Shippers don't need brokers?

Yessir...and I do have some handshake agreements with some customers and with my carriers. Hard to come by these days but I still believe in it and it's my money so I do it that way.
I had a very good and very old customer for many years. The man that ran transportation became a very good friend over the years. He retired last year and was replaced by a 28 year old guy that was very smart but just didn't understand that relationships were more important than contracts. I understand that.....I really do.....I miss hauling that freight some days.....

 

That ignore button works so well! And wicris: most people can't find their own customers because brokers have come in and underbid them. Funny thing is.. Truckers can go in and bid the freight at what the broker pays them and take away the loads from the broker. At least then everybody is on the same page. And doesn't need to count on things getting screwed up going through somebody else.

 

We do 3PL for a couple of shippers. Here are some of the things we put up with.(and the carrier has no idea they are not speaking to the shipper)


Well I know I submitted a rate sheet on the lanes but I now want to do the rate day to day.

That lane I bid on has tolls so now I want more money.

I can do that load you have on Monday but I can't pick it up until Thursday.

I can do that load you have Friday but I can't give you a rate until I see what I can get from someone else.

Can you hold that load for me? If I can't get anything better i'll call you back.

I can't commit to a lane because I never know when I will be available.

I want to run this lane every week. But when it slows at the other end I want a different lane.

This is why shippers give the freight out to a broker. Let someone else deal with these headaches.


There are good carriers out there but you do get tired of listening to the BS from the others.

 

just how did we survive for all of those decades with out the savior to trucking.. Brokers. Funny how we did rather well for almost a century with out you. And we can again today. Why even have a middle man? Except they talked shippers into that they are important. And take money that the shipper would pay the trucker into some brokers pocket..in other words.. Brokers are stealing money from truckers. Plain and simple

 

We survived(and I was there before deregulation)because the only way to get authority was to have a shipper plead your case to the ICC. And then the other carriers would protest it saying they could cover the shippers freight. Pretty easy to prosper when the government limits your competition. And when rates are published for all to see.

And we did have brokers then(no where near the number today)for exempt freight. Of course then,as today,no authority is need to broker exempt freight.

 

And today most truckers are not making it. Drive around the truckstops and see how many have lost everything and are living in their truck. When the repo man shows up they will be homeless. Why? Cheap freight, stupid people that don't have a clue on how much it costs to run a truck and people going into shippers and cutting the rates so that they can get people to haul it for even cheaper. And tomorrow you loose the shipper because another broker goes into the shipper offering to get the freight even cheaper. Does greed ring a bell? Or the broker that goes to a shipper telling them that they are a trucking company.. And have hundreds of trucks. We made good money with regulation.. As there wasn't all of this backstabbing . A bid on your freight may have been a penny a mile cheaper.. And today it's 50 cents or a dollar a mile cheaper. Since 1971 The rates on freight today if it kept up with inflation should be over 6 bucks a mile. Trucks cost 10 times more , drivers are getting less than 4 times as much.fuel is 14 times as much. And freight is being hauled for less than 2 times as much.. Why? Because it's all me.. I can do it cheaper.. And so what if I go broke.. Me,me,me. I can steal that load from the other guy and can find some idiot that calls it a back haul.. And will haul that cheap load. One day. I would like to put a load on the load board, where the trucker will pay me to haul this load.. And I bet I would get calls on the load to haul it.

 

And there were far fewer trucks. And route regulations made it very in-efficient. It wasn't a few days to get your product across the country but a few weeks.(except for exempt freight but it wasn't regulated. Imagine that) And shippers waited days,sometimes weeks for an available truck to PU.

I guess the only thing to agree about is that there are stupid people in this business. Some need the government to babysit them.

 

and fuel was $.38
And trucks got 3.5 mpg
and if a driver had a job he better keep it because the Megas weren't around to let "drivers" jump from job to job avery 4 months
and trailers were 43 feet long
and the weight limit was 73,280

and on and on and on.....

 

Here is another reason some of you drivers need brokers. You have no money to put fuel in need advaces all the time. Need quick pay because you can not wait to get paid in 30 days. And all the stuff i just said is a big reason why shippers will not deal with o/o . They are not the bank do not want to hear the bs why you are late. Truck broke down and you have no money to fix it it keeps going on and on. The guys that moan the most are the ones that do a bad job. As far as rate goes know your cost . Then if it does not pay just say no thank you.

 

there are factoring companies that will buy your invoice as soon as it is signed. Most also for their customers have a credit check company so you and they know who's going to pay and who doesn't. Some even have a fuel card that you can get on.. My friend uses them and they will front him the cash right after he gets dispatched and gets a confer nation number. Also he doesn't have to hunt down his money, or billing.. Everyone may be a little different and will do things for full time customers that they might not for a once in a while.