The LTL industry is sitting on a pricing problem it helped create, and Danny Loe is one of the people working to fix it. After 26+ years in the space, including a long career at ABF/ArcBest, Danny stepped out of the corporate world to found SORS (Strategic Optimized Revenue Solutions), a consultancy helping LTL carriers move away from legacy tariff-based pricing toward smarter, transactional, and dynamic pricing models.

In this episode, Danny and host Bobby Russell dig into why the old way of pricing freight doesn't hold up in a transactional world, what dynamic pricing actually means in practice, and how better data from platforms like MyCarrier is finally giving both shippers and carriers the tools to win at the same time.

Plus: Amazon just announced it's entering the LTL market. What does that actually mean for carriers, shippers, and the competitive landscape? Ryan and Danny break it all down.

Key Topics Covered:

00:00 – Intro & catching up from the ULTL event

01:30 – What is SORS and why Danny left the corporate world to start it

04:00 – Why tariff-based pricing keeps losing money on individual shipments

06:00 – The LTL industry is a big boat with a tiny rudder (and what's finally moving it)

07:00 – Why SMB shippers are the most valuable (and underserved) segment in LTL

09:00 – The "procure your way to lower cost" myth and why it always backfires

11:00 – Price neutrality between 3PLs and direct carrier reps: is it coming?

11:45 – What dynamic/transactional pricing actually looks like vs. legacy quoting

13:00 – "Putting lipstick on a pig" why some carriers are faking dynamic pricing

15:00 – How dynamic pricing simplifies (and improves) LTL customer onboarding

17:00 – Expired tariff pricing and the terrible customer experience it creates

18:30 – Why pricing by weight doesn't make sense when carriers are cubing out trailers

20:40 – Industry blind spots: carrier cost visibility and how data can close the gap

22:45 – The Moneyball analogy: why dynamic pricing is really about batting average

23:00 – Why address-level data at quote time matters more than most shippers realize

25:00 – Booking windows and how advance notice reduces carrier cost (and shipper rates)

29:00 – Shipper behavior that drives carrier inefficiency and how to fix it with workflow

31:15 – Amazon announces entry into LTL: breaking down the news

33:00 – Short-term vs. long-term risk: how to actually think about Amazon in LTL

35:00 – Why Amazon's entry will push LTL carriers to improve outward-facing technology

37:00 – Tracking visibility, APIs, and the arms race for better customer experience

39:00 – Why LTL is hard to enter (and why 20 cents on the dollar is actually great)

41:00 – M&A trends, Old Dominion's infrastructure strategy, and what comes next

41:55 – Where to find Danny and what SORS is building

Resources & Links Mentioned:

SORS Pricing: https://www.sorspricing.com

MyCarrier: https://www.mycarrier.io

Connect with Danny Loe on LinkedIn

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Ship Talkers is produced by MyCarrier — the freight technology platform built to make LTL shipping smarter for shippers and carriers alike.

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