Charter management/logistics providers
I'm looking for some thoughts on charter management companies.
What I mean is, a customer will call a charter management/logistics provider with their requirement- for example 3000 lbs pickup at XXX, to be in YYY by 14:00.
The charter management firm then posts this on their web-based bidding system and the carriers that are signed on are alerted. Everyone submits their bid, and the winner is contacted to complete the trip. Blah blah blah.
Right now this seems to be mainly an American thing, or maybe it exists in Europe too (not sure).
Anyhow, my question is this: Does anyone have experience (from a vendor/carrier POV) in dealing with this setup? Do you get much business from it? Is it worth it?
The reason is that if you bid and lose, you have no idea what the winning bid was (not just from a dollar standpoint, but what a/c type won the job, whether or not the EXACT requirements were met etc.) and therefore cannot know "how close" you were.
I can see getting excited about the first 10-15 opportunities, but if you never get any jobs out of it...you start to lose interest. BTW, my company operates caravans
Comments?