Making a broker show the cards

Unless the law was to state that an order has to be transparent from the shipper through all the hands to the truck, it is useless. Far too much grey area in between. Your only friend in this may be the IRS in terms of wanting to collect every penny they can of the transaction from each parties hands. The IRS knows they are not getting their fair share from Freight forwarders, 3PLs down to the truck. But that would all add more complications.

I have mentioned this before, a friend of mine worked at a rigging company in the office. They did heavy haul oversize stuff, but got a good amount of other freight they would outsource. The loads in reference to this paid $3800 on a flatbed legal size. First company took $1,000 off the top, forwarded it to a broker separate from them. That broker kept $1400 & posted the loads on a load board for $1400 to the truck & they all got moved.

So the real choice is to hope for a bunch of new complicated laws to strangle everything ~OR~ beat the bushes for your own freight direct. Personally am not a fan of more laws & working to get my own stuff. It is tough to do, but you can see what can happen by the above example.

 

plenty of different brokers, loads and prices out there. don't stop with one call... get the price that you need 95 percent of the time and you'll be just fine. negotiate, do not agree on 1st offer by broker (unless it's a hot load,which pays just as hot, most of the time they have plenty of room to adjust to both of your needs).

 

Check the carrier packets you have signed for access to all the brokers you use. In the fine print of most you will likely see where you have waived your right to see the customer rate paid to the broker. Not sure the legalities of those broker-carrier contracts but they have them in there so thats why they arent showing you. But really it doesnt matter, just like you dont care how much lowes makes when you buy a tube of caulking or a new power tool.

 

When you get right down to it, there's "middle men" in most aspects of all businesses to some degree. The bottom line though, is what you as an O/O agree to haul the load for. What the shipper saves, or what the broker earns, is not my concern.

More concerning perhaps is when a fellow does a fleece deal with the carrier he hauls for and is paid according to a percentage of the load, with the percentage he's being paid, not derived from the true amount being paid to the carrier.

 

There seem to be a whole lot of people out there who see shiny wheels and bumpers and then aren't able to grasp any logical thought past 'how do I get in it'.