Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/757641
VOICES CHANNEL 19 6 | Overdrive | December 2016 Visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' CHANNEL 19 BLOG at OverdriveOnline.com/channel19 Write him at tdills@randallreilly.com. This summer, reader Manuel Chavez came across a 2011 story I wrote that mentioned then-new freight market- place No Broker Freight. It was a proj- ect of Ohio-based broker Dave Fussi, who'd hoped to deliver direct-ship freight to owner-operators and small fl eets and essentially eliminate the mid- dleman via a load board-like service. Chavez subscribed to check out whether the product stood as adver- tised. Some fi ve years later, he's found nothing at all that was unbrokered in the freight department, among other issues. Furthermore, there was no obvious option to cancel the trial subscription. Chavez was charged for a renewal despite messages left for the board's customer service. When I contacted Fussi, he refund- ed the subscription. He noted that the service, one of the fi rst among many in subsequent years to advertise itself as removing the broker from the freight picture, is in limbo now with no shipper-direct freight. Another such service, MyRite- Load, is in a similar situation, reader Kerry Dunnigan alerted us. Dunnigan had seen an ad touting the central message of company leader Matthew Kane in its "No Broker Fees" display text and a stated goal of delivering greater margins to carriers and sav- ings to shippers. Both NBF and MRL ran into a chicken-egg problem when it comes to bypassing brokers with technology. You've got to have a solid base of drivers to eff ectively sell the shipper with prompt service, and vice versa. Kane said the company has refocused its eff orts on rebuilding the driver base after some initial success attract- ing shippers years ago. The company has refunded Dunnigan's subscrip- tion. Kane also gave a promo code – 365F180 – that any driver can use to join the service free for one year, "no questions asked," Kane says. Today, they've got a couple of thousand such operators signed on, but Kane believes the service needs about 40,000 to do it right. Meantime, it's probably good poli- cy to get a good referral from an oper- ator using any such service and talk to company reps before signing up. THE ELUSIVE HOLY GRAIL OF SHIPPER-DIRECT MARKETPLACES Dave Marti calls his custom 2015 Pe- terbilt 389 glider "High Maintenance Too" following a Legacy Edition 379 that was fairly high maintenance itself (and opening the door to an in- side joke with his wife). When I talked with him at the Guilty by Association Truck Show in September, the little Chicago Cubs helmet atop the head of his hood ornament had turned a few heads, adding to the notoriety of the Forrest, Ill.-based rig. Marti recalled the truck's fi rst inspection at the scales in Litchfi eld, Illinois, near St. Louis. "Everything looks good but for that blue helmet on your duck," the inspector said. "You've got to take it off . If you're sleeping out here, they'll shoot you." Looking forward to the Major League Baseball playoff s at that time, Marti hoped his team could "make a little noise." They did more than that. Marti's small fl eet hauls fuel and is leased to Transport Service Inc. This rig is spec'd for liquid bulk tank with a short wheelbase. It's outfi tted with lots of lights, a custom grille and headlights. Old drop visors behind the cab-ex- tender panels contain wiring. Find more on Marti with a search of his name at OverdriveOnline.com. Duck dons cap for the home team The goal of "eliminating the middleman" from freight transactions between shippers and owner-operators has been slow in coming for newer load board-like marketplace services. Scan the QR to pull up a video with Dave Marti of Forrest, Illinois, running through the numerous custom features on his "High Maintenance Too" 2015 Pete 389 glider.