How Bad is the Freight Market now for Brokers?

I came close to jumping in a few times with my own truck and trailer when i left the factory job and started moving my shop.

Im a pretty fast learner, but i think id have been wiped out in my first year on my own. It was much, much better for me to work for a tiny 1099 to move the stuff and learn risk free while making enough to just barely get by.

 

And if I'd jumped into this as a broker with my own authority? I wouldn't still have that authority. I didn't have the operating capital, the name, reputation, or any of the above to make it work.

 

I did it that way when i was 20 and wanted to learn how to shape surfboards. Just went to a ratshack hangout board shop where they were all drunks and druggies. Said i wanna learn to shape, ill do anything you say. It was Larry bertlemann, a once famous 70s surfer. I had no idea. He said "you buy the beer."

The diesel shop job started off as a customer, wasnt happy with a hone job i had them do. Went to complain, owner was busy for hours but i wasnt gonna budge. Place was a pigsty and i wasnt doin nothin so i swept up and emptied like 15 barrels made from half drums. Few years later i come and go as i please, running my business out of the shop after hours, lock the door when i leave at 2am.