“The brokers make too much”

Bingo. Then its off the load board to a dedicated carrier and you dont even have a chance to bid on it anymore.

 

I'm not saying rarely is wrong, but it is something we do quite a bit. Especially with the smaller one location type customers who want to always be very competitive. So, brokers are not necessarily lying when they say that.

 

1. It would keep them in check.
A few weeks ago, you seemed surprised in another thread, that people are taking freight from North East which is paying not much more than 1.10 - 1.20 per mile going anywhere back West. Trying to get a load out of there for much more than that is a daunting task. Instead of trying to convince you that this is what they pay because this is what they actually got from shippers, I'd show you one of the rate con, on which you would see Baltimore, MD - Kenosha, WI Shipper to Broker :$1350.

2. It'd bring more dynamics to negotiation table in favor of carriers.
Anyone new to Baltimore market seeing that figure and the broker trying to sell it for $900 would plainly reject it, demand more, or would start to convince the broker to give him that for $1300, but they would not start with $850 as their initial offer.

3. Eliminate earlier mentioned ignorance. Yes, this would be of little use if 100 carriers were competing for the same load. I guess it could go even for as little as 500 but at least they would see what is bringing the rate down...they could protest only against themselves.

4. Brokers would be off the hook.

 

getting transparency for the loads going through brokers is about as realistic as getting truckers to stop dumping pee bottles at Wal-Mart. It won't happen. Besides it isn't the broker's fault. It is your fellow trucker willing to accept that dirt cheap load. So if XYZ broker puts a load up at 1200 miles and 1200.00. If no one takes it. Broker will have to raise the rate to get the load moving. But if Jim Bob trucker wants to get home and not just deadhead takes that load they'll keep showing up on the boards.

The broker is a business person trying to make as much profit as you. Are you saying that if they offered you a 15.00 per mile load you'd refuse it? Because you'd be making too much profit. Heck no. You'd jump right on that load and hammer down.

 

IF on a given day there were 10 trucks competing for the load then yes. But on odd day, If I was there alone and he calls me ans says $1350 is all I got in it, I'd believe him. Not only that, I'd tell him...well my dear broker, sorry but for me to take it you gotta give me 2000... then he says...What kind of a greedy animal are you..I got wife, kids to feed too...Now depending how ruthless you are, you will choose how to play it on.

 

You couldn't pay me 3 dollars a mile both ways to go to the northeast. Taking freight at less than breakeven, out of anywhere to anywhere, is not going to help anybody anywhere. "At least it pays for fuel" is let's go broke thinking.
Seeing what the broker is charging out of a "dead area" is not going to do anything to raise the rates out of there.
You're still going to have ignorant people taking dirt cheap freight just to be moving and make their truck payment.
Brokers wouldn't be off the hook, they're not on the hook now, they don't give a #### what you think of how much they make.
You need the broker, the broker doesn't need you, he can find a thousand other trucks to haul it.
You really need to listen to what we've been telling you, more regulations is not going to do what you're thinking. Go out, get your own customers, do whatever the hell it takes to keep them happy and doing business with you, and see what you think that work is worth at the end of the day.

 

Transparency would create a race to the bottom among brokers and it would drive the shipper - brokers rates down too.
At some point, carriers would be told, what they are told often today too. "That's all I go in it." Depending on the capacity, some carriers would fall off the game and so would fall off some brokers.
When there is less carriers and brokers or more freight available, the rates would go back up. The pendulum would be swinging the way it is now, maybe a little faster.

Transparency will only catalyze the process into faster pace.
Transparency would be like having an ace up your sleeve, if you are a carrier.
That's all.

 

A few posts earlier @FoolsErrand, your camp pundit, already mentioned ignorance as a detrimental characteristic of the carriers underbidding each other. I agree with him.
What about a situation when on an odd day there is Wilma Flinstone in Baltimore, MD where she had never been before, and she starts bidding from 900 instead of 1350, because she did not know any better?
Maybe it would be worth it just to eliminate the ignorance.