might not have their own customs broker or the forwarder might not have customs brokerage capabilities in that country. You might consider shipping up to port and having them handle delivery from there if you cant find reasonable door to door service.
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Jul 15, 2017 18:14
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Anyone have any companies they could recomend as far as a 3PL? Every website I google looks like it is from the '90s. I worked for a short time doing Ocean/Air freight but the company I worked for was heavy on Asia > USA trade and did not run Africa. There will be 3PLs (NVOCCs is the ocean term you're looking for) that have a good quantity of business to Africa, that would be who you want to get quotes from and use. I would recommend seeing if you can get a free trial with datamyne.com and looking at who ships the most TEUs from USA to Africa. Then contact the top 3-5 and work on quotes. It sounds like you are wanting to handle the cost of the transport which would be FOB terms, buyer in Africa handling the costs would be ex-works terms. The NVOCC will have contacts in America for sure to handle moving the container from your loading location to the port. In general you don't need to buy the containers but depending on the cost to get the container from whatever port to your final destination and back only taking it there may be cheaper. Doing some quick research it looks like the Port of Beria in Mozambique would be a prime spot for freight into Zambia as they have a rail line to Zambia so the NVOCC would only need to know a trucking company for the last mile from railhead to your consignee. When you are getting a quote you want to make sure all fees and costs are included. Many NVOCCs may quote you the price to move the container but then tack on bunker (fuel) charges, and other fees without giving them to you in the up front quote. I've seen invoices from a lot of the big companies that do this, but that doesn't mean every agent does this every time. Salespeople are the worst basically. TEUs are Twenty foot container equivalents. Ocean freight mostly ships on 20ft, 40ft and 40HC (which is a 40ft that's taller), generally heavier stuff has to ship in 20s as they gross out in a 40, furniture usually goes 40HC. Depending on the current market and container need at the other end sometimes you can get a good deal or price equal deal on 40 == 40HC pricing wise. Sorry for the old rear end reply here, I had stopped subbing to the thread after it was dormant for a long while.
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Sep 12, 2017 04:58
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So what do you all think of the Tesla Semi?
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Nov 17, 2017 18:28
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FrozenVent posted:So what do you all think of the Tesla Semi? With their production line issues I honestly wonder if they will make it that far as a company without a massive re-org that drops the semi thing for a time. But assuming it makes it to production and there aren't major QC issues, the use case of local deliveries and drayage is the most optimal for the terrible battery limitations on distance that you face. I can see it being cost effective on a large scale starting in the major port cities especially on the west coast with the more strict emissions requirements. What would really interest me is hearing the opinions of actual semi-truck drivers who have gotten to drive the drat thing.
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Nov 19, 2017 22:40
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tangy yet delightful posted:With their production line issues I honestly wonder if they will make it that far as a company without a massive re-org that drops the semi thing for a time. They have potential to be super useful in ports/short haul/ yard work and somewhat on around town local runs. But I suspect the best way to operate a fleet would have 1 spare so that you can drop trucks off to charge depending on how low your one is.
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Nov 20, 2017 05:10
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Anphear posted:They have potential to be super useful in ports/short haul/ yard work and somewhat on around town local runs. But I suspect the best way to operate a fleet would have 1 spare so that you can drop trucks off to charge depending on how low your one is. 1-you dont need a super streamlined truck w/ a laden 0-60 time of 20 seconds for any of that type of work. you need the absolute cheapest truck that will run consistently for pulling boxes out of ports/railyards because you make jack and poo poo doing it, and the driving is all stop/go at the gate and inside the terminal. 2-i'm not an engineer, but i doubt that it would make a good yard jockey. jockey trucks never get up to a consistent speed and stay there. its 0-25, stop, unhook, 0-25, stop back under a box, 0-25, stop, unhook. i don't think that is a use cycle that would maximize the use of a battery's charge. even assuming that they last for 8 hours, that means that the truck isn't available for work on the next shift until it charges. you would need something 1.2x- 2x as many battery powered jockey trucks as you would need diesels. more jockeys= more maintenance, more mechanics, more capital, more depreciation, etc that being said, the port of la/lb is performing a study on replacing their diesel jockeys with battery powered ottawas because they want to be all electric by 2025 or something. 3-piggy backing off of point 2, the more that you change speed the less distance the battery can move the vehicle before it needs to be recharged. these are 100% meant to pickup a load and get to the highway as soon as possible. ups/fedex might see some value in these moving trailers between sort centers. im not an expert on how they work but i do know that trucks will be sitting for a while during the sorts before the trailers are loaded back up for the outbound run.
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Nov 20, 2017 06:47
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More jockeys only mean more maintenance if the new jockey is equally maintenance intensive. Electrics are pretty simple. Certainly more capex and depreciation, though. For a jockey the best model is probably swappable batteries like on forklifts.
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Nov 20, 2017 12:56
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:More jockeys only mean more maintenance if the new jockey is equally maintenance intensive. Electrics are pretty simple. Certainly more capex and depreciation, though. I could see that. The motor units in the hubs would have to be pretty robust to survive jockey truck life. But, they’d probably be way easier to diagnose/swap than a traditional drive train. The upside to jockeys is that weight is not a huge concern for on terminal work. Still, the duty cycle isn’t ideal. Constantly accelerating away from a stop has to kill the batteries quickly.
