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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2/23/2006 11:58:42 AM
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| Jay, I'm trying to be a team player here, but I just had a situation that bears explaining. I wanted to bid on a shipment. The existing low bid was $250. I bid $240, with the Bid Valet set to underbid other TSP's, and a minimum for me of $228. NO OTHER BIDS CAME IN, but after about an hour, the system automatically entered a new bid for me of $228. Essentially, I ended up BIDDING AGAINST MYSELF. How could that happen? Dan
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/14/2008 4:55:34 PM
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[quote]OldTaxManDan (4/11/2008)
Jay,
I'm trying to be a team player here, but I just had a situation that bears explaining. I wanted to bid on a shipment. The existing low bid was $250. I bid $240, with the Bid Valet set to underbid other TSP's, and a minimum for me of $228. NO OTHER BIDS CAME IN, but after about an hour, the system automatically entered a new bid for me of $228. Essentially, I ended up BIDDING AGAINST MYSELF. How could that happen? Dan[/quote]
OldTaxManDan - Can you give me a link to the listing?
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/10/2007 10:16:16 PM
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jay@uship.com (4/11/2008)
XCOUNTRYXPRESS (4/11/2008)
I'm not trying to be confrontational or anything. I'm just trying to see the logic here behind what is being said. Don't we want the bids to remain higher so we can ALL make more money? All these new tools seem to defeat just that. Who cares what ebay does. That's a reverse concept but at least what they do eventually does result in a higher paycheck for everyone or geared for that anyway. I'm not griping.........I'm just trying to understand the logic. What am I missing here?Thanks for your feedback. Again, I understand it is a little counterintuitive, but the economics of automated bidding systems and their effects have been well studied by eBay and other businesses. Ebay's bidding system, results in the LOWEST acceptable sale price for the winning buyer, and usually in a much lower final sale price than the seller would have received if eBay's proxy system was not in place. If you read my original example about the bike sold on ebay above, you will see that the bike would have sold for $500, but instead sells for just above $450, because the buyer used the proxy bidding system. Automated bidding tools on eBay HELP buyers, not sellers. They do not drive the price up, they keep them down. Because uShip's bidding is is inverse of ebay's (down not up), so are the results. If used propely, BID VALET helps TSP's and will create matches at higher prices than would have happened if they did not use the tool. Even though the price goes down, the logic is built to result in a higher prices than what you would have bid if the system was not in place. This helps TSP's get matches at higher prices and in turn makes uShip more money as well. Of course that is why we built the system in the first place. If we saw the inverse - that the tool resulted in less matches or matches at lower dollar amounts than before the tool was created, then I can assure you the tool would not be around very long. TSP's who are using Bid Valet, on average, are getting more matches and at higher prices than those who don't (or can't because they don't qualify). To address the comments from sewfine77, yes your bids would have gone down in a short time if you chose "underbid other TSP's". You seemed to want an option to slowly lower your bids. Well we built that option too - its the second way Bid Valet works: "Lower my bid X$ every X hours". If you are more comfortable having control over exactly when your bids lower then we encourage you to use this 2nd option instead of the underbidding option. Its all a matter of personal choice. Some service providers are very competitive and want to get to an acceptable match as soon as possible. Others may have the luxury of time and only want to gradually lower their bid. Still others may only bid once and then never again. Our role is to build a platform that caters to the specific choices of each service provider and allows them more freedom to bid according to their business objectives. Bid valet (along with My rates, group bidding, BookitNow, ShipitNow, etc) is just additional way to manage your business. While it may not be the perfect toool for every single TSP, we are certain many will realize great value from it. I comprehend what you are saying but I am also understanding that for you it is equally as important to increase the match rates as opposed to the match price. It is easy to click onto a computer and be decieved by a high number of matches when in all actuality you really didn't make much at all. I'll give you an example: 100 matches for 1.00 profit each vs 100 matches for 100.00 profit each. There is huge difference there! High match rates are good but if you are not going to make any money why bother. Ebay is a reverse concept and it should not be used a base to increase match rates if the profits per match don't rise with the rates. Me personally I don't see an advantage to utilizing this new tool. I need to closely study the dynamics of what I am bidding on to ensure I am not selling myself short or overselling myself. Too many things transpire from the time a listing is posted to the time a shipper is ready to accept (dates change, weights change, stuff gets added on or another TSP makes promises the shipper wants you to match). I can only offer the best deal for my shipper by studying these Q&A sections, comparing my experience with competing TSPs, adjusting routes to accomodate other customers as well based on answers I get or see. Only way I can do that is by physically pulling the listing regularly and watching my own bid progress. Rarely do I ever change my figures once entered but if I did it was because I saw something that warranted it. This new tool won't recognize this need for scrutiny and I believe will eventually result in a higher cancellation rate due to circumstances changing during the bid comparison process. Happens all the time. Moneywise....I won't trust my profits to an unproven new tool that defeats what we need to counter in a time where the price of everything is going up. I respectfully but strongly request you reconsider the implementation of this new tool (and while you are at it.......get rid of the estimator).
