the online shipping marketplace

uShip is excited to announce the launch of uShip Local Moving, a better way to bid on and book local household moves. Beginning March 19, 2008, uShip will change the way local household moves are handled on the uShip marketplace, which will benefit Service Providers and Shippers alike.

When a shipper lists a local household move in your service area, they will be presented local companies and rates and given the opportunity to send an exclusive, pre-paid booking request for their services. These booking requests are:

· Secured with a pre-paid deposit

· Only made to one company at a time

· Guaranteed solely for the Service Provider requested

· Exclusive, which means the move is not listed on the open uShip marketplace

· Available for a Service Provider to accept for only 24 hours

If you enter your local moving rates and cities you service in My Rates, you will be able to receive local moves booking requests.

If a shipper declines to send any booking requests, their local household move will be listed on the uShip marketplace like any other shipment. However, local moves will now be bid on by Service Providers based on an hourly rate and the number of movers required.

Both of these changes will help you win more jobs and bid in a more efficient and accurate way.

If my rate is $65 per hour, how much does Uship charge me?

·         Available for a Service Provider to accept for only 24 hours

We have 24 hours to decide, but a shipper has months to decide on a bid. What's wrong here?

Actually Truenorth, that's not quite true. Shippers only have as long as you say so to decide on a bid - you are free to make your bid expire in 2 hours if you wish. We encourage service providers to place bids with tight expiration dates as that often sparks shippers to accept bids quicker than if you place bids with very long windows.

Furthermore while TSP's can bid on dozens or even hundreds of listings at once (ie, their bids are not exclusive), in the new local moves system prepaid booking requests by shippers are UNIQUE...meaning that no other TSP has a chance to bid on or view the listing until you have acted within 24 hours. If we made the window much longer and TSP's did not act, it would be unfair to the shipper (as well as all other TSP's) as they could go days w/o getting other bids or even having their listing viewed. The system favors TSP's who act quickly and decisively when they receive booking requests.

tjfdidit - percentage fees do not apply to local moves and your hourly rate will not affect how much you are charged...we are charging a flat fee based on the number of bedrooms. See uShip fees link in the Booking Request learn more page.

TrueNorth - the 24 hour deadline only applies to Booking Requests made by a shipper.  You have 24 hours to accept or reject it but then exact timing will be negotiated between you and the shipper who you will be able to contact directly if you accept their booking request.  These booking requests are basically guaranteed jobs because they are only sent to one Service Provider at a time and the Shipper has paid a deposit just to send you the request.  So their is really very little reason not to accept them...just check their range of possible dates when you receive the request and see if that works with your schedule.  See link above for more details about Booking Requests.

After looking at many of the Q/A and Bid Details on local moves, it looks like there is still some confusion as to how it works.  Your bids on local moving jobs are based on your hourly rate, number of movers and any truck fees and that is it.  Your bid will appear as a flat rate in the listing details page but you are only bound to your hourly rate, number of movers and truck fees...the actual charge to the customer will depend on how long it actually takes to complete the move plus any truck fee minus any deposit the Shipper paid which is equal to the uShip fee.

I hope this clarifies a few things regarding local moving on uShip.