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Nov 20, 2017 17:08
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You would get pretty decent regen as well. Hybrids at least perform much better in cities. The beauty of electrics is that you reduce the number of actual components to like, mid hundreds rather than mid thousands, and there are only a few that are actually moving and subject to stress. Plus, as you say, you'd get a lot of benefit from modularity in your whole M&R process and supply chain.
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Nov 20, 2017 17:59
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:You would get pretty decent regen as well. Hybrids at least perform much better in cities. Hadn’t considered the Regen. Wonder what sort of use cycles they tested the Tesla trucks on. Still not ideal for pulling boxes out of ports/railyards because those dudes are getting like maybe $30/move. These dudes still drive cab overs. Uber does truckload now, too. Wonder how big of a cut they take there....
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Nov 20, 2017 21:45
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vains, why are you advertising World Campus on your av?
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Nov 22, 2017 02:11
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We are regular shippers of LCL loads out of China to USA, and we're getting wrecked on pricing. What are best practices in getting better prices? We mostly ship toys/action figures/some apparel, some has a duty, some doesn't, we're also not always sure what the duty is/how to find. Any help would be very much appreciated. Are factory terms are usually Ex-works in China.
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Nov 28, 2017 20:03
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How much volume do you do, do you have a long term agreement with a 3PL, do you have mandarin speakers on staff in China, and have you ever called bullshit on anything your 3PL says? These all have a tremendous impact on your prices.
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Nov 28, 2017 23:30
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Beast of Bourbon posted:We are regular shippers of LCL loads out of China to USA, and we're getting wrecked on pricing. What are best practices in getting better prices? We mostly ship toys/action figures/some apparel, some has a duty, some doesn't, we're also not always sure what the duty is/how to find. Get pricing quotes from 2-3 NVOCCs and work from there asking questions about what is this or that charge/line item. They should also be handling the duty for you if you get a good one with customs brokering included.
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Nov 29, 2017 17:39
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We just got a Mandarin speaker on staff last week, so we're good there, he's a factory sourcing guy, he knows his stuff but always dealt with a company that had established freight logistics in place. We have no long term agreements, yes we have called them on bullshit and that's why we're chasing a solution. Any recommendations on the 3pls/NVOCCs?
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Nov 29, 2017 20:28
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Sent you a PM
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Nov 29, 2017 21:13
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https://hts.usitc.gov/ to see what duty will be for each commodity.
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Dec 10, 2017 04:49
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I can't believe it took me two and a half years to find this thread. I work for a 3PL, which is a subsidiary of a large US-based railway. I used to be a scheduler, but a few months ago I moved to a broker position on an account that handles TL logistics for a large online retailer. We only do loads using 53ft dry vans, either from vendors to our customer or from one of our customer's warehouses to another. I'm not sure there's a whole lot of questions I could answer that haven't been asked already or aren't in my pretty specific field of expertise, but I can at least give it a shot.
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Jan 21, 2018 21:53
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Moose King posted:I can't believe it took me two and a half years to find this thread. I work for a 3PL, which is a subsidiary of a large US-based railway. I used to be a scheduler, but a few months ago I moved to a broker position on an account that handles TL logistics for a large online retailer. We only do loads using 53ft dry vans, either from vendors to our customer or from one of our customer's warehouses to another. Oh hey rail owned 3PL buddy. I work for the railroad itself now, but I did pretty much your position for 3 1/2 years or so.
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Jan 22, 2018 23:36
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Howdy, I work for a non-profit with a "special relationship" with USCG that they created from the marine insurance underwriting industry to discharge some of thier responsibilities to ( after the US signed onto SOLAS after the Texas City disaster.) My education is marine engineering, but I also have an ITM masters. On the marine side I get involved with just about everything. If you have shipped export haz I (or one of my colleagues )have almost certainly looked at your cargo. If you have shipped export OOG by flat rack or break bulk same. I've done this all over the country at this point. I do many other things too. vains posted:that being said, the port of la/lb is performing a study on replacing their diesel jockeys with battery powered ottawas because they want to be all electric by 2025 or something. Expect more emissions controls by states on jockets, drayage / haulers in the future. This is an example of what's happening now : https://www.nwseaportalliance.com/trucks . In the future I expect an eventual push towards zero emissions for drayage in many states and nations.
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Feb 11, 2018 05:09
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Can anyone out there working with this stuff explain the logic behind skipping stops and just leaving that "no one at home" note? I get that it saves time but aren't there supervisor staff out there to chew people out for it? Like today I was waiting for a fedex delivery and the guy drove up to my mailbox. Slipped in a note and drove away. The note saying that he tried to contact me but to no avail and since no signature could be had then no package could be dropped off and I had to contact customer support to arrange for another delivery date. This isn't the first time this has happened. A few years ago I chased a UPS truck to the nearest red light to get my package. I mean I live in a house, the lights are on and there's a car in the driveway so there's not much room for confusion. Like ring the loving doorbell. Katt fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Mar 12, 2018 |
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Mar 12, 2018 17:46
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It's tacitly encouraged by management by way of the impossible deliveries-per-hour FedEx and UPS demand of their drivers. FedEx drivers especially have really miserable jobs relative to their wage.
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Mar 12, 2018 18:50
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Eric the Mauve posted:It's tacitly encouraged by management by way of the impossible deliveries-per-hour FedEx and UPS demand of their drivers. FedEx drivers especially have really miserable jobs relative to their wage. I could understand if they just dropped it at the nearest post office where I could pick it up but now we have to do this all over again tomorrow with the same ridiculous schedule "Tuesday before 18:00" Just an 18 hour window.
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Mar 12, 2018 19:25
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