Question for Brokers " What do brokers consider a fair rate per mile for freight?"

how about this..................O/O what do you pull(dry, reef, flat, ect) and what has been your pay per mile, point A to point B if you frequent an area?

example..... I pull a dry van from Chicago to Seattle and average $1.79 mile over the last 8 months. Seattle to the Boston area for $1.93 average. Boston to Chicago for average of $1.18. I always will look for hazmat in the northeast so I can get at maybe $1.50-$2.00 but happens only about 1 out of 5 times and take loads anywhere between $1.00-$1.40(that are usually max out, 79,000+ pounds) and asain average $1.18.

cab anyone else show their info?...............thank you

 

don't mean no disrespect. I agree y'all brokers need to earn a living. but your 8-15 percent is not the normal of what happens out here. many are taking more than 25 to 35 percent. I have found out the hard way the real prices. and even 15 percent on a 2000 mile load paying $1.75 mile is $525 bucks in your pocket. if you book 2 loads in one day you make double what the average driver comes home with after fuel and expenses. for example a 2000 mile load takes about 30 to 33 hours to deliver. legal that's a 3 day trip. and that's if no traffic or accidents or nothing. $1.75 per mile times 2000 miles is $3500 for the trip. Then you take your 15 percent at $525 and that leaves $2975. if the load is a heavy load my fuel costs are just under a buck a mile so minus lets say $1800 for fuel. then take out my tolls, food, and God forbid I stop and get a room with a shower during these three days. but just for this exercise lets say that adds up to another $250. then I have a truck payment, trailer payment, insurance payment and lets no forget I have to maintain my truck with oil changes and services and such. lets just say we take out another measly $200 for these payments. lets hope I don't get a blow out tire or have a break down but we wont even include such costs for this purpose. so minus these costs I get to keep a whopping $725 bucks. now divide that by 3 days it took me to get to the delivery point and I make 241 for a minimum 10 hour day gross. you worked maybe 2 hours to get the load and made double what I made. you still think this is fair? I have all of the responsibility to haul this load down the road, do all the work and you make double what I make. sorry broker man that just sucks. its all about simple math. and when you get brokers who take 25 or 35 percent, you make nothing when its all over. that's what pisses me off. and the numbers don't lie.

 

I made a broker cry a couple of days ago. She had a driver fall off of a multi-stop 900 or so miles run that finalled near Miami. She told me that and I could hear in her voice she wanted to cover it. Said she booked him at $3,900 was I interested? I told her sure I'd be glad to for $5,000. She almost had a cow and said she couldn't lose $1,100 on the load. I told her I was sorry I couldn't help and we hung up. She calls back 15 minutes later and offers $4,500 and i said my price was still $5,000. She begged why wouldn't I take it - was a great rate. She was right I should have. But I let it go. Told her i will walk away from any load any time no matter what it pays, and i do, all the time. Moral of the story I don't feel sorry for brokers who get in a bind. And neither do I feel sorry for truckers who allow brokers to take advantage of them.

 

I guess I will speak up here, just today I booked a load out of Central Iowa to Chatanooga Tn 885 miles Flatbed 21 Pallets non hazardous no tarp 24/7 receiving! I found a Carrier with a Truck 46 miles away I called I asked what they would charge to haul it? The Customer was paying me 2.55 per mile or $2255.75 The Carrier said that they could do it for $1.81 per mile or $1601.85! Now I spent 21 years as an Owner Operator and I know how hard it is to be on the other side of the desk and I said to my self when I decided to become a broker that I wouldnt be the kind of Broker that everyone seems to whine about most of the time justifiably! So I advised the Carrier that I could go 2.25 per mile or $1984.94 if he could get it this afternoon! That is a difference of $383.09 over what he wanted to do it for and because you want transparency I made $270.81 or 30 cpm that is right at 12%. I have never charged more than 14%If I have the room I will give more but I always want to know what the carrier can do it for, I feel by giving a little more they are more likely to use me again. BTW I also have his return trip already set up, I say return because I just don't beleive in the term Back Haul.He will get 2.65cpm going back to within 6 miles of his home and I will make .21 cpm on his return afterr all he is helping me out!

