Keeping Freight Cost Down With Load Shares
by Lyle Talbot, TSR Enterprises

"How am I gonna' get that small shipment from Montana to Tennessee and still have any money left in my wallet?" I get that question, or a variation of it, asked about twenty times a day. Not to Tennessee all the time, but you get the idea.

Anyone can deal with nice neat full loads but, here at TSR Enterprises, partial loads are our specialty. For example, we might start by picking up freight in Seattle, Washington, drop part of that pickup in Lewiston, Idaho, and then head down to Glu-Lam-Log in Victor, Montana to pick up material that will find its way to Virginia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Lots of trucking companies and brokers consider these types of loads impossible or at least undesirable. They're a lot more work and they require heavy duty coordination, especially when you're shipping from a place like Montana. Here at TSR, we've specialized in doing the impossible since 1978. We even enjoy it!

A true load share is a shipment where we have contracted for the truck on behalf of multiple parties. There are multiple pickup locations and multiple delivery points. For example, a company might be shipping a piece of heavy equipment, that takes up 33 feet of truck deck and weighs 36,000 pounds, from Portland to New York State and he needs it delivered in seven days. In order to reduce cost, the shipper asks me to find a load share. I know the truck is a forty-five footer that can carry 48,000 pounds. My options are limited. To make this work for everyone, I've got to find a partial that has to be picked up and delivered along the route; it can't take up more than 15 feet of deck; it can't weigh more than 12,000 pounds. Furthermore, I have to make sure that the original customer gets his equipment delivered in seven days. Finding a load to make this match can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. It can be a real challenge and it doesn't give me a lot of room to negotiate freight rates with the trucking company.

Compare that to the second approach, a single pickup with multiple drops. In this case, one shipper, Glu-Lam-Log for example, contracts for a truck on behalf of two or more customers who have partial shipments going to different locations. It's still a challenge to find a trucker who's willing to make drops in, say, Anthon, Iowa; Shelby, Kentucky; and Kenly, North Carolina but this is a heck of a lot easier to arrange than a true load share for several reasons. First, there's only one pickup point. Second, the shipment can be staged in advance to reduce loading time. Third, the load can be juggled to maximize the use of deck space. Finally, there's only one billing location. All of these things combine to make this a much more desirable approach to combining small loads.

The main thing to keep in mind when you are buying less than a full load of merchandise from a place like Montana is this. Give yourself and your shipper as much lead time as possible. If you do, you'll probably save yourself quite a bit of money. It's a lot easier and a lot less stressful to know that a shipment is standing by and waiting for the next available truck than is to find a truck at the exact point in time that a load will be ready. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but keep this in mind. If I'm put in a position where it's Friday afternoon and I've got to get a load share delivered to St. George, Utah by 9 AM Monday morning, there's still a chance I might still be able to get it delivered but you can be sure that it's going to cost plenty.

Typically, freight rates are based on dollars per mile or dollars per hundred weight, but these can vary quite a bit based on where the shipment is headed. If you live in an area where there is limited return freight, for example, your rate may be higher than the one given a customer whose drop is within a short distance of another load.

The bottom line is that load shares are priced mostly by size, weight, destination, and urgency. When we quote someone like Phil at Glu-Lam-Log, we ask the following questions:

• Where is it going?
• How much room will it take on the trailer?
• How much will it weigh?
• When will it be ready?
• When do you want it delivered?
• Can the receiving party get the material unloaded promptly?

Taking all of these things into consideration, we can then determine what rate to quote; but our rates are never chiseled in stone. By this, I mean that if we can find something else to go with the partials that we already have, we're prepared to pass the savings on to you. The "Time Factor" is usually the only monkey wrench that can disrupt the whole process.

TSR's company motto, that appears on all of our correspondence and invoices is "Our business depends on satisfied customers" (like you, I hope). So, the next time you need to order less than a full load, not to worry. We'll treat it with the same respect and give it the same attention as a full truck.

Editors Note: We try to acknowledge editorial contributors with a photo and a short bio of the person submitting the article. When we asked Lyle to submit a "Thumbnail Sketch" for use in the publication, that's exactly what he did. He dared us to use it. Since he's really left us no choice, that's what we've done. Lyle is a native Montanan who was raised in Lewiston, Montana and has been either loading, selling, or shipping lumber related products since 1960. Lyle has owned his own lumber yards, been a lumber broker, and has even run his own trucking company. After selling his interests in his early private ventures, Lyle joined a small trucking company whose fleet quickly grew to 200 trucks. Holding positions as a Dispatcher, Load Coordinator, Operations Manager, and Safety Manager, Lyle accumulated the breadth of experience necessary to start TSR Enterprises. Lyle has had the opportunity to see the trucking industry through the eyes of trucker and user alike. Headquartered in Great Falls, Montana, TSR is the primary supplier of transportation services for Glu-Lam-Log.