What Most Logistics Managers Get Wrong About Freight Pricing

Joshua Dickey
Feb 3
3 min read

Freight pricing is one of the most visible line items in logistics—and one of the least understood.

Most logistics managers are measured on cost control, service levels, and reliability. Yet freight pricing decisions are often made using surface-level data: a spot quote here, a contract rate there, and a general assumption that lower rates equal better performance. In practice, this mindset introduces volatility, hides risk, and creates downstream costs that never show up in the original quote.

The issue isn’t that logistics managers aren’t paying attention. It’s that freight pricing is frequently treated as a purchasing exercise instead of a risk-managed operational strategy.

The Reality on the Ground

At a high level, freight pricing looks straightforward:

Get quotes
Compare rates
Book the lowest acceptable option

But operationally, pricing lives downstream from a long chain of variables that rarely make it into a spreadsheet:

Dock efficiency and dwell time
Appointment discipline
Load consistency and packaging
Lane balance and seasonality
Carrier experience with your freight

When pricing is evaluated in isolation, it ignores the operating conditions that ultimately determine whether that rate holds—or unravels.

This is why many transportation budgets look stable on paper but unpredictable in execution.

Where Freight Pricing Actually Breaks Down

1. Spot vs. Contract Is a False Binary

One of the most common misconceptions is that freight must be either “spot” or “contract.” High-performing transportation networks use a blended approach, aligning contract rates to predictable lanes while leaving room for spot exposure where flexibility is required.

When everything is spot-priced, volatility creeps in.

When everything is locked into contracts, agility disappears.

The failure point isn’t the rate type—it’s the lack of lane-level strategy.

2. Accessorials Are the Silent Budget Killer

Most freight overruns don’t come from base rates. They come from:

Detention
Layovers
Reconsignments
Truck Ordered Not Used (TONU)
Driver assist and inside delivery charges

These costs are often reviewed reactively, not strategically. By the time they’re flagged, they’ve already become normalized. Over a quarter or a year, they quietly erode the savings achieved by “competitive pricing.”

If accessorials aren’t tracked, trended, and addressed operationally, pricing transparency is incomplete.

3. Cheap Rates Shift Risk—They Don’t Eliminate It

The lowest quote usually assumes:

Perfect pickup conditions
No delays
No changes
No exceptions

That’s rarely how freight actually moves.

When those assumptions fail, the risk transfers back to the shipper—in the form of missed appointments, customer escalations, and internal fire drills. The rate may look good, but the cost of disruption never appears on the invoice.

What High-Performing Logistics Teams Do Differently

Strong transportation organizations don’t chase the cheapest rate. They design pricing frameworks that support execution.

They:

Align rates to lane behavior, not averages
Hold carriers accountable to service expectations, not just price
Review accessorials monthly and treat them as operational signals
Understand where flexibility is required and where discipline matters most

Most importantly, they view pricing as an extension of operations—not a standalone decision.

This mindset shift turns transportation from a reactive cost center into a controllable system.

Practical Takeaways for Logistics Managers

If you’re responsible for transportation performance, these principles create immediate leverage:

Price lanes, not loads
- One-off quotes create noise. Lane strategies create stability.
Track accessorials like KPIs
- They reveal where processes—not pricing—are breaking down.
Blend contract and spot strategically
- Predictability and flexibility should coexist.
Evaluate risk, not just rates
- Service failures always cost more than the savings that caused them.
Demand visibility before optimization
- You can’t control what you can’t see consistently.

Final Thought

Freight pricing doesn’t fail because logistics managers lack discipline. It fails because pricing decisions are often disconnected from the operational realities that support them.

When pricing is treated as a strategic input—not just a negotiated number—it becomes a lever for stability, service, and long-term cost control.

If freight spend fluctuates without a clear explanation, pricing isn’t the root issue.

Visibility and alignment usually are.

If this sounds familiar, it’s often worth taking a second look at how pricing decisions connect to day-to-day operations. Most opportunities for improvement are already visible—they just haven’t been translated into strategy yet.