Does anyone negotiate any more

The brokers that are worth my time call me and ask what my rate is, then go to their customer and ask for that plus their cut.

If I'm stuck in an odd market I'm probably not making calls to brokers that don't list their rate, or list poor rates when I can call someone that posted a lane at or within $100 or so of what I needed to move it at. If I can get them to bump it up another $100 to get where I want, then great. If they can't because I'd be asking them to bump that $1400 to the $1500 they're getting paid to move it, I can respect that, and either take the load if it makes sense for my bottom line, or leave it.

What really bothers me is when I call a broker, and they ask "what would you need to move that", I give them a rate, and then THEY hang up. I usually don't give their company another call. They usually have several hundred loads posted, and I don't really care if they're the only agent there or not. If they're willing to work with my rate, then they'll be the one calling me. There are too many decent brokers out there to waste time on the ones focused on playing games, because the ones I work with on a regular basis are able to negotiate above what direct freight rates are paying, and pass a bit of that on to me for reliable quality service.

 

My biggest problem is negotiation.. When I started calling brokers last June, I thought I was good at it but, I seem to have gotten worse since. Brokers hang up, give ridiculously low rate's, which cause me to laugh,,,I am sorry but, it is funny. Surely they are joking? No, oh,,,well see ya. I have to make profit to stay in business. I would love to find a few brokers that have integrity. I don't have a problem with them making money hell, 15 to 20% off each load. I think a lot of them try to get way above that, especially when they offer less than $1.30 pm "that's all I got" they say...BS! Are rates really this bad every year, for open decks?

 

im going to say this bluntly personally you brokers crap on the trucking industry. As a broker answer this question for me why should you make more money than the trucker who owns the truck and endures all the expenses.

 

i've heard of a couple of owners on landline now. give their story. they know for a fact that brokers keep 40% or better.

one of them lives in cali and was getting out of the business due to carb. rates are too low for him to consider buying a carb truck. he had an 07 pete.

some of the rates brokers offer, are just flat out pathetic. but i guess the russians have no problem working for free. as they'll haul anything.

 

Ignorance of the industry on both sides of the fence seems to cause a lot of issues. Anyone that tells you what a broker is making all the time on a load should be making a killing. But he truth is they aren't because they aren't a business person and really know little about the business because they are caught up in all the BS around this.

The challenge for quality brokers and carriers is finding each other. But this thread is a great example for why you need to always give you rate. You never know what is happening on the other end. Yes, it could be a fresh out of college kid with no authority to negotiate beyond $50 or the owner of a brokerage that works with a fixed fee and just looking to get the best rate for his customer but can get you your rate with a call.

Assuming you know what is happening is the first mistake, don't compound it by burning a bridge by how you react to the person on the other end of the phone.

 

I do a bit of brokering for my company, and I will negotiate (or haggle, as I prefer to call it). If you call me with a load, first you gotta get past the initial offer. Get past that, then you have a load and I have an available truck for that load. Otherwise its a "I'm sorry, but I don't have any equipment available for that lane, have you tried company XYZ?"

But if I have a truck for that lane, and you have a load, then we each have something the other wants. Now comes the money. You want to move the load for as reasonable a price you can get, I want to make the money. We each have an optimal number for that lane. The less you pay, the better your bottom line looks. The more I get, likewise. The final price is generally somewhere between our optimal numbers. I won't gouge you, cause I want you to call me again. But I'm not running for cheap, cause I also want to keep my drivers and they need to make money to keep running. That is where good negotiation skills play a key role in keeping everybody...not necessarily unhappy, but not dancing in the streets happy either. Good brokers (and I do want to be a GOOD broker) often get stuck in a rough place in trying to keep everybody happy and making money.

We won't discuss the BAD brokers out there who deliberately gouge the drivers.

 

You have a bunch of 'people' sitting at a computer, snapping up loads, taking off all the money, then offering out to drivers. It should be illegal. They're worse scum than accident lawyers.
I'm on the same mindset as Rank. No time for games. No finance? No romance.

 

I have no business in this thread but what about companies like lane honey? Shipper and drivers interact directly without the broker. Seems like a no brainer to a newbie like me without knowing where the catch is.

 

If you offer a decent rate up front, I'll get you a little higher to pad it and so that after you experience what I have to offer: you'll feel you got a deal. If you call or I call you, and you're more than 20% off of what I'm looking for I'll give you my phone number and price and tell you to have a great day.

I like to negotiate-if we are wildly far apart I don't feel it's worth my time to haggle with you when I can make more money upfront with someone else without the back and forth.

 

This is far from being the typical brokerage business model. But if you can point me to these "computers" they are snapping the loads from I would be interested in helping my drivers get in on that.