How to sniff out stinky brokers

Here are some ways I try to sniff out the stinky brokers.
Of course this post is NOT aimed at any one person or anything like that. I am just talking in generalities here. I am NOT speaking directly about anyone here on this forum. I want to be clear about that.....

When I do my Due Diligence on a broker (or any company for that matter, especially one I might lease on to) I always look at how they have set up the business. I get real nervous when I find things like the Operating Authority issued to one person(individual) or entity and then the the whole business is operating under a non registered dba name and there is some other "holding " company of some kind listed and or mentioned in the whole thing. These kinds of FACTS regarding a business and a BROKER should not be overlooked when looking for stinky things!!! If I cant easily find a Corporation Registered in good standing with respect to a Broker, I run away. It is real easy to get on the State Secretary of States website from where the broker in question is supposedly running a business and look them up. If they are not in the database, I start looking for other stinky issues.

One thing I also do on a broker when they have their authority issued under their name is to run a background on them and any obvious spouses. Checking a persons background on a personal level seems acceptable to me if they are stupid enough to register their authority under their own individual name. Why do this??? Why? Unless you want to be able to run from one company to another with the same authority. Not all states allow a business to run under a non-registered dba. Funny how the scum bag brokers almost always seem to be operating in a state that allows corporations to run under non-registered dba names. This makes it very easy for a stinky broker to hide behind many different fictitious names to avoid being researched or to avoid the law. Scum bags set up this way so they can defend themselves against lawsuits and so they can actually represent themselves vs having the expense og hiring an attorney. A lot of these scumbags seem to think rather highly of themselves. Sometimes thay may have actually spent some time in law school. Again, beware.

A lot of scum bag brokers do this because it is legal to go out and set up a biz and run under one of the corporate officers authority. This is something that the FMCSA needs to put a stop to. If you see this...RUN RUN RUN AWAY!! Al lot of scum bag brokers also have the authority in their name and the business entity that is set up is in the name of the wife. Be real cautions about these kinds of things.

Now I know saying this that some of you might be set up this way, and I have to say I think you really need to set up a biz entity. Running under your own name on a Federal authority is really not the way you want to to it. A person who professes to be a GURU would certainly know this right? Well unless they have it set up to run as a scumbag.

A lot of scum bag brokers get things set up in their name so they can defend themselves in court since they tend to get sued a lot. If you set up a Corporation or LLC to get your authority, then if you have legal issues, in most states you have to HIRE an attorney since it is not legal for an officer of a Corp to represent the corp in a law suit.

Again, I ask this, especially to the GURU types out there, why in this day and age do you set up a trucking company under your own name and not some sort of legitimate business entity anyway?

It also makes me nervous when I find MORE than one authority issued to the same person or entity. This is usually a scumbag tip off.

I also do background checks on individual officers of corporations when I am really digging for stinky stuff. There are several FREE online ways to go about discovering a corporations history setup and relationship to other corporations. When you see weird things, be cautions. When I work with REAL small one person shop type brokers, I look them up individually with a simple goggle search. The last thing you want to discover AFTER yo have been scammed is that a simple Google search would have told you that the broker or their wife or some other officer of the supposed company had a shady past. By shady past I mean things like loosing professional licenses and such. Remember, it takes one to know one and scumbag brokering is pretty much a Mom&Pop enterprise in a lot of cases.

Hope this helps some of you avoid the stinky brokers.

 

MOM stands for

MY

OMNIPITENT

MODERATOR

What is wrong with this reference.? Are we good?

 

Its more like OMNIPRESENT isnt it?

Thanks for keeping us in line. I appreciate it.

 

The question...originally...was how to sniff out the stinky brokers.

I am going to get back to the reason I posted this thread.