Posting For Good and Bad Brokers

Boy: That is what you get for assuming. Many brokers do not know how long it takes to get there. I had a landstar agent go off on me a few weeks ago because he said he couldn't trust me because I told him I could get a 1000 mile (plus 200 deadhead he didn't know about yet) run there by Wednesday. The call was made at 9:30 Monday morning. I have also had many question me and then give me the load. You would not believe how many brokers ask for teams on loads that are very easily solo runs. Part of the problem with brokers is that they do not understand driving. If they did understand it they would be a little nicer and not harass drivers in the middle of night and at 6 AM. That is a different topic for a different day. Just know that no driver wants to be woken up at 6 AM when they drove late at night. My gosh why isn't that common since!!! The answer is that nothing is common since and many brokers, shippers, receivers only know dollar signs. Cha-ching!

 

Well you ASSume all you want dingbat. I'm not going to engage you in a 5 page flame war on this thread. Good day.

 

What is much to fast? Is that doing the speed limit if you drive a governed, slow truck? A lot of newbie-type company drivers would be amazed at the distance you can achieve doing the speed limit and driving 11 hours, split logging, etc. The Ohio Turnpike at 70mph sure does make the state go by faster.

I guess the difference is that some people live on the road, and some work on the road. I've done both in my career, and I much prefer to work on the road. If I have to take a 34, I better be at home or at Jubitz.

 

Back to the reason I went on this thread!
Bad brokers...everyone knows tql is on the list but there is a reason that I have not seen anyone mention. They post partial loads on the full boards. That is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to trucking. There are plenty of full loads that are 30 ft long and if you post it as a TL I assume you are paying full because it needs moved fast or they want it exclusive. TQL claims it is there system, which I believe. But my goods "third largest brokerage in the country" get a better system like all of the other one's have.
Amstan is also like this except that they post partials purposely and when you call them out, they say "well it's only 20 ft..." Well there is only a load board section dedicated to partials smart mouth. To top it off the partials are poor paying partials. I do not even bother calling Amstan at all and I will sit a truck before I deal with that crap.
Now this will help because others won't feel alone in their frustrations of hate toward these practices, and also maybe someone somewhere who matters will see this and prompt change within a company they previously thought was perfect.

 

I have them (random brokers) call me sometimes and they drop the clue that it's only "20 feet and lightweight" - these are catchphrases meant to psych you into automatically lower rate.. ..but this has the same impact to me as if it were full truckload at 45,000 lbs.... It's a good rate or nothing brother... If it's posted as "p" on ITS then I already know that means a cheap shipment and don't waste a call.. ..but don't call me up trying to sell something lower just because. I told one the other day if expedited customers were willing to pay $3-$4 a mile at times on 400+ mile "loads" of one pallet because they couldn't find a smaller truck then why in the world am I ever going to cut you or anyone else slack? Some guy asked me yesterday "why is your rate so high".. ..I dunno man, I guess because I live in the real world where inflation is high and fuel is $4 a gallon?? Don't call me up then ask some silly question about my rate, either take it or move on to the next call...

 

Say No to Choptank!

I ran a few backhauls with Choptank until I ran into a problem delivering a load after delay by a storm. If you want to know more, ask me, but basically an untrained or inept broker blamed me for his mistakes then worked a way to charge me for it. What else is new, so you say, right?

The main problem is Choptank's uneven contract. They have a vaguely worded provision that forbids the carrier to ad charges but allows the broker to do so. So, at settlement Choptank may make any deductions they feel appropriate and charge the carrier for them.

We are currently trying to pursue a change in this uneven and unfair contract, but until then, don't sign up with Choptank. Choptank owes me over $600-, but I can afford to do business with more reputable brokers.

 

That's when I hit them with, "just so you understand me correctly, you're trying to tell me that you're really doing me a favor with this load, but the reality is this, you're asking me to do you a favor, and you see, I'm not in the business of "doing favors"...Now, if you want to get real with me and seriously talk about a rate we can do that, otherwise I'm busy and I've gotta go..."

That's how I handle the used car salesmen type.

Ones that I deal with, and who know me, never try to "slide" one by me.

