Taking advantage of YRC’s recent general rate increase effective 9/20/10, ABF has announced a similar general rate increase of 5.9%.  I say similar because general rate increases are not across the board increases.  Rather, such an increase will be an average as increases vary by lane, by commodity classification and by weight group.  Increases also factor in changes to surcharges and accessorial charges.

Interestingly, Con-way stated they didn’t see the need for an out-of-cycle increase and would wait and take an increase at the first of the year when most carriers normally take increases.  Con-way is taking a customer-specifc approach to an increase, especially as capacity is still abundant in the market.  For example, Con-way recently increased an account we provide our software by 11% for non-minimum shipments and 10% for minimum charges.  At least our customer knows the exact price increase as opposed to general rate increases are hidden based on a shipper’s demographics.

In the coming months, changes in the LTL market will continue to escalate.  FedEx Freight and National are combining with a new pricing scheme.  YRC and ABF have issued early general rate increases, R&L added a significant number of high-cost delivery zip codes and many national LTL carriers updated prices in their rules tariff.  Any shipper trying to keep up with all the changes is simply fighting a losing battle.  Without a transportation management system, one can only guess at the real costs of shipping.  With the increases coming, companies will start to realize they need a software and system to manage this expense.