Calling Out TQL

Rofl, owned! Love the mods here!

 

I'm in the same boat with 1 truck and kids at home. What works for me is direct shippers outbound and brokered loads or empty back.
If I cant break even on total miles with just the outbound it won't go on the truck.
One thing I do is watch the load boards closely before and during a major snowstorm or batch of cold weather. The good freight will never see a load board. But at times like these things get screwed up and I have got in on some darn good freight. Run the load when everyone else is parked and a good broker will remember you for a long time.

 

Why do you even go to WA? I went there once and I had to bounce 300 miles to MT to get an OK load. I dont go to WA anymore

 

When I first started dispatching I saw TQL had a lot of LOADS! I wanted to work with them because of that. I was still new to load boards, and very naive. I knew my prices, and anytime I called they were way below. I was working for a very well established carrier at the time too. Anyway my first 6 loads with TQL ended up just as you mentioned. I received the rate con, dispatched the driver, and went to lunch. Found out the load is canceled. Too many times, and no TONU. Ok. I figured things happened. I call on a load that's right in the same city as my driver, and when I get a hold of the broker they suddenly covered that load but they have a load that might HELP ME OUT/WORK OUT FOR ME. It's a load 40-100 miles away, with a cheap rate, but the guy wanted to "help" me, however the customer doesn't pay more. I stopped working for them, and then I got a phone call for a Colorado team that I had. I was asked to dead head the truck to Kansas, deliver in MN. I couldn't help but charge over 5/mile and also wanted on the rate con a $3,000 TONU since they were 110% sure it wasnt going to get canceled. We did the load, it went ok. Total of 1,000 TQL offers direct via phone I've accepted maybe 30 and out of 30 I was only able to do 6, and out of 6, only 2 went without ANY issues. The other 24 were canceled, or some other shady crap. What bothers me is I made it clear to them I do not want to work with them anymore. To put it in their system. But I would still get phone calls. OK, I block their number, which did reduce phone calls but I'll still get them calling from other numbers. Their rates pay crap, which for some work,but not me. They get in a 500 mile line. Grab a phone and call every truck, each 10,000 of them. All over one load trying to see who can do it for the cheapest price possible. So if I say "no thank you" politely, why am I getting 30 more phone calls about the same load?! Also I hate ITS. If you go search an area without posting a truck they see that you're looking in that area and start calling for the next 2-3 days if it's a high freight area. I can't stand them. Now there are way more horrible stories that I've seen people go through, such as not getting paid.

Do they have maybe 20 good brokers in there? Possibly. But I never got a hold of single one, just a bunch of messengers trying to take paper from the mail.

 

I don't when everyone else is, there's loads here, just not any when everyone else is

 

LMAO. It just clicked in my head that a poster wrote a decent review about TQL and an admin had to make sure that it wasn't someone from Ohio because even you couldn't believe what your eyes were reading.

 

I checked his other few posts and they're all basically claiming good stuff about TQL. Good catch!

 

You will figure out what works for you. Don't worry too much about what everyone else thinks. Just be mindful about how your actions could affect others, as far as negotiations with brokers, and it will work out good for everyone.

 

I flipped the other day and told them to take me off their call list. (Hate doing this, but told them I'd tell my lawyer if they didn't). I be ######, it worked. They haven't called me in a couple months now. It's great.