Dealing with the brokers - what's the best way?

We have seen loads of "house hold things" turn out to be barbed wire, farm equipment, explosives. I never hold a bid till I see the load. That TV show is just that. A TV show.

 

EXACTLY why I won't go that far with authority and work for someone else. Thank you so much with this thread. proves even more why I'm doing what I'm doing. To the T how I described Landstar earlier in a thread on here. Some stuff on this site others talked about and why I told them I prefer not. If I wanna work for anyone in any shape or form I'll become company driver. Wish you the best of luck. Be safe!!

 

Given that I can tarp a lumber load in 45 minutes I could make more money tarping at these prices than I do actually operating the truck.

Where do I sign up?

 

They will always have a rate that is to low at 0900, but that will change as the day wears on....

Number 1 reason why O/O's fail, they lack the ability to command a rate. Like Adam, (OZR), said, it is all a negotiation, learn to negotiate and always be nice on the phone. There is always what we're thinking, and what we are saying, and those two things need to be kept separate. Example, you call on a load and the broker gives you his pitch, "yeah, it's yada yada yada, weighs bing bang boom, and we're paying (some ridiculously cheap price that makes your jaw drop...) Now, in your mind you're thinking, "What the #$#%, what are you, some kind of ahole?", but you can't ever say that, you can't ever say that.... so, what do you do? You learn to play the game... you say something like, "well, I appreciate the offer, but I can't haul for that rate. If we're going to continue this discussion we're going to need to be somewhere around here, (and you give him your rate PLUS ten to twenty percent extra, so that you can be flexible and come back down some while still getting what you need to get)...

My recommendation is to learn how to negotiate a rate, that is unless you like having someone else skimming your load. (And besides, most, if not all, dispatch services suck at rate negotiation) They convince themselves that such and such is a great rate and spend more time trying to get you to accept it than trying to get the broker to pony up. I've never met anyone who worked as a "professional dispatcher" that really knew how to work over a broker, while smiling and remaining professional. Now, that doesn't mean they don't exist, but I wish you luck in finding one...

Check out Oscar, he just gave a great example of commanding a rate.....

"I wouldn't move a tarp 6" for $15. My minimum to tarp is $100, and that's for an easy small piece, it goes up fast from there."

Now, if I'm talking to Oscar he just snapped me to attention quick, didn't he? And he wasn't uncivil, but he was all business.

It's not that hard, you can do it.

 

There are a lot of "dispatch services" out there who think they know rates. Truth is doubtful they have a clue about freight at all. Rudimentary "$2 a mile is a good average" or "I always get my drivers $2 a mile"... ....is someone who ain't got a clue.

 

$2/mi is crap. Let the truck sit. This is 2013 not 1989. A dollar is worth less than half of what it was back then.


Posted just for the record.

 

$2 a mile for dryvan is good, not stellar or mindblowing, but most. def. good.

 

So what would $1.56, 10' wide, 40,000lbs legal height RGN load be? Other than offensive.

 

Sounds like a back-haul rate...Either that or the freight in the area just dried up