Some negotiate some don't

Gotta love the free market!

 

So, much like anything else in business, there's a wide range of personalities and rates at play. Even at my office, the personalities come into play with the negotiations, and we've all basically come up in the brokerage side of the house at our company. A couple of the guys and one of our new gals take my approach- I'll negotiate on just about anything, as long as the carrier is "reasonably" in the ballpark with what I'm doing. Some of the other guys stand pretty hard. Some of the others split 50/50.

Other times, the rate/time available will dictate a response. If I have a week to move a load, and at a thinner margin, then it doesn't benefit me to deal as hard. If it's something time critical, the ball is more in your court, and I'm more likely to budge harder in your direction. Just all depends, really. I imagine the fellas that are running contract freight are standing the hardest of them all- especially since the contracts don't leave much room for renegotiations when the times get lean on them.

 

Most brokers have a plaque on the wall with this saying. “There’s a sucker born every minute”

 

It's middle manned to death. I used to haul lawnmowers from Nashville, TN area John Deere to Eastern, VA and I would get around $1800 each time. If i did 3-stop stop loads i got like $2600. I did that for a few months but then the broker started dropping the price so i quit. Looking back at it what-if I would've went past the broker and did John Deere direct.

C.H. Robinson is the worst. I had a broker plainly tell me that I had to pull my weight at their company before I got the good loads. He's like you gotta take those crappy loads before we'll give you the good stuff. Should it be that way? No but, it is that way.

 

If you had been pulling for C.H. for 6 months and taking some good and not so good loads for them, and a new guy came along and they gave him a cushy load right off the bat I doubt if you would be very happy.

 

While there is a general consensus that that quality of rates you are getting do result from your negotiation skills but the skills themselves are not about your ability to convince someone into giving you a better rate by means of your ability to speak to them one way or another. I think it is first and foremost about knowing what lanes pay what and when. But then of course there is also the market volume and carrier capacity, timing of a day too, whether they call you vs. you make a call to them etc.
I am not a big believer of someone's unique abilities to get much better rates from whatever the market pays on given lanes in a given time but knowing what the lanes have paid for many years back is critical.
So if there is hundreds of trucks ready to take heavy water loads from Pleasant Prairie, WI to WM DC in Sterling, IL for $525 there is no way Convoy will pay you $750 because you think you are Mr. Exceptional_Service.
That is of course different to some degree when you get your freight from a person that dealt with you before and you earned their trust. But that is the result of your relationship you established after some time, not one time negotiation talk.

 

And every carrier/owner worth his salt should have the same plaque on the wall. No one ever wins or loses all the time. If you are losing all the time change your game. If you are winning all the time get ready for the walls to come crumbling down.

 

i like to let drivers know what i have in load then state what the market in that lane is then give them a rate in that market area. my negotiating limited by those 2 numbers. If a driver offers me a rate close to market then we can talk. If he asks me my max rate then expect me to tell you my max rate and its not negotionable. If you quote me a rate over 1000 dollars over market expect all negotiations to stop at that point i will not work with you again. I try to be fair and open and expect the same respect in return.

 

Your the only one. Most of them never tell what they got in it, let alone be as nice as you are.