Contracts with Shippers vs. Loadboards?

I get what you are saying but I am pointing to others here who make this claim without having contracts that are active.

However some have done well, I am one who lets the drivers figure what they want to do and how they want to do it with some requirements involved. A few brought their own work with them, taking it from their previous jobs and others are like you. BUT we have a mix of contract freight - dedicated - and that from brokers that are also dedicated - and we make really good money with that system.

 

Darn it. I've been leeching on delicious leftovers for over a decade.

 

I was at a company for 11 years that almost never hauled any brokered freight. If they did it was always from CHRW. I would do maybe 1 or 2 of those brokered loads per year with them. The rest, probably 150-200 loads annually were all direct contract. They were a fleet with about 200 trucks and that was a company wide thing being 99.9% contract freight like that. And there were PLENTY of junk or more difficult runs in that contract freight that nobody wanted to do.

So I have 11 years experience with that and now almost 8 years experience doing the opposite and hauling virtually 100% brokered freight. I've done enough to know there is plenty of good freight that gets brokered out because I haul some of it almost every day. There are some junk loads to be sure. Which can be avoided fairly easy for the most part. Not always, but usually. To make a blanket statement that brokered freight is all garbage that no-one wants is flat out wrong.

 

I have hauled nothing but broker freight for the last year and have loved it. I walked away from a contract when the guy in charge called saying that I would have to lower my rate beginning of Q4 by 1600 dollars. He was honest in saying that prime came in and said they could do it for x amount and that I would have to under them by 100 bucks to be able to stay in with them. So I said that I would haul till Q4 and won’t be back.

 

Interesting ... So does your boss the owner of the 6 truck carreir have a regular or primary shipper or reciever or is the whole company just run off the loadboard ???

 

The bigger your company is, the better it is to have contract scheduled freight. If you are a 1-3 trucks show and a good hustler, you can make much more money doing loadboard spot market freight.