I get real pretty quick when someone's trying to game me. I'm polite, but serious, deliberate, calm, professional, but very direct.

 

Choptank does not have their loads, once they locate a truck, then they bid on them...

Another thing,Choptank's average profit, PER LOAD, is about 40% of what they offer the small trucking Company.....
We know this because we have DIRECT LOADS FOR BUSINESS'S THAT LOAD OUT OF THE EXACT SAME LOCATIONS CHOPTANK USE'S.......So basically if a Choptank salesperson finds that you will not accept the load for their rate,
they don't care, because they don't have the load..until they secure a truck in that area...for the rate THEY NEED TO BE PROFITABLE....

WHO THE HELL would be finnaicially responsible for a truck load, frozen, ...hold it for 4-5 days...for $2.08/M or less is beyond me....but this sometimes is what Choptank is trying to sell......

 

They quit loading mine and another F2F truck with nursery loads recently. Said they were losing $600-$900 per load we hauled, I did 1 and he did 4. They told me they could not sustain it and rather than pay to cover the load they were going to give them back to the shipper if they couldn't find a truck at the rates they offered. I thought I had found a new way to turn about $3-$3.40 a mile to the truck on 1,000 mile cart loads. Turned out I was wrong. They claimed they were contracted in at a certain rate the year before. That is a very poor business model to broker freight it's like those suckers on shipping wars bidding down, down, down not putting any value on what they do. Expedited brokers I work with have the option to go to their customer and ask for more money when capacity is tight and a truck is telling them "it's this rate or I go to other options who willingly pay it". I guess choptank is playing the averages like truckers who run for $2.50, $3 a mile and then a $1 or $1.50 follow up. So it was a lose for me and my buddy and win, win for local independants who are set up with the shipper and can pick up Choptank and other cheap nursery brokers slack and charge a normal rate for such labor intensive loads. The shipper will pay rates like that when they need trucks. It's not an abnormal rate or pushing the market beyond what is possible, not even close. They and the others don't always cover the loads and that tells you it's not. But a lot of dry vans are content to run that stuff for $2.00-$2.25 all the time, sometimes even less so nursery is like any other niche, the cheapest lowest service levels is what that market normally gets. This is good advertising for all the trucks who think those are great rates from brokers on those kind of loads, have at it.

 

Re: Choptank: They don't do anything different offering loads than anyone else. If it's hot, they have money. If it just posted, you will get a cheap offer until it needs to move. I've had more invoice challenges with them, usually due to the broker not putting enough detail in their system for the accounting folks to figure it out. When accounting is stumped, they never call - they just don't pay and wait for you to come collecting. THAT is my only gripe with Choptank. Otherwise, they have been about middle of the road as far as how everything else goes.

@ Rollin: Your mention of that nursery deal makes me think about this week and premium rates for loads that usually don't pay that good. I'm guessing it took a few weeks for Choptank to get enough carriers sniffing out that run you guys pulled to decide whether to keep it or not. For me, I ended up in the Raleigh area looking for a load back to north GA (need to get my IRP sticker on to avoid additional scrutiny at the scales).

I sat around a few hours getting the usual $500-700 chicken load offers and said "no thanks" alot. About 2pm I turned the key and moved MT. About that time, two of my regular customers (one mega broker, another that's a small carrier that brokers, not Choptank btw) started bugging me about a load, each of them calling about the same one. I've been out about 2x longer than usual on a bad week and was already at home in my mind LOL. About 1.5 hours into my trip, I pull into a rest area to fiddle with a CB radio problem, and one calls me back one last time with a rate approaching $4/mi. Suddenly he's got my attention and maybe I can stay out one more day with an expired IRP sticker (actually renewed and valid, just haven't been home to get the sticker on the plate) during truckers are criminals week and scoop this up LOL.

Here's how it shook out (verified with a follow up call to the broker that I didn't book with). The broker that I took the load from had already bid on and accepted the load. He's the one that needed it moved bad enough to pay. The second one was trying to get my best rate before grabbing it and I was playing fickle with the both of them. My leverage was with the first one who was already committed. Simple as that. And that one that offered the cherry rate is often bashed on here for being cheap. Go figure.