What are the issues with brokers?

Trust me i totally understand the situation you are in. Im sitting here in the office today trying to cover a load because the carrier i had on it broke down. Im offering 1200 over my contracted rate and just finally got a truck under it. We are in a messy business with so many moving parts, seems like it should be so easy but for some reason its just not.

 

Nope, and if I cant understand them I make up a polite excuse like im in a bad service area so it's hard to hear ya. It's like when you call AT&T or similar nowadays and get a foreigner but with wind, traffic, AC, and engine noise in the background. Like I always say if you are a broker don't call the driver, thats what dispatch is for...Dispatch has my location via ELD/Tracker to provide and with less things going on around him for him to concentrate on highly broken English. In a perfect world which doesn't exist it's supposed to go as follows: Shipper>Broker>Dispatch>Driver>Dispatch>Broker>Shipper and Customer>Broker>Dispatch>Driver>Dispatch>Broker>Customer or any other combo but dispatch to driver to dispatch should NEVER change for driver safety and drivers sanity. A broker calls a driver a million times a day with broken English going through NY, LA, LV, Chi Town, DAL, and HOU will piss any driver off. Another thing to point out...if I HAVE to talk to the broker and the broker is yelling at me because I will not drive on HWY 9 between NM-NV because I-40, I-80, I-70 are shut down due to weather and HWY 9 is 100x worse than those closed roads or expect me to go all the way down to I-10 up to Reno from Louisville KY and expect me to get there the same time is absolutely ridiculous! I will get there when it's safe to do so, and probably not when you expect me to show up because guess what if the roads are blocked I can't move and if I can move it'll probably be around 25-45 mph for my safety and if there is an alternative route it'll take longer to get to the D/O and while we are trying to make it to the D/O seeing hundreds of trucks and cars on the shoulder, in the ditches, avoiding them spinning out as well as ourselves and holding in a restroom break for hours and hours because of being rushed or no safe or empty place to pull into, IN THE PROCESS of driving through all that we get a broker constantly calling who wants to constantly complain and threaten to lower the rate con all I can say is it's a good thing you sit behind a desk and I sit behind a steering wheel, and because of the lack of understanding everything I just went over I think it should be required that brokers either have 2 years trucking experience or ride with a driver at least 3-4 times a year so they have some clue why things are the way they are.

 

Bro i've been saying this. Brokers should ride with a driver and drivers should sit with a broker. It would clear things up and everyone would have a much better understanding of the process.

 

Absolutely total BS. I also hear, "If dispatch rode with drivers for one week each year, they'd get it." Also, total BS. S-T-F-U and just do your job without lies, lies of omission, misleading statements and the like. Be frigging HONEST at ALL times, regardless of the fallout. THAT would bring better understanding and even some respect.

You folks are parasites, plain and simple, perfectly suited to sell crappy used cars to naive military recruits or college students. I don't know how y'all live with yourselves, frankly.

 

I digress. I sleep just fine at night on my pillows made of money that I skim from all the hard working truck drivers.... Come on man. Chill out and stop telling people to ####. Mods will come and get you too.

You know all the real customers out there, the ones who actually control the freight and decided who gets to make money, they dont want to work with folks who are hot headed and aggressive, demand things or hold loads hostage, cry about everything under the sun, nickel and dime over everything, extort them for high rates, or give 101 excuses why they are late. IF you move 500 loads a week, you dont want to deal with 500 drivers, you want to find someone reliable you can give 100 loads to and let them deal with the aforementioned problems. Point its they dont have time or resources to deal with you unless you have enough trucks and can provide them the level of customer service they need. Most carriers can not do that.

My advise is stop booking loads with trash brokers. Find a few good ones and provide them excellent service and you wont have a problem. I cant help TQL and the Armenians are terrible to work with, but then again i dont book loads with them or run their freight.