Shippers don't need brokers?

Why would you factor and give away % to a factoring companies. You complain about brokers taking money then you want to give away so you can get your money fast. How about this run your trucking business right. Get your own freight have the capital to buy fuel pay drivers cover all your over heads and wait for your money. Yes i do know what it cost to run a truck. I bet you have no idea what it cost you per-mile

 

This has all been very interesting reading and goes right back to what I have been saying for years - most O/O's don't have a clue about the busines they are in. And I have been saying that if they start acting like business people first and realize that driving the truck is just a task then all would be much farther ahead.

I have talked with people that have been in the business for 6-months with a far better understanding of it than people that have been driving for 20-years. Educate yourselves people.

 

That is about right Bigbadbill. You ask most o/o what the cost per mile to do business is and they have no clue. They make the rate up as they go and wonder why they are still sitting in a area when they are asking $3 pm and the rate in that area is $2 pm.

 

Why would I factor? First they will tell me if you are a crook or not. That alone is worth me paying that 4% . Because if you are a good company.. Then I would haul your load and know I'm getting paid. I'm tired of seeing people get screwed by people.. Like this guy that was brokered a load.. That should have been a team load.. So they took 3000 off the bill for being late.. And the broker didn't even have a broker authority or a bond. And that 4% what is 4% of nothing if you don't get your money ? But every broker is as honest as God himself aren't you?

 

So that's why you take that 2.50 a mile freight and broker it off at 90 cents... But you'll make it up in miles?

 

thirdreef no one will pull your load for 90 cents per mile. If they do shame on them .Cheaper to dead head. As you seem to know everything lets test you. What are your fixed cost pm. What are you variable cost pm.What profit margin do you need to make your business viable. These are the basic tools to turn a profit with a truck.Not to be rude but you seem just angry at everyone.

 

Business isn't some mysterious alchemy alluding the O/O. buy low, sell high, generate more revenue than expenses. pretty simple. TQL understands business quite well, JB Hunt and Swift understand business.

What I am reading here suggests to me brokers feel 10-15% of loads really isn't that much and they deserve it because brokering is difficult and time consuming.

But for me, 10-15% quickly becomes too much when it is easier for me to book directly. Booking a load is also just a task and for the carrier it is hardly more difficult to book the load with the shipper than it is to book it with a broker.

But it is not even so much about understanding MY business, or understanding a broker's business, it is about understanding the shipper's business. Each of which is unique.

If a shippers need is 30 trucks next week as cheap as possible that is not a good match for me.

If a shipper has a load their current carrier network is having difficulty covering, constantly delivering late, trucks not showing up, etc.... I may be able to provide some value to them.

If a shipper has loads which require special attention in loading, securement, delivery, etc... I am likely going to be able to offer them a solution broker's and large carrier's can't.

I can tell you what is not good business, it not good business to let the average rate for the lane I'm in determine my rates as Davee suggests. If I ran based on what broker's think the rate is, I'd probably be out of business in less than two years. Or at least making less than I could as a company driver.

What I find interesting here is broker's insistence that O/O's are unreliable, don't know what they're doing, etc... And who do you send to pickup your customer's loads ? How exactly does that sales call work ? You tell the shipper how terrible it is to deal with O/O's directly and they should surely hire you to get these non-showup, lazy, stupid O/O's for them. doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.

 

My experience has been that once you are on a shipper's list as A CARRIER. You are very rarely kicked off of it unless you miss an appointment or screw up a load. Shippers want me to continue to bid their work for when they can't find someone cheaper. As a broker, I'm sure you do get kicked off of lists pretty easily. Doesn't surprise me.

The other interesting phenomenon I have witnessed is shippers will often pay me more than a broker, not less as was suggested earlier. It's pretty simple, when you have two bids, one is from someone with a truck ready to send that you know will do the job, and another from a broker who might send a truck whom you've never worked with before, who do you hire ? pretty simple.

 

one reason is that you are not just a voice on the phone.. But a face to face when you haul that shippers load.. So if any problems they know you by your face.. Not some voice on the phone. Big difference.. And they know that you have a vested interest in a working partnership, owning your equipment. Not just a phone and a computer. Maybe 1000 dollars com paired to 150-200 thousand plus all other expenses.