I did a tiny little load that was literally down the street from me. I don't remember if I started at $550 or $525 But the guy said he can only pay me $475. So we went round and round for a while and I said look I will do it for 500 but that's it. So he said OK let me go talk to somebody. So he comes back and he tells me $490. I said you can't give me 500? You can't find $10 in petty cash or something it's $10! No no $490 they said that they can't give you a penny more than that. Well the load was only down the street from my house I was fine at $490. I was a little perplexed by that but I shrugged my shoulders and said whatever. So as I'm waiting to unload I ended up on the phone with this guy. We got along really well and he liked that I was way early for the appointment and I gave him updates, etc, etc. So he feels comfortable with me and he says Hey you know do you know any big big shippers that we can get in with because we want to grow and expand and that would really help our business to become bigger. I said man I gotta go they'rere knocking on my door right now. Then I started laughing. I'm thinking to myself, you want me to give you a list of places that are busy with trucks overflowing so you can go in and make yourself a ton of money and grow and expand your business.... But you can't give me $10, lol. You know what they say about karma... Funny brokers.
I like it when they ask what loads you’ve hauled and from who? What they paid? Etc. I ask them how would they like it if I told others about their Business? I’ve had some refuse to load me, Locally, because they get back solicited by Local Carriers. I won’t do that, they say word gets out amongst Brokers, if you do. But seeing how fast some Companies grow, it’s obviously a free for all, Cut throat Business.
I ran one for 1297 this week. It was BNSF, who definitely had the extra $3 but we had haggled a bit and she drew the line in the sand. Ok, ok, you keep the $3 this time, the run pointed me home. XPO is weird this way too. They often throw me some crazy number like "I've got 491.26 in the load. I can give you all of it THIS time." Lol. It''s kind of silly but I guess everybody has a budget or a boss telling them how it's gotta be.
You Need to tell that "Broker" to kick Rocks!!.. actually tell him to find the biggest rock he can & kick it hard!.. He is the perfect example of 'If You Give..You'll Get Back More'...he and his business obviously haven't learned that as of yet!.. Anyone that cheap will keep on losing in the long run in broking loads..its karma.
I had a guy I was booking with about two and a half weeks ago, haggling with me. I started at 2500, and he asked for 2900. Back and forth- good fella to chat with. He tells me, "Hey man, if you give me $2701, I'll take it. That extra dollar'll make me look like the hero, and we'll both get what we need out of it." Which, I figured we'd settle at about $2700. The extra buck though, that cracked me up enough that I broke my, "Always use round numbers" policy, and I sent him a rate confirmation for $1701. It was pretty entertaining. either way. That said, that's some cojones to ask you for leads.
Hate the loads down the street - they make me lazy and wanna stay home . I dont even go through home town during my 5 days out ... Unless of course its its starter load !
The old thats all I have on this load Im breaking even , I say well so and so is moving the same load for $100 more and I will just call him back . Well wait Im sure we can squeeze out another hundo , lol I thought you said thats all you have on this load ? The next week I hit the same load and added another hundo to the quote , lol same old song and dance .
Sadly if you were to visit one of their offices at BNSF its quite entertaining. They got like the head manager, assistant manager, operations manager, overflow manager, communications manager all at the same time people trying to fight over $10. Its like they split 10 bucks 5 ways. TQL is bad for that too trying to make pennies off a load. I understand Business Management degree goes a long way but, just because you went to school for 4 years doesn't mean you know how to work on a truck or run a business. I've went round and round with TQL brokers fighting over price and they'll be like let me put you on hold, while they go and try to give the load to another carrier, and then they come back on the line and say sorry load has been covered.
The quote that is really old is “meet me in the middle”. I now respond that this is the middle for me!
