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Does anyone have a good transport company?
My guy has retired and I am SO sick of dealing with idiotic trucking brokers. So painful and all of the, just feed you b#lls#it all day long.
Need a truck transported Virginia to Chicago, IL
Thanks for any leads
Dan

Might check out Yesterday's Tractors. Here's a link to the vehicle hauling section of the site.

http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/haulquery.pl

Gotta look at the transport realities. In general Transport is made up of small independent carriers. Even our "go to" transport company (Cascade Enterprises) only runs 5 trucks and can transport our trucks about 2 out of 5 transports.

In my rough personal opinion:

Transport Brokers are scum. They will tell you whatever they think you want to hear in order to "book" the load, then they will go out and shop the load to the market. Prices will change, timing is of no consequence, etc.

You, yourself have that very same ability.....to shop the market.

Ideally as an individual/business we want to work directly with the transporter. There is nothing in value that a broker adds other than a markup of the shipping.

Uship IS a viable option. More and more operators are using it direct. Suggestions:

Post up that you are looking to work directly with the transporter (no brokers)

When bids come in, decline them, don't let them sit. As you decline, most of the time the same operators/brokers will start high and then keep lowering their bids.

It is quite easy to realize who you are dealing with Broker/versus transporter based upon the questions they ask. "we can pickup within 5 days of booking. Will their be personal items in the vehicle...?" Broker. "I can load on Tuesday afternoon for delivery Wednesday." Transporter. Respond back..."what equipment are you using?" A transporter will know exactly the truck/trailer/van/etc. A broker will not usually respond or will give non-specific answers.

Respond to questions. Tell the carriers what you are willing to pay in your answers.

Understand the market. If a majority of loads are running at a lane in the .70 a mile range and you are only willing to pay .40 a mile, it's not likely to move. Uships averages are pretty good for calculations as they are based on actual booked loads.

Insurance, insurance, insurance. Words mean nothing. Ask and read the carriers insurance policy. About 15% of the time the insurance declarations that are sent over are out of date. Most of the time it is a paperwork issue, but you ship your truck with a carrier and it is damaged/destroyed you need to make sure they have the ability thru insurance to make it right.

Cheers,

Scott

Thx Scott - good advice and I did start on uShip.
Seems that when you post up for open bids, 99.9% are brokers so I let that listing expire.
Went direct to broker online quotes (trying to shop the market) and after 50 phone calls, 100 email from the various brokers and 2 weeks of my life wasted... I posted on uShip last night at 4:55pm with a "Name your price" auction.
Accepted by an independent carrier in under 15 mins at the price I posted and he is picking up the new G this Saturday!
Cheers,
Dan

Pic of new truck

I have had good luck with National Transport out of Florida

Very nice 463. What engine is in that? How much do I need to come up with to buy it?

VinceAtReal4x4s wrote:Very nice 463. What engine is in that? How much do I need to come up with to buy it?

It's a 1994 350GDT - 1st factory turbo diesel in a G.
It is getting a replacement factory reissued OM603a 3.5l block and a factory reman #20 head going on it, new motor mounts, Bosio nozzels, glow plugs, newest head gasket design, etc etc.
This engine will be factory new with the upgraded rods (thicker) like my yellow 96 with 200,000 miles on it.
It is a really nice, rust free 463 and the previous owner just spent $11k usd on it at Cor Millenaar before he sold it to me - suspension, bushings, exhaust, etc
Kicker is that its a 1994 so you either have to wait 561 days or move to Canada

My wife gets 1st dibs on it and if she passes, then its for sale!

Here is current status: Here is why it is getting a new block (bad head gasket let oil into #1 and hydro-locked it!): New block waiting for transplant (you can see factory tag at rear)!