Dynamic Pricing Momentum on the Upswing in LTL, 3PL Segments
Tool Can Help Carriers and Shippers Navigate Uncertain Freight Patterns
Key Takeaways:
- With dynamic pricing, prices increase or decrease in real time.
- What drives dynamic pricing? Factors include demand, market conditions and competition.
- Dynamic pricing can be especially useful in segments that developed significantly in the past decade or 15 years, an SMC3 executive says.
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OXON HILL, Md. — If you’ve been looking for a flight or hotel room and return to a website or app only a short while later to find the price increased, perhaps even significantly, the concept of dynamic pricing is familiar.
Prices increase, or if a customer is fortunate, decrease in real time. Factors include demand, market conditions and competition.
Surge pricing when engaging the services of Uber Inc.’s rideshare division is another everyday-life example of the business strategy.
Dynamic pricing is not new to the trucking industry, but momentum is growing and may be at a tipping point in the less-than-truckload and third-party logistics segments, Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' CSCMP Edge 2025 conference attendees heard Oct. 6.
Brian Thompson, chief commercial officer at LTL pricing specialist , said he began using dynamic pricing as early as 2013. At the time, Thompson was vice president of pricing at YRC Worldwide.
Dynamic pricing has been around for a long time, including in some respect with backhauls, said fellow panel member Kent Williams, Averitt Express’ executive vice president of sales and marketing.
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In the past, such deals were LTL rates minus a discount, said Williams, but now the actual shipment cost is involved. “This is building cost with a margin,” he said.
“We’ve always been dynamic, even when you changed your pricing once or twice a year,” said Senior Vice President Revenue Management Joe Kniple. “There are a lot of definitions [of dynamic pricing]. It’s about going to a more granular level. I don’t think people know how much is already out there.”
Dynamic pricing can be especially useful in segments that developed significantly in the past decade or 15 years, Thompson said.
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“I think people will use it,” said Kniple. “Most of the carriers are embracing it. There’s motivation for carriers and 3PLs to embrace it.”
3PLs will follow carriers in something of an arms race, he noted.
“While this is by no means the only path forward, it is a path forward,” Williams said. “I think carriers would be wise to embrace it.”
Players that could benefit from instituting dynamic pricing in particular include LTL carriers looking to win linehaul business from parcel carriers or regional carriers interested in business with shippers involved in reshoring to Mexico, said panel master of ceremonies Geoff Muessig, chief marketing officer at .
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Or anyone wanting to win business related to anything involving a data center, added Williams.
Pittsburgh-based regional LTL carrier Pitt Ohio ranks No. 45 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 14 in the LTL space.
Averitt ranks No. 29 on the TT for-hire Top 100, No. 12 among LTL carriers, No. 19 in the truckload arena and No. 100 on the TT logistics Top 100.
However, dynamic pricing might not be the right practice for a large carrier with major shipping customers, SMC3’s Thompson said, though carriers with what he termed a more transactional approach could benefit from dynamic pricing,.
Dynamic pricing is a tool for carriers and shippers with unpredictable freight rhythms, the executive said.
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“Why it hasn’t taken off more is because change is hard,” said Thompson. “Its not one-size-fits-all.”
Carriers applying the practice must understand their shippers’ needs, said Kniple, whose employer ranks No. 19 on the TT logistics Top 100 and No. 4 among freight brokers.
“It’s not for everyone,” Williams said. Shippers may push back on budgetary or space issues, he said, although he expects shippers to benefit from greater options, particularly as they will now be able to use more carriers.
Quotes usually are good for about 10 calendar days. Therefore, dynamic prices typically change monthly, said Williams. “Just because the quote is given on Thursday, doesn’t mean we’re shipping on Friday yet,” he argued.
Carriers, meanwhile, can attract loads more suited to their network, said Williams. Adoption on the carrier side will benefit from the growing use of artificial intelligence.
“It’s going to be a long transition,” he said, but added: “I think its going to be good for all parties.”
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