 

I understand sales and I understand rip offs. Sales is staying competitive and marketing your product for a reasonable price. The broker is a go between that makes a % off of every load. It's all about trust. The customer needs to trust that they are not paying more than necessary to move a load and a o/o needs to trust that they are being paid the best that they can get to move the freight. So the only one in the middle doing all the negotiating is the brokers. So the question is still out there. I would say that an average of 1.80 or higher per mile should be the going rate. So if you have a customer wanting to ship into an area that very few are shipping out of, then the price should be the average cost out of that area from 1.80 plus 1.80. So if you have too many trucks in an area and you can only get 1.25 out of an area, then 1.80 - 1.25 = .55 + 1.80 = 2.35 Of course this doesn't account for miles in or miles out, but if a driver could get $2.35 going into an area it wouldn't hurt so much to take 1.25 out. But when you only pay 1.80 in and it costs 1.80 to pay for everything and make a living, to have to come out for 1.25 is a rip off. But in both these scenarios, the broker is still making money while the o/o is the one losing money. It's like the customers and the brokers don't care how many o/o they put out of business as long as they get theirs. So, how do we get the rates to a point where customers pay a fair rate, brokers charge a fair % and o/o make a fair rate per mile? Is it possible? Because I don't see how any o/o can stay in business for less than 1.80 per mile over the long haul.

 

You think $1.80/mile is a good average? If you think that, you have no idea how much your truck costs you to run. If you are taking $2.35/mile freight in to areas where you can only get $1.25/mile out (I wouldn't touch $1.25/mile freight, ever), you are doing something wrong and need to work on your negotiating skills.

Just goes to show, what is cheap to some is not to others. We could all take a lesson from Rollin Coal. Don't be afraid to say no, and let it sit.

 

Well, really, $1.80 was a minimum and mainly for figuring purposes. If your truck is only making money when it is moving, how long should you sit in an area or how far should you be willing to deadhead for a better price? It's all about math and planning. If when planning ahead I can't find a good load out of an area or within a short distance, I try not to take the run. But sometimes you get stuck. If there was a way to prevent any company or owner to stop taking anything less than 1.80, then we wouldn't be on here talking about the loads being offered at $1. The only reason one could be offered at that price is if someone is willing to take it. I don't think a broker should even consider asking any company or owner to take a load for that price but it happens. And someone will take it. Why?

 

You park it however long you need to. Let go of the day to day week to week thinking and think about the big picture. You've got all year long to meet that goal. Quarterly goals. It helps though if you live in a decent freight area. Your example about $1.80 was a poor example trying to teach someone who may not have done this before. If freight coming out of an area is well known to be cheap $1.25 or worse everyone sending loads to that area knows they will have to pay$3, $4 or more a mile. But there's always a bunch of suckers who can be counted on to haul 1,000 mile dry van loads for $2,250 to Miami Florida so that's why they try to move them like that. Then they are stuck. Went in too cheap. Can't afford to load the 60 cents a mile Florida outbound freight or can't afford to deadhead way up into GA or elsewhere. Those are expensive lessons to learn the hard way.

 

If every carrier was guaranteed to earn a profit on every load we would be on here talking about every shipper having a waiting list of trucks for every load. There are endless numbers of people posting on here about wanting to get their own truck. The only way to limit that kind of supply is with attrition. Otherwise there would be so many carriers we still wouldn't be profitable no matter the rate due to lack of enough loads to go around.

 

We aren't brokers or O/O but we're trying to learn more about this industry we work in.

My question:
Most commission sales jobs are less than 10%; real estate brokers make 6-7%.
Why do load brokers make more than 10% ?
The Carrier or Truck owner has all the overhead...IMO, the fed regs requiring broker to bond for $100,000 doesn't address the cost issue. Shouldn't the feds regulate the % the broker keeps for booking the load?

Does the O/O get an invoice that shows what the load paid?
How much power does a broker have to get the rates increased for the loads they book?

Fuel, Food, Lumpers, Mechanics, Parts & Product prices have ALL increased dramatically over the last 10 yrs., so why are CPM's still in the 90's?

These are legitimate questions, so I ask that non-emotional, articulate people give me straight answers and fill in the "BIGGER-PICTURE" pieces for me.

Pardon me if I inadvertently hi-jacked this thread. I have researched TTR for information and these questions I still have are not addressed directly to aid in my understanding.

Thank you in advance to those who take the time to give me straight answers.
Injecting humor in your posts is always appreciated, though I find it difficult to always understand sarcasm.

Call me a NUMBSKULL if you will...as I know that I am.