“The brokers make too much”

You guys seem to get pretty heated over this stuff.

This is all theoretical. Nobody has the power to do anything.The government moves at a snail's pace to begin with and unless you have billions of dollars to hire lobbyists nothing is ever going to change.

A lot of you feel that it's best to have a blind negotiation that you have no idea how much money is there to negotiate on. I disagree.

Like I've said before that doesn't mean you can't be a great negotiator. It doesn't mean you can't get the rate that you want. It doesn't mean you can't make a good living.

But if it were transparent you are looking at the whole pie, not just a piece that is offered to you.

You guys remind me of Jay Leno. Jay Leno is famous for not having a manager.

When he negotiated his contract with NBC for the tonight show they asked him what he wanted. He asked them what they wanted to pay him.

They slid him a piece of paper that had an amount written on it and he said OK that sounds great.

Did he make money? Yes. Did he do well for himself? Sure.

How much money was on that table that he never got?

A MASSIVE AMOUNT.

An experienced manager would have known how big the pie was and his slice would have been much larger. MUCH LARGER.

The reason for that is because knowing how large the pie is lets you know how large your slice is- irregardless of what they tell you. Nobody has to tell you anything because you can see it.

It's OK, NBC made a boatload of money off of him and he did not get what he was worth.

It's the same idea with the brokers.

And remember before you get yourselves all riled up this is all theoretical. Everybody's gotta negotiate and do what they have to do because the rules are not going to change. It is what it is.

Go have a beer or relax with the lady friend for a while.

Getting wound up over things that have 0 chance of changing is kind of silly.

 

Yeah we get a little heated, you're "just talking," only because nobody with any power to do anything about it has listened to you, about stupid regulations that will drive rates down even further and trash this industry.
Seriously, none of what has been proposed here would do anything long term to fix your complaints, and doubt for a minute any of you are really "just talking" intentionally.

 

You assume that the money was all it was worth to Leno, not the actual showmanship and the audience. So he might have been rolling in a great return. For what had value to him. I've taken lower pay in the past for a job I loved vs a job I hated. So could Leno have made more money. Sure. Did he want or need more money. No. So he was happy.

You've no reason to get the transparency from the broker. Just like he's got no reason to see your operations cost. You gonna open all that up to him? Sure broker it costs me xx per mile to move that load. Here are my books to prove it.

It's the same reason we don't see how much Walmart paid for that TV from China we just bought. IF we wanted to pay less we'd shop around. Not complain that Walmart charged too much and wouldn't show us their profit on the TV.

 

Ok someone posted this in another thread. I don't see how the wording above makes it transparent. It says must keep records of transactions with the motor carriers. That the carriers have a right to review that transaction. That this gives them the chance to see their cut. How? Broker gets paid by Shipper for the load. Broker pays Trucker for the load. Two different transactions. If I was a broker I'd show the transaction to the trucker no problem. Here you are. You took a shipment for me 2300 miles. I paid you 4600.00 for the load. "but what about your pmt from the shipper?" That isn't OUR transaction. That is a separate transaction. Unless I am not getting something.

OOIDA pushes Congress for full transparency in broker transactions

 

@Dino soar

Lets cut to the chase. The broker would be happier if the trucker made zero and the trucker would be happier if the broker made zero.

What is relevant, is can either of them pull it off? Who has who over a barrel?

Load to truck ratio -not transparency- is what dictates who can get away with what and by how much.

A desperate broker will kick in cash out of pocket to move a load. A desperate trucker will kick in cash [run below break even] to run a load. Load to truck ratios tell us who is desperate and who can hold out for even more.

Lets try transparent trucks. If you as a trucker have terrible finances and the broker knows it, does that force you to take his load at a loss if there are 5 others that pay a profit? No, not even a little. Loads are competing for your deck space and the informed broker is powerless against you because of the competing loads.

The broker can taunt you about finances all day, youre not gonna cave and pull his dollar crap when theres a few $2 loads nearby. So his knowledge of your finances is moot, its a gun full of blanks. its the availability of alternative loads that matters to a trucker. You will probably blacklist this antagonistic Dbag broker and block his calls.

Unless there are no other loads! Then the whole game changes and youre over the barrel because of loads, not information. He doesnt have to remind you of your finances to get you to take the load when he has the only one in town all week and there are ten other trucks posted at petro.


But lets just say congress passes a bill and brokers must show their hand. Say i am a broker with palletized river rock out of colorado headed to NC. Ive got to disclose that ive got $3200 in it but everyone knows getting back east from CO sucks. Its 1550 miles, i put it up for $1700. You call me up and say youll run it for $3k. I say no chance, you start complaining how much im making... *click* i hang up the phone on you mid sentence. Why? Because theres 3 loads back east in a hundred mile radius and 26 trucks posted on DAT. When you call back i dont even answer. The ball is in my court because the load to truck ratio. Not because you know what im making. Im a broker, i have no shame.

The desperate trucker still has to make his payments no matter how much i make off his back. And soon, he will call and cave to $2000. so i keep my lines open.

What crushes brokers is when there are lots of loads and no trucks. Then the trucker gets to play meet my price or i hang up.

 

Now why is this basic principle so difficult for people to understand?

 

I dunno, i just try to be patient and help find analogies that make it clearer.

 

In June-July states open up, freight picks up and everyone stops caring about this broker issue until the next market downturn