The goal of this book is to help the reader's growth in the transportation industry and
the business environment between shippers/receivers and their transportation providers
in general. While this book is dedicated to the support of your efforts, it is simply not a
panacea for any bid request or customer contract instance.
This book obviously targets those who provide transportation services domestically or
internationally, with a slant toward the North American market. Some shippers or receivers
may also find it as enlightening. Succeeding in any business involves understanding what
the other party wants out of a deal and then constructing a proposal that solves the other
party's desires while giving you and your company a fair profit. Hopefully, transport
providers can better listen to their customers and maybe the shippers and receivers can
better understand a little more clearly the methods, needs and requirements of transport
service providers.
Some sections deal with the various foibles and methods of interacting with customers
and finally producing realistic responses. A detailed section explains commercial issues
of pricing and bidding, while another grasps the technical aspects of bidding work. Casual
readers might find some facts or comments revealing.
While technical understanding is beneficial to solving your bid response concerns,
much of the physical aspect of moving freight is common sense, plus a healthy dose
of geometric formulas, calculus, and trigonometry. Finding a realistic solution can
sometimes get confusing because too many details get in the way. Reduce all those details
to their lowest terms. Make the goal into manageable and control the commercial and
technical activities. In today's world, everyone has rules and of course, transportation
is no exception. Amid local, state, provincial, federal and international, but common
sense makes transportation functions profitable while technical functions make for safe
execution.