TQL - "What kind of a rate would you need to make that work?"

This all comes back to each side earning some respect with the other and treating each other the way they want to be treated. Understand not every load and rate will work for one side or the other. It is not personal, it is business. Move on to the next thing and treat each other with respect. More often than not your paths will cross again and it is much better to have a respectful past when working on things for the future.

 

How can you earn respect from someone that has no respect for you or what you do, and very little respect for themselves.

 

Personally i try my hardest never to call TQL to book my trucks. I will sit and wait through the day searching for another way to move my trucks. When I first started in this business I would always call on their loads. Quickly I learned they usually had the lowest rate out of anyone in whatever lane I was searching in. After having a couple of loads jerked from underneath me I was done using them. It's nothing new, many different people have commented on this practice they use. I think the thing that I find the most hilarious with them is that they never have the loads posted on where they are actually picking up from or going to. Whatever broker your talking with acts like its no big deal to just deadhead the truck around for a crapy rate, and then end up having to deadhead again when your empty. I would actually respect them more if they would just be honest on the load boards on where the freight is picking up from and going to. It's like they think that you can't just plug in whatever city the freight is picking up from, so they usually put the biggest city that they think you will recognize. Anyways enough complaining...

 

I actually booked my first load with TQL today. The agent actually paid what I believe to be a good rate IMO.
Load is picking up in MD going to MA...380 miles, $1500 to the truck. I actually know a direct shipper close to the delivery location so I won't really have any issues getting a decent rate out of there.

However I do agree TQL is probably the worst broker out there. Stay away from them unless they are willing to pay a good price and most importantly you're literally 5-10 miles away from the pick-up location. If the pick up location is more than say 10 miles...90% of the time they'll find another carrier who will haul it for cheap money and cancel the load and as you all probably know...it's nearly impossible to get TONU from them.

 

I can understand why some of you say TQL is your last resort. But think about this, if every carrier operated this way TQL would get nothing but calls from desperate people all out of options and willing to take a lesser rate. Stop doing that !!

I say you should either boycott them altogether (hard to do as many loads as they control) OR call them first. Yes, call TQL first when you have many other options, demand a high rate, stick to your guns.

A. they give you your rate - great !

B. they say no and you book a load with someone else - also great

C. they call you back upping their price or agreeing to your offer - dandy

D. you wind up calling them back and taking their price. - you aren't any worse off than calling them last

E. they book the load with some other goof who calls them desperate. - oh well

Call them first, clog up their phone lines with highball offers. put the screws to them !

 

Dead headed my truck from Pearsall, TX to pick up a load out of Laredo, TX for TQL. (Broker) Got load out of Laredo going to Kennett Square, PA. one pick one drop. (ME) How much does it pay? This is Friday and he wants to get out of the office so best I can remember he quoted something around 3600.00. So I quoted him back at 4500.00. (Broker) To much I can`t pay that, how about this amount ????. (Me) I said I can do it for 4300.00 and that is it. (Broker) OK you got it, load is ready if not it will be ready first thing in the morning. (Me) OK that is fine. I tell my driver to go on to Laredo and this I think is about 2:30 on Friday. When my driver gets to Laredo and calls TQL they tell him that there is another driver on this load. So I call them up and they said I was red flag because my insurance showed to expire on Tuesday of next week. I told that dispatcher (TQL Helper) never did get to talk to the dispatcher that gave me the load from the start; that this was all talked over at the time I got the load and TQL new about the dead line on my insurance. Anyways I call my insurance company and told them to fax TQL a copy of my renewal and they did. I had other TQL dispatchers calling me offering me loads going to other places so I new my insurance was ok. I will tell them that I was already under another load for TQL and they would come back to me saying that load had issues. They were right and I knew what it was. I just about got the load anyways because I told my driver to go on over to the shipper and maybe the other truck has not showed up yet. Well sure enough he had not but the load was not ready either. The guard took my drivers cell phone number and said he would call him when load was ready. Apparently the other driver had not got there yet because the guard took all my drivers info. I would have loaded the load but I had another broker call me with a hot load out of Laredo going to San Antonio that loaded asap and delivered by 11 pm. 157 miles (1000.00) could not turn it down and I knew if the other driver showed up before the load for TQL was ready TQL would give it to him I know. If I had not took the other load I would have got the load for TQL wheather they like it or not because my driver called me just as he got loaded with the load going to San Antono and said the guard called him on his cell phone and told him he could go on in to load. But as some say TQL is so big what do you do? Even though I got another load I am planning on giving a call to TQL on Monday if nothing happens and talking with one of the Superiors about the situation. I do know these dispatchers have someone over them.

 

Well I might have been wrong about TQL getting another truck because of the rate. They called me this morning just after posting this long post I did and gave me another load out of Laredo going within 2 miles of the other load I took going to PA yesterday. But I did have to call my insurance again this morning because TQL did not get proof of Insurance for 2014 yesterday.

 

Sure they did.....


Not the "giving you another load".


but just so happened to have a second one show up.

 

i just keep it simple not my price i dont take it. and when they say oh its not in this town its over here i laugh and say thats ok cause im texas not florida have a nice day.

 

This thread is twenty pages, and it's not the first and won't be the last.

What does not compute for me is why anyone would even consider doing business with any company that can't be straight up and fair from the beginning. If a broker does not want to be honest then I quickly put them on ignore. I could name several in that position.
Here's an example. Got a call from someone who had a load that I actually needed and would have possibly done for the rate offered. Except for one little problem, he didn't include the pickup and delivery information on the confirmation. I called him, he says to have the driver call him. No, if you want the load moved you send another conformation with the proper information and I will then dispatch the truck. Of course by then I was getting suspicious of these tactics and having second thoughts about hauling the load. He still wants the driver to call him. I just told him,this isn't going to work for me so the deal is off. He had something to say so I told him, I have one advantage,I own the truck so I decide what happens here and we are done. Five minutes later a broker that I trust called with a load to pick up same day. This guy is always straight up and pays better than market rate. I would have been tempted to cancel on the other screwballs anyway, although that's against my policy.
I have noticed that tql has started posting loads from my area lately. Obviously undercutting other peoples prices to get the loads and then trying to find trucks at bottom feeder rates to haul it. The shippers fall for it because they too want to reduce their shipping costs. So, the only way possible for them to keep the freight is for sombody who owns trucks to haul it. Not me. To do so would be like stealing from myself and all the other honest people in the area who have been hauling these loads for years. And anyone who does has just taken the knife to their own throat as well as others.