Broker price gouging and transparency - serious question

I hope this whole compliance mess ends up with brokers disclosing their COSTS too, so truckers can finally shut up about how they dont have any.

 

Don’t worry about it. Your never going to make everyone happy. Sounds like you guys have a great operation going. Keep up the good work.

 

I hope this whole transparency thing doesn't come to pass. I don't care how much someone else makes. I'm only concerned with how much I make. That's why my truck has been parked for 3 weeks. I'm not gonna run for cost or under my cost. The problem is it's way too easy to get a truck and a lot of guys with a truck have no business owning a business. If guys would quit hauling loads for cheap and brokers and truckers could work together without greed the shippers would have to pay more and everyone makes money. @Ridgeline is spot on with his assessment.

 

I'm a company driver but I work very closely with many brokers. Half of our loads are broker loads. This is really good stuff you posted here. I think its arrogant to think that brokers dont have massive overhead. What business doesn't have massive overhead costs? Making everything transparent is not a good thing. By the same token, you've made everything about as transparent as it gets. Profit margin is small for everyone. Any business owner will say that they spend way more money than they bring in. Truckers seem to think that by knowing what the broker gets, it will help them make more money. They want to know the original cost of the load. Why is that their business? Why is a brokerage's or a shipper's business what abtruckers overhead costs are?

 

We should demand full transparency from all shippers also. I want to know how much Walmart pays to the manufacturer for the underwear I bought the other day.

 

This is what makes people mad. They see $1.87, $1.63, and $1.54 average but when they log in to get a load they see nothing but .80 and $1.00 a mile freight.

You might have a large complex organization. There’s plenty of brokers sitting on their couch in their underwear eating Cheetos that get a 1000 mile load tender from a customer paying $1630. They post it on dat for 931 miles. Paying $931. Some idiot takes it because he has mortgage, car payment, truck payment, and insurance.

Government isn’t the answer but Uber and some unknown tech companies is/are going to corner the market eventually with initially smaller margins. Just ask the taxi companies.

We can debate all day long the solutions but the problem is greed and will be solved with competition.

 

You might be right, but it looks like freight brokerage is way more complicated and costly than dispatching taxi service. Plus old taxi service was too expensive to get In because of the entrance barriers/limits for new competition (number and cost of medallions per city).

 

If you compare used car prices at Carmax compared to everyone else, Carmax is generally more expensive. But Carmax sells 100,000’s of used cars every year and people are happy to pay their prices. IMO because it’s up front and it’s easy.

Uber freight brokerage isn’t perfect but they’re on the right track. Some smart entrepreneur with a tech background is going to make securing a load at a reasonable not rich rate so easy that most people won’t take the time to call around and negotiate just to be told, “Oh, the load got covered by someone else or it canceled.”

In business you can be 2 out of 3; cheap, good, or fast. But never 3 out 3.

 

It's funny when freight is good price moves 10 cents 20 cents but when crap hits the fan they instantly drop rates .75 .50 cents hell even a dollar . Than it's a slow climb back up , you want to tell me companies that do analytics and brokers aren't working together I would call you a liar . What I also find funny is your fellow drivers get called bad business men and crap O/O s cause we complain and make a stand , you wonder why we cant make any head way . Half want change the other half wants you to bend over and accept it . The trucking industry is a picture duplicate of our Country and the way it's being run and who's being taken care of and who's getting shafted . Divide and Conquer , easy victory for the corporate raiders.