Rate cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic have brought the often-turbulent relationship between freight brokers and truckers into the public eye recently. The federal government has said that it is looking in to allegations of misconduct by freight brokers, but says that there haven’t been many.
Some truck drivers accuse freight brokers of taking fairly-priced loads and posting them on load boards for starvation rates. In a highly unusual move, the president and CEO of the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) responded to criticism by posting a video on YouTube. In it, he called critics “snake oil salesmen” and said that truckers – not brokers – are responsible for low-paying freight. He then resigned a few weeks later saying that he had accomplished everything he had been hired to accomplish.
Acting Administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Jim Mullen, spoke briefly about the agency’s plans regarding investigations in freight brokers. At the Truckload Carriers Association Virtual Safety And Security meeting on Tuesday, Mullen told virtual attendees that the FMCSA is moving forward with investigating allegations of misconduct. However, according to Overdrive, Mullen said that FMCSA has received “maybe five to ten allegations.”
The investigations are limited to only the alleged misconduct that FMCSA considers to be within its scope. If a broker is trying to avoid abiding by existing federal regulations, FMCSA will investigate. But they aren’t planning on addressing misconduct that isn’t already addressed by existing law.
Source: overdrive, truckersreport
Telling a broker that he has to tell you what the load pays him would be like telling a car salesman he has to tell you what he paid for the vehicle, I don’t see how the government could make that happen.
Brokers are already required to do so on request it shows how much you know.
Ive been trucking for 20yrs. That has to be one of the most ridiculous comments Ive ever read. We’re all “required” to do alot of things we dont do. And one of the things brokers NEVER do is tell you what the load pays them. Is this your 1st week in trucking? 😂
Truth however there is a Transparency law. However that would just open the doors to allow brokers the information on what your operational cost is. A BIG can or worms that needs to bed closed
They allready know what these trucks get for mph & most of the Broker firms have their own fleet of trucks.
Just because you’ve been trucking 20 years, doesn’t mean you are not clueless…Since 2012 that law exists. Educate yourself before you sound ignorant and cocky.
49 CFR 371.3
Yes they may have to show you something doesn’t mean it’s true.
Actually most broker contracts have you sign away your right to the transparency law….read what you sign.
👍
that’s right
All of this is nothing but a scam to take our money because they or the people doesn’t respect us trucker even the dispatch on our job. The president is just talking but not doing nothing for us trucker. If I was the president I will lock them up for taken truckers money. Our job is already useing us & taking our money & the law ant doing nothing about that. With the FMCSA IT SHOULD be retired truck driver in the FMCSA. That’s already no about trucking
Well maybe you need to find you a stand up freight broker
I doubt there are many. The mega carriers control the rates in a lot of these situations and when you have 20,000 trucks, even if all you’re earning is $10 a truck off of these lanes, you’re still turning a profit. It’s the Owner Ops and smaller trucking companies that can’t compete under those conditions.
It’s supply and demand in the raw unfettered by financial regulation that drives freight rates into the dirt. The culprits are, Congress, the Senate, and the Oval office. Not many of you were there, but once upon a time, trucking tried to ham fist a takeover of the government. It was called the 70s. Our government devised an insidious plan called deregulation, and truckers ate it like it was soup. Trucking has been the sh ts ,ever since. It will never happen again, The End.
AND I BELIEVE REAGAN HAD HIS HAND IN THAT MESS
That was well before Reagan
Jimmy Carter owns deregulation. Big push from JB Hunt and Schneider National at the table getting it done. By the time 1985 rolled around,the driver felt the full extent of that screw job.
Exactly
Strike was 1972. Trucking industry was deregulated in 1989. The trucking Industry is still the most regulated industry in North America
It’s supply and demand in the raw unfettered by financial regulation that drives freight rates into the dirt. The culprits are, Congress, the Senate, and the Oval office. Not many of you were there, but once upon a time, trucking tried to ham fist a takeover of the government. It was called the 70s. Our government devised an insidious plan called deregulation, and truckers ate it like it was soup. Trucking has been the scoots, ever since. It will never happen again, The End.
You don’t have to haul it if you think you are getting screwed , if you would buy less fake Crome and drive like you had a brain you can still make money just don’t take the cheap loads or go where you can’t get freight back out.
Damn right. Rates are down because trucker’s haul it for nothing. I don’t deal with brokers but if they can take a $1500 load and get somebody to haul it for $300, who is the real problem?
The simple fact that IF the actual rate is 1500 and the load is offered at 300, the brokers ARE gouging and causing an artificial ” over capacity” market. When brokers have placed a waiver to 371.3 in the rate con, they are knowingly stealing money out of drivers pockets. Sure the owner operator can work for someone else but until enough drivers pull their heads out of the sand and write a letter of complaint sent DIRECTLY to Jim Mullen at the FMCSA with the rate cons highlighting the waiver to 371.3, the issue will continue.
Nailed it
The illegals Cubans.
Well election years are always tough for most industries because know one knows what will happen till the election is over. If the incumbent wins well, we’ll the industry’s know what to expect, if there is a radical change and someone new gets elected then the turmoil begins again. It’s a crazy election year and the variables that happened sent the whole routine of adjusting to freight Available into a whole new level of uncertainty.
