Car Hauling Dispatch

Anyone ever used these dispatching services? The one's that say they charge 9% of your load, but keep you loaded all the time? I think you should get paid to work instead of paying to work, but as someone who's just getting started, I imagine it's hard to drive and find loads at the same time. Is that the same as a broker? I don't have that many contacts right now, and can't really stay on top of the load boards while being behind the wheel. Any advice on how to keep yourself loaded?

 

When you work for your self, it seems you are always paying something or somebody so you can work. And in the end hope you have some change left in your pocket.

Along with our own carrier service, I do offer Dispatch Service. But this is not an offer to work with you, but MY ideals on why a dispatch service can work for some folks.

KNOWLEDGE and TIME.... that is mostly what you pay for. While you are working for your parents or spending time with your wife, I am checking out load boards, making connections and building relationships with brokers and shippers. While you are sleeping I am getting calls from brokers with loads to move. We have built the rep of doing a good job and not being a fly by night, so we get a bit more respect with most brokers. We have proof in the numbers to show that we can do the job and good brokers know this. Having been around a bit, we have access to loads that you may never even know about. Also we have a better grip on rates as we spend so much time dealing with them.

You can't drive and check load boards or build those relationships. You can't drive and stay on top of treads to see what is moving and where. You can't drive and fax packets very well or legally. If a driver is doing this on his own, he will have to stop someplace that has either internet or good cell service and fax the info to a broker, then call to make sure they got it. Call your agent and have them fax a COI and then wait around till the broker issues the trip, so you can print it out. Bang, there goes 30-60 mins of your productive time out the window when you could have been 50 more miles up the road and 50 miles closer to getting back home.

Under our dispatch agreement, we become a commissioned employee of your firm, not your broker. We do not "sell" you our loads, but get loads for you. We operate as if our office was yours. We even offer billing and collections to help keep you running and not worrying about, pulling over to send POD and invoices while waiting for the mail to arrive and getting the checks in the bank...etc.

And I know you will hear it from me and everyone else, but a good dispatch service will pay for them self.

Good Luck!

 

No worries, you will get to pay multiple facets of the government in order to work & if you work hard enough, you will get to pay them again because you did in fact, work.

The only way around the subject you were specifically speaking of is to have your own customers the rely on you & your company. But even then, as I have found out, you cannot do it alone. So you will need help from someone that is a fulltime employee to either drive or run the sales/office side. Ultimately you would need 2 - 3 trucks to pull off the overhead by the additional employee(s) & have any money left over. The trick is being able to pay for employee(s) while building the business you do not have with enough financial backing to pull it off. It is a lot tougher than most think.

 

I kinda see what you are saying now. Instead of paying my own employee to stay on top of loads while I'm driving, I would come out cheaper by paying a dispatch service to do it for me. Seems like every time I ask a question, whenever I get an answer it opens up a million other questions. lol My next question is, if most dispatching services do like what TAK12LLC said, and become a commission paid employee, do I have to pay employee taxes on them just like if they were an employee? Or would I 10-99 them? Thanks again for all of the info guys!

 

10-99

Well I have to type more charters so this message will post.... hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

100% AGREE and sorry that I did not mention that part. In my mind that should just be a given. But I have some folks I dispatch for that have had bad experiences with other services who did not call ahead.

Just like a min ago, I called on one from DAS that has a Sunday pick up date. But the pick up location is closed on Sunday. Called DAS Dispatch and that was worthless. But because I have been around a bit, I know the boss lady and sent her an email to try to get this figured out. My guess is a TYPO and it will be ready for pick up on Saturday..

 

Sounds a lot simpler going that route. What's the average % to expect a dispatch service to be paid? Like I said, I've seen some that say you keep 91% of what you make and others that are 87.5%. I'm assuming most companies take their % off the gross amount, correct? I have a very detailed financial plan that has an estimated income at no less than $0.50 cpm per car (more for larger vehicles) my fixed monthly costs(tags, insurance, etc), my variable costs(fuel based on 6mpg anything over is a bonus, tires, oil changes, brakes, general maintenance, etc), to estimate my monthly net income. I don't plan on doing anything for less than $0.50 cpm per car, is this reasonable? I've ran the numbers and anything less and you're not making any money. Thanks again for all of the info, it's really helping me with my business plan. I don't want to be another fly by night dirt cheap car hauler. I'm looking to take a professional approach and keep my truck polished and clean and project a professional image because no matter what I do, for some reason I have a crazy desire to constantly be better than the next guy.

EDIT: A GOOD dispatch service that will help me out and stay on top of things like Midwest said. Someone who can get good rates and doesn't just call me with crap loads paying $0.30 cpm, will verify cars etc. The way I see it, the more money I make, the more the dispatch service will make, because 10% of nothing is nothing. Thanks again for all of the information!

 

Thanks for the info. I'm figuring all my loads on $0.50/mi, even though that would be the absolute minimum I would take, and that would be on a back haul or something to fill the trailer. And I'm estimating my fuel costs at 6mpg when I really think I can get around 8mpg, possibly more. I like to run my numbers at a worst case scenario type thing, and if they work out under worse case scenario, then I think I should be good. Thanks again for the info!