Brokers. What is the biggest problem you have to deal with?

I'm a carrier and my problem is lack of freight. I can't find enough freight from Harrisburg, PA to New England for $4 a mile, or better, so I can get out of that dead spot.

 

If I hook up with New England based carriers then $3.20 is good. But no, it doesn't work if you start here and don't have a return load back. There are good paying loads from up there down to here, I know, but don't have access to it. The carriers I use from up there have it. I just had to work up quotes for a customer with a DE shipping point going West and Texas and Florida. Looking at avg line haul rates for a van are so low to just about everywhere and then add 57 cpm for fuel and still under $2 a mile. Cressler closed their van division last OCT. They had like 100 trucks running stuff somewhere. My company primarily runs dry bulk tankers and we have a small van division that in the current environment is extremely difficult to run profitably. We are getting new brokerage business from companies that have cheap rates but are having loads sitting on the dock because the cheap rate folks can't supply a truck as they had expected. What lanes do you run from Middletown?

 

I run a little in every direction but my primary lane is south central PA - northeast OH.

 

You can thank the new hours of service for the lack of hours available to run, along with electronic logs and one restart per 168 hours and a half hour mandatory break by or before every 8 hours driven. But everyone that does not drive thinks these are such great things then get upset when these not so great things screw up everything making mad customers and late loads. The brokers should rally against these changes as well as the truckers and petition Washington and the DOT. It affects everyone trucking companies and brokers alike ............just saying ...

 

I think they're great things. Anything that ups the value of trucks with a fresh 11/14 on last minute freight is money in my pocket.

 

I don't exactly have a dog in the fight but I agree with you. Nobody likes to learn new rules or likes change. But, if people take time to learn the rules and see how they can work for them, there is actually more money that can be made due to them.

What's the saying... if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything will appear to be a nail.

Don't try to fight every change in this industry...or life!

 

I think the only people that don't like the new rules are the ones running mileage pay. Come on Anne, what other great ideas do you have to take capacity out to the market? I'll fight for all of them.

I think drivers should only be allowed to run 8-hrs in a day and 10-hours isn't enough for anyone to get enough rest. I am voting for the 8/24 rule. Only 8 hours then 24 off. That will make sure that everyone gets a complete sleep cycle over night.

Where is that left wing petition site? I need to get this rolling.

 

