OOIDA petitions Elaine Chao/Jim Mullen.

I'm not all for more government intervention or regulation, but I read this letter drafted by Todd Spencer of OOIDA, and I think it's a good start to amend some of the current rules that let brokers skirt around certain laws. One of the topics is about doing away with the clauses in rate confirmations that basically has the contractor/driver/owner-operator currently signing away all of his rights to view compensation between the shipper and broker. I'm all for that one myself. Among a few others...High time the playing field gets leveled.



https://cqrcengage.com/ooida/file/r...er Transparency Regulations 49 CFR §371.3.pdf

 

I don't haul cheap freight to begin with. I haul equipment, machinery, trucks, oversized, and buy/sell my own equipment for resale = profit. I just sit back and listen to the chatter about these dry van rates and flatbed as well, on how the brokers rip people off and wonder what can be done to fix the problem, that's all. I do occasionally use a brokered load to cover my costs to get to a certain point for my own good if I can make it make sense...but however I don't bow down to their crap. I deadhead first, because I can easily make it up on my other transactions. And my primary concern isn't "how much they make"...which is where a lot of people get butt hurt over a misconception on this subject; my concern is getting BS'd to my face, and I don't like that.

Multiple times I have loaded a machine and brought it to the owner, got talking to him and he brings up the question..."how much did they give YOU to haul this to me"? When we exchange that number, both of us are ticked off when we find out that we BOTH got ripped off. I know, I know, I didn't have to accept the load, yada yada yada...but that isn't the point. The point is, I took it after trying my hardest to "negotiate" with the jerk that posted the load in the first place, not being able to squeeze another 50 stinking bucks out of them even though I was trying to make it make sense at another $500.00 above the posted rate...then find out afterwards in conversation with the owner that the broker made a grand off of it, and in a lot of cases more than that on it. That fries my and ANY hard working, sensible man's butt every time. I don't look to play games, pinch pennies, or waste precious time dealing with some bozo that's scamming everybody out of hard earned, and deserving revenue.

So again...I couldn't care LESS what they make; I do care that it was wrong to lie, and to charge the customer one thing and pay the one doing all the bull work, another. If the shoe was on the other foot and you had me haul a bulldozer that you bought and used a broker, that charged you 2 grand to have me haul it and found out that I got $800.00 to do the job and they kept $1,200.00...if you are a sensible individual I'd assume that you'd be a little ticked off as well. You could have called me directly and we could have made that deal a lot more pleasant. That's my take on this topic, that's all. I can afford to deadhead anyplace I want to and constantly do, when I can't make the deal make sense. I don't live in a truck, I use it for a tool to generate revenue, and I'm not a slave to the system thank God. I know, I'm a little independent. Sorry.

I saw TWO loads last week that I would have liked to have grabbed off the loadboard to get me to the south to pick up a couple of pieces I need to get back to New England. Both loads posted by a company I have been doing plenty of business with for years, well known outfit out of Minnesota. BOTH loads, two separate "broker/agents" to deal with that I never spoke with before, refused my counter offers, stating "they can't be upside down with this one today, it's a new account". They fail to realize I knew where one of them was shipping from. I called the place and spoke to a friend that works there and asked what they would be willing to pay me to do it. I could have charged them $700.00 more than the broker was willing to pay ME...so there's your proof. Did I do the load? No. Broker found a sucker in 5 minutes to do it and it was gone. At least I got to keep my dignity, LOL. It's a gong show, that's all.

 

Reminds me of the old joke about the 2 Polish guys that went 1/2 on a truck and reefer to haul watermelons out of Florida, and haul them to Boston where they'd sell the melons themselves. They bought the melons for a dollar each, hauled them a thousand miles north, and sold them for a dollar each.

Six months later, they're broke and truckless. They're standing in a hobo jungle around the fire barrel and Stashu says to Stanislaw, "you dumb polock, I told you we shoulda bought a BIGGER truck".