Help for a Brand New O/O!!

Oh yeah, so what if they say "yeah, sure". What now?

What you want to do is hit google and try to find some freight broker billing agreement templates, probably quickbooks, some sort of software solution.

Now as long as you REALIZE that the freight broker classes and packages can make no real guarantees and are basically gimmicky and you're willing to learn on your own without expectations, then and only then I say go ahead and purchase an e-book or one stop solution of some sort.

You'll need to know mileage rates, but also figure fuel surcharges and there is a lot of details such as detention pay or concessions, remedies for late deliveries, pickups, that sort of thing and all of it needs to be addressed. Some people may even say go talk to a lawyer first. I don't think it's completely necessary if you're a digger and a researcher.

 

Good luck. You can make some impact right away with profit margins just by pre-planning his week. Get the load, pre-book the following couple loads as well. Minimize sitting times and paperwork hassles for him and you'll be making progress.

 

I thought I'd throw my 2 cents into this conversation.. Seeing as how your not compleatly comfortable with the brokering thing and the in's and out's of trucking.. I would just try and help dad by looking for loads where he is going well in advance.. Call those brokers and let tehm know youhave a truck in the area and are looking for "A" .. "B" .. and "C".. Stuff like where are you trying to go to?? Type of trailer, weight you can haul, any special equipment? (dry van: logistics posts, ETracks, pads, palletts, ramps, air ride, ect. Flat / Drop deck: Tarp sizes, load levelers, ramps, #chains & binders, #Straps & ratchets, weight can haul, )ect. Get the idea??

Then try and research loads for him.. Compare rates in the areas he goes to. Keep track of those rates so you "know" what to expect in certain areas (Rates are not the same all over teh country.. There are reasons why some loads pay great.. often there isn't anything comming out of that area.. Your gonna have to bounce hundreds of miles to reload..

KNOW your operating costs.. What is your break even cost of operating per mi.

You realy can't just feed off of load boards. Those are usually the loads noone else wants. That's why they are there.. Developing a relationship with brokers will help, it'll show them your dependable, they can make arrangements and plan better if they are informed.. Some will call you if you work w/ them regularly asking if you have a truck around that might want to do a load?

having a couple of "aces in the hole".. Customers near you whome you c an work fairly regular for should be your bread and butter.. The brokers should be for filling in when times at your regular customers are slow.. or getting repositioned to where you can get another load for your regular customer.. get the idea?

Having your own authority isn't all "peaches and cream" it can be a double egde sword.. Waiting to get paid can be tough.. Not having and resources to work behind the sceans makes driving the truck the easy part.. But trying to do everything from the cab of a truck can be real tough.. You need a fax machine to send and receive load confirmations (contracts).. & to send stuff to brokers you haven't delt with before.. Most will require a copy of your insurance.. how much cargo insurance do you have? The terms of payment, accessorial charges, fuel surcharges, detention, loading & unloading responcibilities, claims, appointments, contracted pieces / weight, and other important info..

Hope this helps?

 

Well hello their brother, I am in the same boat as you, and I have been for 2 years now.

First off, websites, loadboards, you really only need maybe 2, a DAT website like truckersedge or 360, and You definatley need Internet Truckstop, IMO the best website out for load searching.

The way you get paid is by mailing your invoices with your confirmation from that broker aswell as the bill of laiding your dead comes home with, some brokers allow faxing paperwork, which makes life alot easier. That is self expalnitory.

So what else? you also have to do invoices, which are easy to make, make a template you will use for now on, make your own invoice numbers, starting from 1 if you want, im at 120. Increment each load you get, and keep track of the loads that your waiting for payment. I use word to do my invoices and when I save the filename is Invoice# xxx, and when they pay us, I rename the file Paid Inovice # XXXX so i can keep track of payments, another tip is to save each different year of work of invoices in different files, i have a 2007 invoices 2008 and now 2009, This is great for statistic purposes. we made 198k gross last year and I did my own numbers woot!!

Another tip is dont expect getting alot of good loads right now, apparently brokers are ripping us off! and loads are short to come by.

As for when calling, just ask for dispatch and tell the person what load you want, at this point you should have a calculator ex. from your accessories on windows, calculator and google maps IMO are your best friend. Use the calculator to find the Dollar per mile stat. This is important. To calculate miles per dollar simply divide that loads rate by the miles. Its standard to get enough for fuel and $ 1 per mile for the driver, to calculate how much fuel per mile it will take, simply figure out how much your dads truck gets MPG wise on his rig, regularly its 5.5 miles per gallon. Soooo. Right now the national average is 2.25 for a gallon of diseal. So its 2.25 divided by 5.5
that is .41 which means, 41 cents per mile will cover your fuel. Add a dollar to that for you to gross a dollar atleast per mile. so that is 1.41/mile which you need at the minimum. But try to aim for larger numbers, 2.00 per mile should be your real standard but its not going to happen everyday. It depends if your in a hot load state.