Theres alot of bad freight brokers out there. It got better when they raised the brokers bond amnt but to me truckers are their own worse enemy. (And yes Im a trucker) until truckers stand together and demand change it will never happen. With this covid situation people are just not buying as much stuff. People are unsure of what the future holds. Lots of folks suffering out there. I think even if the rates are down we should consider ourselves lucky because no matter whats going on in the world we can still get out there and make money. Im no fan of freight brokers but we cant blame them for everything. You have to draw the line on what you settle for on a load and if you’ve put youself in a position financially that you cant weather the storm thats your own fault. Theres a reason why you see all those signs on trucks that read Say no to cheap freight. Problem is you say no and some goofball comes right along behind you and takes it for $1.50/mi. We get played against each other everyday and it never changes because we allow it to happen. Too many people with the mentality that its better to take a terrible rate than let the truck sit. Who’s really to blame for that?
Amen you make your own problems or your own profit
Is cheaper I save money just letting the trucks it.
They should start with TQL.
TOTAL QUALITY LOGISTICS.
BEGINNING WITH FRAUDULENT POSTS WHERE FREIGHT /LOADS ARE ADVERTISED ABOVE CURRENT RATES AND THEN TAKING THE LOWEST BID FROM CALLERS PUT ON LONG PHONE HOLDS. AND INCLUDE THE SCAM WHERE THEY SOLD TRUCKERS INFORMATION AND PAYMENT DATA TO PARTIES ATTEMPTING TO FISCHE INFO AND STEAL DOT NUMBERS ACCOUNTS AND PAYMENT INFORMATION TO THE HIGHEST BIDER AND THEN SAID IT WAS A FIRE WALL BREECH AND NOT THIER FAULT. IT WAS A HACK. THEY ARE THE MOST UNSCRUPULOUS BROKERAGE I HAVE EVER SEEN.
Our company hauls open deck. TQL is actually really fair on that side. We found reefers, dry van are horrible.
Lol tql are thieves pure and simple been caught multiplt times. Tons of companys won’t haul their trash.
Why are owner operators still taking TQL Loads, this is where everyone should come together and boycott TQL, until they go out of business, or make a change
When a broker calls you an ask you to give them a Quote going to wherever please don’t give them a Quote just ask them how much does a low pay if it’s not at least $3 a mile then hang up the phone.
If that are looking for “one” broker and not for his/her affiliates, off course they are not seen to many. Dahh.
They do it all the time its the norm. They are all dirty and think they’re doing nothing wrong. They will tell you the load is $2000 while they are getting $3000. It’s a dirty game and I wish we can do away with them.
Telling me it is a duplicate copy for my comment. What hell?? By!!
Why don’t the truck drivers who are unhappy, open their own Co-Op style brokerage, then they can control it. Sure wouldn’t be difficult to do.
Listening to how hostile these truck drivers are to each other it’s no wonder we can’t all band together to try to form a coalition. Everyone has been driving longer then the next and has x amount of experience so the screw you attitude is prevalent throughout the industry. I see it at truck stop, I see it on the road and I’m seeing it here on these posts. Truckers WILL NEVER BAND TOGETHER. Just way to much ego and better than you attitudes. A Co-Op will workout starting region by region but as I said, to many know it all Truckers to band together. To bad.
It’s getting scary how big the fmcsa “special police” are.
All this other driver/ broker stuff is bs.
Look at the big picture.
Zig Heil.
” You show me yours,……I’ll show you mine ! “
Well, when a brokerage firm gets paid on a load with double rate to include return empty backhaul and they only are listing the load for the front haul rate and pocketing the other what is it called? It’s my fuel, my maintenance, and my expense and you think you deserve half the money plus your percentage? That’s stealing and it’s exactly what Quality Carriers was doing with the Inwood WV Proctor and Gamble loads from KC. Proctor was giving them 11k for the load and they were dispatching it at 5k and then taking 35% out of that. They do that all the time. Stuff like that needs to be stopped!
It’s called capitalism. If the load doesn’t pay what you think it should, don’t take it. Why do you want the government involved even more? If you think the government can fix this you should probably sell your truck and drive for one of the big companies. The problem with the trucking industry is the truck drivers.
I’ve been in trucking for almost twenty-eight years I have learned that everyone has an opinion on the industry . But I believe like a lot of Experian truckers because when you’ve been in business long enough you will understan and know what your expense cost and what you should and should not be accepting the problem you will always have God was coming into the industry wanting to be they all boss and make money and no one can fault them for that well most of the time they don’t have enough money to carry them true play all they can do is run run run and scared to not accept it.not realizing that if they take a cheap run most likely it’s going to be a downfall for them if it does not make them money anyway especially if something mechanical happens (3) major factors here (1). drivers not financially back to say no to a cheap run thinking about truck note maybe (2). And experience in there operational costs.(3) sometime you can make money but not make money what I mean is just because you got a run and think you’re making money doesn’t mean you actually are Know your numbers and where you at for reloading Dead heading will break you every time you deadhead you’re subtracting from your numbers remember that. Keep your Head on a swivel and be safe.