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/14/2008 4:55:34 PM
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I comprehend what you are saying but I am also understanding that for you it is equally as important to increase the match rates as opposed to the match price. It is easy to click onto a computer and be decieved by a high number of matches when in all actuality you really didn't make much at all. I'll give you an example: 100 matches for 1.00 profit each vs 100 matches for 100.00 profit each. There is huge difference there! High match rates are good but if you are not going to make any money why bother. Ebay is a reverse concept and it should not be used a base to increase match rates if the profits per match don't rise with the rates. Me personally I don't see an advantage to utilizing this new tool. I need to closely study the dynamics of what I am bidding on to ensure I am not selling myself short or overselling myself. Too many things transpire from the time a listing is posted to the time a shipper is ready to accept (dates change, weights change, stuff gets added on or another TSP makes promises the shipper wants you to match). I can only offer the best deal for my shipper by studying these Q&A sections, comparing my experience with competing TSPs, adjusting routes to accomodate other customers as well based on answers I get or see. Only way I can do that is by physically pulling the listing regularly and watching my own bid progress. Rarely do I ever change my figures once entered but if I did it was because I saw something that warranted it. This new tool won't recognize this need for scrutiny and I believe will eventually result in a higher cancellation rate due to circumstances changing during the bid comparison process. Happens all the time. Moneywise....I won't trust my profits to an unproven new tool that defeats what we need to counter in a time where the price of everything is going up. I respectfully but strongly request you reconsider the implementation of this new tool (and while you are at it.......get rid of the estimator).
XCOUNTRYXPRESS - You make some good points about the nuances of bidding and how there are a lot of factors that go into placing a bid that makes you money. But this tool can still benefit you. Take the following example of how you could maximize your profit on a given run...
Assume that you have a trailer that can hold 2 cars and are traveling from Austin, TX to Dallas, TX. Also, assume that you find 6 car listings that match your timeframe from Austin to Dallas and 4 for the backhaul. Using our Advanced Bidding Tools (Group Bidding and Bid Valet) you can (1) decrease the probability of dead-heading and (2) possibly increase (but not decrease) the amount of money you make.
Using Group Bidding, you create two groups, each with a capacity of 2. You bid on all 10 listings, assigning them to the correct group. As you said, the amount you bid is dependent on lots of factors. For the same of simplicity, let us assume that you can transport each car for a minimum of $500. Using the Amount to Me calculator (http://www.uship.com/popups/bidCalc.aspx?c=txtTotalBid) you'd have to bid roughly $565 to make $500 after uShip fees. So now you know your minimum bid amount. Using Bid Valet's timed and proxy bidding features, you could set your initial bid to something higher than $565. Let's say you set each to $800, specifying a floor of $565 (and you could also use the timed bid functionality if you want).
At its heart, Bid Valet allows TSPs to take advantage of differences in consumer demand. In the above example, some shippers may choose to accept at $700 (or somewhere above $565) while others won't. When you bid, you do not have that information. But Bid Valet allows you to indirectly use that information. And when combined w/ group bidding, you can really increase your efficiency and make more money. Using the above example, bids accepted sooner are generally going to have higher prices (since Bid Valet decreases prices over time) and will be the first jobs in the group. Since Bid Valet allows you to set a minimum, you're never going to bid less than you specify--just make sure you set the minimum correctly.
Does this example make sense? It's not 100% realistic (every listing bid the same amount, etc.) but we see TSPs using Bid Valet + Group Bidding in this way every day. And they're using it to be more efficient in their bidding and make more money. The bottom line is that we don't make money unless you make money. Bid Valet and Group Bidding were designed to give TSPs the ability to make more money with less work.
This is great feedback so far though, and we'd like to hear more as we work on new features and revisions of existing products.
Best, Michael
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/10/2007 10:16:16 PM
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| I appreciate your response but these new tools coupled with the estimator will ultimately train the shippers to hold out for lower bids or someone that will eventually do it for free and will subsequently result in a lower bottom dollar for you. It may be a tool of convenience but lets look at the bigger picture..........what kind of precedence is it setting? I think we need to work on something that helps to bring the figures up for everyone. There will always be someone that will do it for free (that's a given) but for how long (how long will they stay in business). For the ones that really do this site justice and the regulars that make you money lets try to work on a tool that helps bring the money back in. I really don't think these new tools will do it. They are merely of convenience.
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