When you call the brokers, you ask for the rate the weight is it legal size, if you have permits for over weight and over dimensional, great. But most people dont, so you cant take these loads, you simply say i cant take it.
Ask for the commodity, and the equipment needed, ask your dad what does he have, for the most part the main equipment needed is 6 foot tarps to 8 ft. If he has a flatbed trailor, I dont know what your dad has as a trailor.
Then when the rate is told, calculate your mileage like i told ya, and if its what you have calculated, thats good. But you want more, always ask for 200 to 300 more dollars. If they say no, take the load, since its what you need to move anyways. This is of coarse if your in a state that doesnt have many loads, when you move to areas where there are many loads it wont be hard to get 2.00 to 1.80 a mile.

If they dont have what your looking for always ask them, "our truck needs XXX per mile to move" if they say they cant do it, move on.

Once you get the load, and the broker is new to you, most of the time you have to send a packet to them of your companies info. They first fax or email you that companies packet, then you recieve and fill it out, it will need MC authority and Docket Number, and Insurance and your W9 info. All that stuff and the contract.

Fax it over to them and they will finally send you a confirmation sheet, once this is agreed upon your work , for the most part is done, but you should call the broker once your dad calls and tells you he picked up the load, but this isnt set in stone. You should also call when your dad has delievered the load.

Once this is done your dad should get a Bill of Lading after the load is completed that is signed by the reciever, and you need this piece of paper to get paid. Going back to what I said about invoicing. Thats it for you.

In summary, you need to use word or any other program you want for invoicing you need a phone to call brokers, you need a good website for loads like Internet truckstop, sorry another key thing to do is find a good broker and make a good relationship with them. SOme one that you do alot of loads for, sometimes this will happen from your initial outbound source, aka from where you start in your state, I live in Virginia and I always have my outbound source from VA, since ive made a good relationship with my broker. Next thing is use windows calculator to do your stats, use google maps to figure out mileage distance plus its the best map out there, screw mapquest. umm And get patients for now since there is no loads to be found!!

Good luck brother.

 

Good luck. What you are doing is commendable. I'll try to keep it simple (this is actually a very oversimplified version with just the major steps).

1. Call on the load and ask questions about the commodity, transit time, shipping and receiving hours and other load requirements (you didn't say what kind of trailer your dad uses, or I could be more specific).

2. Negotiate the price

3. The broker will fax or email you a packet with a contract to sign, their insurance, bond and authority, etc. You will need to READ the contract, ammend it if necessary and sign and fax or email it back with your dad's authority, copy of insurance and W-9. Check their credit, days to pay and trade references.

4. Complete the load, with a copy of the bills signed with a legible name and no damages or shortages/overages (Proof Of Delivery). Stay in contact with the broker on the load status to help build a relationship with them.

5. Invoice the broker with the signed PODs and always see what they charge for quick pay. Sometimes there is no charge. If there is no quick pay option, then stay on top of them until they pay. If you haven't been paid in 30 days, then start being aggressive.

6. Dad cashes check, takes you out for lobster.

Of course, this is a perfect world scenario, but I think that is what you are looking for right now. I could go into the 'what ifs' but that would just be information overload at this point.

Don't bother getting the broker authority, you don't need it. Stay away from the invoice factoring companies if you can, but most one or two truck operations just can't do the cash flow without them. Keep it simple.

Also, if you want practice calling brokers, just pick up the phone and do it a few times. If you say you are calling on the load from xxxx to xxxx, most of the time the broker will tell you everything you need to know about the load. You can always just say thanks and hang up.

Most of us in trucking aren't brain surgeons and we figure it out. You are going to call on 100 loads before you find one that is worth doing anyway, so you will have plenty of practice. Don't worry about messing up, like I said, most of us are idiots.

If you need any more info or clarification, let me know. If worse comes to worse, your dad can always sign on with a carrier as an owner operator. The majority of O/Os are signed on with a company and most of them make a decent living. IMO, being a one truck, independent O/O is probably one of the more difficult ways to make a living in trucking. But it can be done.

Also, what kind of trailer is he pulling and is he based out of WA?

 

The broker-carrier contract will usually specify if the broker wants an original BOL with the invoice or an 'imaged copy' for payment. If the contract calls for an original, you can add the words 'or imaged copy' and intital it and fax the contract back. Most brokers won't care, but some brokers insist on a clean contract. If they balk, then no big deal, just send them an original. Pops must keep all of the original signed BOLs anyhow.

Yes, you can do partials and should definitely do partials, if you can. You can pick up and deliver anywhere in route, so don't just limit yourself to 1 pick up or delivery state.

Yes, you can deal directly with shippers and you should if you can. However, if you take a load from a specific shipper through a broker, you cannot go back into that shipper looking for freight. There will be a back solicitation clause in the broker-carrier contract and they can come after you for damages.

 

This is probably a dumb question, but doesn't it make sense to have a 53ft refer instead of a 54ft dry van because you can use it to haul both dry and refer goods? is that possible? thanks jason.