Your wrong , you cant make more money due to the new rules. I can drive more miles and get more rest under the old rules. The half hour break after or before 8 hours driving is ridiculous. It just makes you more tired stopping and resting for no reason. I rested for 10 hours + prior I am up and ready to go. I am not ready to do nap time like a 2 year old ( will the DOT and Anne Ferraro supply me a blankie and a cuddly toy too ? ). Now there have been times I was tired but I took my little rest then ,not at some time set forth to me by a communist idiot trying to take charge of my LIFE. My body does not work that way and I don't need a mommy to tell me when I need to take a nap. Maybe Anne Ferraro could wipe my rear too and tell me when to urinate as well? Maybe that will be in the next amendment to the driving rules she does? Communism is not my idea of America and what it stands for. We have the right to work under the constitution free from undue burdens , taxations and hardships levied on us by the government . Anyway for me it wears me out taking a break when it is not needed ,and the NO restart until 168 hours has passed ? Come on be REAL. There is no reason that my hours shouldn't be allowed to reset after any 34 hour reset. It just eliminates the ability to make money and loads that you can take. If you sat you should be allowed fresh hours PERIOD. I used to do as many as 3 restarts a week that's 102 hours of resting not counting my 10 hour + breaks. I took the loads because they paid good enough to cover this rest time or I was tired and wanted time off to rest. I would book a load with a restart ,but just saying you rest and sit you should be allowed fresh new hours and not punished by just once every 168 hours after your last restart. It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. BUT the REAL reason they implemented this rule is to make MORE JOB openings and make a poorer class of people = class separation , YES I said it MORE JOBS will have to created to fill the holes left by freight from lost driving time and with that comes lower driver pay. More Mexican Carriers working cheaper under government subsides to fill the gaps and take our jobs = outsourcing by insourcing them into out country. And they are a brokers DREAM working for almost nothing and it seems not having to comply with FMCSA and they do not have to retrofit their trucks for California. That is they are Mexican based at least the last time I checked the California Air Research Board this was true. Plus the government fuel subsidy they receive there is no one that can compete with them on a cost basis. And lets not forget ....WE yes WE from our TAXES ....that WE as Truckers pay are going to pay for their OBRs. Doesn't it make you warm and fuzzy all over getting a long stiff one up your backside Compliments of the US Government and the Stooges in charge ? ? And not liking the new rules has NOTHING to do with LEARNING new rules. Trucking is basically as far as logging goes a NO BRAINER , in my opinion take what 10 minutes to learn them, doesn't mean they are good and that we or in my case I like them. They are detrimental to health ,well being , mental alertness, and safety for which they were designed supposedly for. And lastly detrimental to INCOME POTENTIAL the reason we work !! The only reason Anne is playing with the rules is she could look like she is needed in a job they was appointed to by Obumer This way she looks useful to her Comma dent Clink there in the white house. And Annie Ferraro aka. (Steam Boat Anne ) She will ram it down your throat whether its good or NOT and say take it b#4ch, as if these new rules are needed. The rules needed ,need to pertain to other parts of trucking. Trucking safety has been at its highest the last few years under the last rules of service. Don't believe me ? Then read up on the statistics, and that will change unless you can figure out detention pay MANDATORY from shippers and receiver's with minimum dock times, and higher driver pay, and parking for trucks so they can park close by when they are early to an appointment and the receiver says you cant park here , you got to go. This way they do not start their clock driving their few miles to the final only to sit on that dock for hours wasting their driving time and most of their day. Fix that and you will be well on your way to fixing many problems . But of course why would they do that with all the lobbyists these companies have. Lets instead just keep pilling on more regulations to an already over regulated industry...the truckers. when it is shippers and receiver that need some MAJOR regulation. It is this kind of thinking , like the guy that stuck his finger in the dike for the leak and the rest of the dam washed out around him so it was a loss even though he sacrificed and no one else did. Truckers are the finger the rest of the dam is the major problem. Oh and speaking of fingers Steam Boat Anne , and Comma dent Clink I have one for both of you. Now would I like to work shorter days and would that be safer ? Sure I would, and yes it would be safer. Hell maybe we could just get paid to sit and say we drive a truck, but trucking is a necessary evil if you want to have any type of products to use to live. So less hours means more pay to compensate for the lost hours and ability to make revenue and more jobs which = higher inflation. So where do we fix it and how? Maybe we cut out the middle man Yup here it is the greedy brokers that take WAY too much and give way too little on the loads. This would cut shipping costs and this could be passed on to the trucking industry with a small reduction under what the brokers are paid to save shipping costs ,but passed on to the trucking industry at higher rate than it usually gets. To the truckers which actually do the jobs , deliver the loads , use the fuel , baby sit ,handle the paper work , deal with the shippers , and receiver's on a in personal basis. Then trucking companies could do better jobs being safer, buy newer equipment, pay drivers better, keep up better on maintenance, and have the money needed to run safely as so many run from hand to mouth. with all the people who have their hands out in this industry like vultures to take a truckers money. Seem a lot like retreads running the Asylum.


Knowledge is POWER and anyone that tries to sugar coat something is only selling on you a sweet turd

 

I just got an email from a direct shipper this morning offering $2.50 a mile on one ways. $2.40 a mile on multi stop round trips and $2.30 a mile on round trips. Of course that's wishful thinking on their part but last year LS was offering same freight for $2.80-$3.00 a mile at times. Sometimes it was at the rates the shipper emailed out this morning but never lower. So much for cutting out the big bad middle man and getting his money for the truck...

As far as these new regs are concerned anything that keeps trucks from working is good. It's not about working yourself to death nonstop and never has been. When we're all on elogs and you're a truck with a fresh 11/14 in late afternoon you're a valuable commodity to someone. Some things will never change even with elogs the majority of freight will move by solar powered truckers. The folks who get in a bind and haven't covered their bases on the last minute stuff will pay a premium for an after hours truck.

 

I'm a driver and these are the problems that I see after 36 yrs on the road , moving your loads ... My dispatcher gives me a address + name but no load info , No questions on how much driving time I've got left...... When I arrive am weighed or told I have to take the max that i can take, if no scales at site i have to go fine one.... most loads from dispatch have no time table........Or ! BOL has dates but no time of drop..... And then you guys start calling US the driver ? call the dispatch ! we have enough to put up with , with out having to answer the phone on the road . How about everyone broker / dispatch / driver all being on the same page before a load is taken ? Never seen it done yet