Disclosure?

I thought they were lawyers.

 

Just what we need is more regulation

 

Agreed.

Except under the conditions I'll now set forth.....

You not only desire to purchase a box fan, but you need to purchase a box fan.

So, you drive over to your local Wal-Mart only to find the price of a $12.99 box fan to actually have been inflated to the price of $129.99....

You then go to Kmart, but their box fan prices are even higher, $149.99....

And you notice, while you're standing there, that there are people who need box fans just as badly as you do, AND they're actually buying them....

Which means the chances of you buying a box fan for $12.99 are pretty slim....

Yep, those are $3.78 box fans, and the brokers/stores are moving them for $129.99 and up....

That's why the government wrote the disclosure regulation posted earlier in this thread.

It's to protect certain people from predatory practices.

Now, I understand that we like to make as much as we can...

And I like to hang a broker by the ankles until I shake every last dime out of him as well....

What I don't like is unscrupulous brokers taking advantage of a depressed economy, and stuffing their pockets with money while laughing....

It's a fine line, I agree......

The line between too much government, and not enough government.....

 

I'm wondering tator, why your interested in price fixing? Which is EXACTLY what you're suggesting be done to brokers. Never mind that its realy none of your business what a broker makes per load. They have bills to pay, just like you do.

Is it a jealousy thing?

Did you get taken by a broker, or you think you did?

 

You confuse a need with a want. You can live without a box fan. That's a "want". If you're financial situation is such that that you "need" any loads and can't play it patient why is that someone else's fault when they view it that they don't need any load out here but will gladly take any - but only if at their price?

Too many people also assume that every broker easily rakes in 50%. As if brokers operate in a world with no competitive pressures of their own. Just as there are desperate truckers who need loads there are desperate brokers who will agree to cover at any price the customer dictates. Or megas who could care less and squeeze out their competition with cheap stuff. The good ones have an out on that freight giving it back or not even bothering with such a customer in the first place.

Drivers, as always the rate is dependant on you. The last thing we need are regulations protecting businesses that teeter and can't figure out an effective gameplan.

 

I understand, I'm trying to use an analogy to describe what happens in a suppressed economy.

It's a lot like what happens up on the east coast on a Monday morning, 0900.

A lot of desperate buyers, driving the rates down....

I post a load, within seconds of posting my phone is ringing off the hook....

"Here let me tell you about that load, it's 44k and I'm paying .90cpm on it....."

How do I get away with such a cheap rate?

Drive around the Vince Lombardi and look at the average condition of the O/O equipment and who's driving it.

Now, Rollin, you're a savy O/O, and you know you can get your rate......sometimes

But it sometimes is lean and mean for weeks on end, and you sometimes spend many, many days between loads......

And the "need" vs "want" thing is entirely subjective.....

What may be a want for you is a need for someone else.

Now, don't get me wrong. I lived off of broker load boards for years....

Then, I found my "niche"

I average over $2.50 per mile for all miles.

My last load?

$4.25 on the loaded mile, and it wasn't on a flatbed, or low boy, or curtainside....

It went in a Utility trailer, it went in a van....

It paid 6k on 1250 loaded miles.

It's good work if you can get it.

 

Two weeks ago, I had two loads....

$2300 on 700 miles. (two loads from the same place, each paying 23 on 7, yes, it was a nice week...)

But what do I think of TQL???

LOL!!!

(I haven't called a mega, let alone haul a mega load, in over a year now.)

I believe BBB can testify to a CH Robinson load that was being offered at 50% of the shippers rate.

Think about that for a minute.....

The brokerage wants half of the shippers rate for a simple phone call.

Some people have no problem with this....

And that's why the brokers do it.

I ain't buying no $129 box fan, I'll make my own freaking box fan first. (lol)

 

Forgot, that one was a little less than 1400 loaded miles, my bad, I was giving the numbers from memory, off the top of my head...it happens

1250 is the loaded miles on the one I'm picking up tomorrow.

 

Nope, not at all.....it's more something I like to refer to as "fairness"

Everybody, at some point, got "taken" by a broker.....

The real question is, "Did I learn anything, or did I continue to get taken advantage of?"

I do pretty good at this trucking thing, these days.

Do I like it that others, as in other drivers who are like I was once, do I like it that they get taken advantage of?

No, I don't.

Do I help them?

Nope. But it doesn't mean that I like, or approve of, someone gettin' robbed.

Truth is, I fluctuate between two worlds....I'm kinda like a shark that doesn't like eating fish, but eats them to survive, and even, dare I say it, to thrive.

One of my favorite lines that I've recently heard went something like this.....

"What kind of man have I become Sol?"

Sol answers, "I don't know, the days not over yet...."

 

And we should probably clear up this misunderstanding.

I have never suggested, ever, that prices should be fixed....

I only voiced an opinion in favor of the regulation that states that rate confirmations shall be supplied if requested.

What you do with that is your business.

I did verbalize an analogy that tried to illustrate what happens in a lopsided market, and a lopsided market is what a lot of O/O's have been dealing with on the broker boards during this depressed economy/economic market.