If you have something large to ship like a motorcycle or furniture, it may be worth your while to list your shipment on a online reverse auction like uShip. An online reverse auction for transportation services is where a shipper will list a shipment online and then trucking companies bid on your shipment. The bid you will get from an online reverse auction will normally be cheaper than if you went directly to a carrier for a quote.
Online reverse auctions for transportation services such as truckload and Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) can be significantly lower than direct quotes. This is because many transportation carriers are looking for shipments to fill their less-than-full trucks. Their trucks are not full, usually for two reasons: 1) they are transporting LTL shipments from A to B and there is still room on their truck, 2) their truck has dropped off a shipment at point B and is returning back to point A (home terminal or home-base). In either case, any additional shipment that they can bid on in an online reverse auction is pure profit. The downside of online reverse auction for trucking services is that you usually have no previous relationship with the carrier. A lot of times you can not depend on the reputation of the carrier as you can do with FedEx or UPS. You end up deciding for yourself if the carrier will meet service commitments and is it trustworthy.
