How to get contracts/shippers

I dont think your gonna get alot of responses this is a competitive business and your new.No one is gonna tell you how to steal their customers.You just have to call shippers in your area but you have to learn before you quote a price.My suggestion is learn your area and where the shippments are going.You can under sell or over price yourself.So just go with the dispatchers if you want but i would still learn how to get loads on your own and what they pay.

 

Zero to 1 year experience? You put the cart before the horse. It's always better to have some idea of what you're going to haul and where it's coming from BEFORE buying a truck and getting operating authority. Too late for that now, best thing you could do at this point is get access to some load boards and figure this out by the seat of your pants. Very few shippers out there have time to waste dealing with a 1 truck show. Might happen in your case but extremely unlikely considering asking such basic questions in the first place. This is where some actual experience behind the wheel of someone else's truck for a while would've saved you from the headache you're suffering now.

 

When you say a "dispatch fee" are you talking about dispatch services? If you want to get direct business then you need to start knocking on doors and making phone calls. You should have a rate in mind before making your first call. Most shippers prefer dealing with carriers with a number of trucks, but you never know. Some shippers deal with brokers, but many with whom I talk would rather deal direct with the carrier. You will likely need to subscribe to some of the loadboards to get started. And if a carrier states that they pay 85% that means that they are keeping 15%.

 

There is also a downside to having a direct customer. If you do score a deal with someone and they get you on something steady, say one load a week or every other week, and you can roll with that, that could work. Now, however, you are beholden to that customer. What happens when you can't take the load for the week? May not go over well. Remember the reason why they want to deal direct with you, they can call YOU, know what kind of job YOU do, what they are paying for, and have some regularity. If you begin having to turn down loads for any reason, they will need to again, go out and find a truck. I find using the brokers (I am a one truck show) I have all the flexibility in the world to say yes or no on loads based on anything at all. Not my problem to find a truck to cover the customer's load. If you dislike the customer you can just not haul for them anymore, no hard feelings. Once you show the brokers you have a high quality service, you will have no problem with repeat business. Do you have your own trailer? If no, look at the freight that is moving around you. I know up in WA/ID there is lots of apples/onions/potatoes I think even cherries at the right time for reefer freight. There is loads and loads to haul out of there. If you had been doing it as a company driver before, perhaps you could of learned who the loads are getting booked through. The rates for various destinations. How quick do they need it run, etc. The best times of year to be where. You really need to follow the money. If you want to lease to a carrier that says they pay 85%, keep in mind it may not be all direct freight. It might be what broker pays, then their 15% off of that. Now you have a lot of hands in the pie for a load. Best of luck to you.

 

Not necessarily a bad thing though, just puts added pressure on to get the right rate before moving. Which in my case means I normally have to get more money on a load to equal out the same rate per mile as someone independant would likely ask for if they expectecd the same as me out of loads. Now that's a scenario wher all things are equal between me and another likeminded independant, he has the ability to haul for less than me, and still make a solid rate and profit. You can't really get mad at something like that, actually I respect it. If they get a good rate and beat me, good for them, and better luck next time. It's not the same thing as an outright idiot who hauls for half the going rate. This makes me push aggresively on rates many times beyond what I think sometimes is even possible but then to find out well, maybe not. And I've never really known a situation where I was against any independant, I'm mostly bidding against trucks that are just like mine, likely that "versus an indy" scenario is just a figment of my imagination.. ..but that is how I look at it.

 

As an O/O with authority, you CAN get yourself a good load-board and book your own loads,, I mean, why pay someone to find the same loads you can find. And you can get the rates you want from the brokers without paying some middleman.
Also,, if your interested in brokering your own loads,, get your brokers lic. and hit those shippers, that way you will get the FULL amount of the brokered load versus, what the brokers want to pay,, example,, the shipper is paying lets say $3.00 a mile, the broker will pay you $2.00 a mile,, the broker makes $1.00 a mile off of you taking his brokered load.

If you need help PM me I'll give you my contact info.

 

Yeah but don't make the mistake in thinking that broker didn't have to work for that $1.00 a mile ASSUMING that is what they got. And who can prove they all make a $1 a mile or more. Now surely some do, but all? Very unlikely. In fact I'd guess most of them don't. If they have a good contract that pays well they'll pay a fair rate to get it handled properly so they don;t lose it. You do realize lots of cheap loads might not have much more than the offered rate of $1.30-$1.50 due to the competitive nature of the business, cut-throat brokers are no different than truckers, they might move a hundred loads a day that have a $1.75 in them and only make 25 cents a mile off the load. They cut the rate from other brokers who needed more. That's how and why bricks, paper, cola, beer and other bulk unimportant consumer goods get bid down so easily and always end up being cheap unless in some rare instance a broker is in a bind with the shipper. Then they will just take profit from 10 other loads to make one move at a good rate.. If you get what you need to make a profit what difference does it make how much the broker gets anyways? As was pointed out getting the FULL amount from shippers sounds great, and in many cases surely it is, but it's not all peaches and cream. There is VALUE in hauling good paying freight from good brokers who pay well and leaving them to worry about covering the loads in their contract.

 

WOW! Im glad I found this thread. I am an O/O with a couple trucks and recently just bought another one for dirt cheap (paid for, but not even home yet) and so far I have been leased to a carrier. This 3rd truck I want to go out on my own after buying a flatdeck. What is the most profitable flatdeck to have? I have a couple good leads on quality loadboards and I am looking to start there. I have heard that just hanging around the Ritchie Bros. Auctions will get me some pretty good loads...anybody heard of anyone doing this?

 

As a former broker and one-truck carrier I can tell you that the chances of dealing with a direct major shipper are slim to none. Even if you do land a direct shipper they will throw the cheapest and most ridiculous rate at you unless they really need a truck at that moment that you call them. As a one-truck carrier dealing with brokers is actually easier than dealing with a shipper. Most brokers make their profit on volume more than they do off of commission. In very RARE cases they might make 50% or more off the load but it is few and far between. A lot of the smaller brokers are up against heavy competition and just can't offer what the bigger ones can. A dispatch service charging 10% is too high. Most charge 5% or 50.00 to 75.00 per load and some of them do a worse job than you can do by yourself. The trick to finding good loads is to look at the load densities section and see if the number of loads in one state outnumber the number of trucks going in. You can post your truck in the busy zones and brokers will call you every minute and you can almost name your price. You should always post your truck anyway regardless of what area you are in since there might be a broker looking for a truck at the last minute. It is all spot market rates. The more they need you the higher they are willing to pay. If you have broker authority one advantage you will have is that you can look on the carrier loadboard and see how much other carriers are quoting brokers on the outbound loads. That will be one guide that can help you to lessen your chances of overpricing or underpricing yourself.The best way to figure out your pricing is to figure out your cost-per-mile first which can fluctuate along with the fuel prices. Than figure in how much you need to average per mile above that to pay yourself. For example if your cpm is 1.10per mile and you want to pay yourself .40cents per mile than you need to average 1.50 per mile. The more miles you run in the year the lower your cpm goes. When fuel is averaging 4.00 a gallon than your average should be 2.00 per mile give or take. By average I dont mean every load will pay 2.00 per mile. You might find some loads that pay nearly 4.00per mile and some that pay 1.20per mile plus the deadheading in between. It is all about connecting the dots. Hope this helps.