Will you/won't you work with a brand spanking new carrier?

It's my understanding the brokers have policies and procedures and getting to know a carrier doesn't really change what they can do. I'm guessing those policies and procedures come from people they do business with or vendors that provide insurance or legal protection, etc. I think you just need to get through your first 60-90 days and then more brokers can work with you. No, I don't know how you pay your bills until that wider group of brokers can work with you.

 

Depends. We work with new carriers in a lot of cases. We've got a set of established procedures we follow, but we're open to working with new folks within that. For me, it comes down to how I read the conversation we have pre-booking. I've gotten a pretty good sense these days of whether or not you're about to try and screw me over.

Every broker's different, and hell, every broker in this office is different. While we have our overarching policies that set a hard line for use/do not use, some of my colleagues have different criteria for what they'll find acceptable to work with. One of my colleagues will or will not use new guys depending on what the load is/its value. Another one won't use anyone with less than six months authority, and a minimum of at least one inspection. Some just stick strictly to the base policy. About half of my colleagues will also approach it by feel.

Ultimately, your odds of success in the current market will increase as a new entrant by: a) not have your home office be a falling down wreck or 1 of 350 businesses at the same address b) having had an inspection or two to prove that you do, in fact, actually have a truck c) being able to articulate, in one minute or less that you're a new entrant with decent equipment with x amount of industry experience and d) not being based in Glendale, California etc.

 

A lot of single owner/operators use their home address as their business address. I'm one of these. Basically, our truck is a mobile office as we travel around the country.

 

But....but....but....I'm too old for a spanking.... ....???

-- Lual

 

I understand why a broker would want an inspection. However I’ve been in business a year and a half and have never had one. “Outside of the annual inspection”
From my understanding the only way to get one would be to ask a dot officer to perform one and that’s at his discretion if he feels like it.
I mean I feel like it’s a positive that I’ve not been flagged for an inspection.

 

I agree. I had to send a broker a pic of my truck and plates, along with a pic of my CDL in order to get a load. I don't have any inspections either.

 

We explain to them the percentage of getting pulled in for an inspection is pretty low unless you have a bad safety score. At least this is what I was told.
Then they want to argue and tell us we can get any approved shop to do one, I try to explain shops only do annual DOT inspections not roadside.
Like if the reason they want one is to verify you actually have a truck and trailer wouldn’t an annual dot inspection surface. Have I been wrong this entire time do they only want an annual inspection?
Surely no…

 

Brokers are looking for roadside inspections because it indicates you are actually running trucks and that it isn't a double broker or some other type of scammer. These type of shady players are all over the market right now so anyone on the brokerage side is trying to be as careful as possible.

 

Yeah, I'm aware. I'm not saying it's perfect- I also don't know if OP is running a single truck or multiples, or any of that. But if you've got twenty trucks under your name when we look, and your office looks like it's about one good kick from blowing up and making the news for a meth lab explosion, odds are pretty good that you aren't, in fact running twenty trucks.

Normally I'd agree with you about that. But as @JimmyTwoTimes notes - it's just a potential indicator that there is in fact a potential asset attached to your company. The inability or unwillingness of the powers that be to do anything about the double brokering out there means we have to get creative in how we approach it. And if there's an actual inspection or two, then it saves us from a Friday afternoon fall off, or a pissed off driver coming back after our customer because one of the Glendale buddies decided to stiff them.

It's the world we live in, unfortunately. Hopefully there'll be a push by someone with some teeth to clean these guys up. Until then, we've all got to be prepared to ask and be asked what would otherwise be silly questions.