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

I feel you mimi. Customers these days, think mileage is all that matters when determing freight cost. There is so much that they do not care, or think about. It's hard to get it thru their heads. The most success I have had talking to customers when telling them about price is ask them how does their company determine their price for their products. They always say well we have quality products so we price it high. I tell them, that is exactly what you get with the trucking industry. You want to pay cheap, don't be surprised for ###### service; you pay right, you get drivers who care.

 

That is so true WallerBroker. Maybe one day they will understand but until than it is going to be an up hill battle.

 

Yeah... You have one of two problems here. Either you are trying to squeeze out too much margin or your customer isn't paying enough. Margin is great and all, but time is money. Once you go below the general market rate (which obviously changes constantly based on whether the market for that load is tight or loose at that moment) finding a carrier becomes exponentially harder. It's often a vastly positive decision for your bottom line to accept a 10% margin over a 15% margin, or even to accept a small loss over a small profit to just get the load done and over with.

Remember that every call you make on IT or DAT trying to fill a load is a call you didn't make trying to expand your business. That's a real cost that a lot of brokers ignore. Customers that cost a ton of time for not a lot of profit aren't doing you any favors. Your willingness to make calls that don't directly result in tangible profits (cold calls to new customers) is what determines the quality of your customer base. The difference between a broker that makes 35k a year and a broker that makes 700k a year is the quality of his or her customer base. (and obviously some other personal characteristics. Most people wouldn't be able to hold the small empire it takes to make 700k a year together for a week without blowing it up)

 

Ahhhh yes. The backhaul rate.

You said you were looking for DAILY capacity? You're trying to find a stupid trucker every day?

 

It seems everyone wants to blame the driver these days.

From a drivers view: Weather and traffic are issues but not the biggest issue, a good driver can plan around those problems if they were given enough time to start with.

By far the Number one reason for late delivery is "Late Dispatch" A driver has HOS "Hours of Service" regulations, Speed limits, traffic and delays at the shipper that are 100% outside of his control. If he wasn't given enough time to start with what do you expect.
I do not know the broker side of the business, if the broker has any control over when the load is given to the driver. It seems this would be the fault of Dispatch.

The second major reason for late delivery is delays at the shipper. You talked about produce, about half of the produce loads come from 3rd party shippers such as US cold storage, americold exc.... these shippers only care about one thing, and that's a smooth operation on their end, they really don't care if you have an appointment or not. It has been my experience that there's nothing that can change this problem. calling the broker to put pressure on them only makes you wait longer.

after you deal with these 2 issues, take into account weather, traffic, DOT, then you can blame the driver.

The issues Drivers have with brokers that hinder the process, is incorrect shipping information, wrong appointment time, wrong address, phone numbers. Wrong appointment times happen a lot, the others are rare. some times it's dispatch but some times the broker.

 

As a driver I agree this problem is getting worse, Why are dispatchers not required to know HOS, they have our log right in front of them but can't for the life of them figure out if the driver has enough time to get it done.

I think dispatchers should be licensed and tested for HOS knowledge.

 

Here Here, I'm with you. but that will raise the price of freight. wait that's a good thing also.

 

then get your carrier in-line first.

 

Keeping track of the lies...Sorry brokers, my experience as a whole is very negative due solely to being lied to. Given loads, told no appt time, show up, told appt was yesterday, get put in the "we'll get to you when we can line", 10hrs later, detention pay not worth waking up for and wouldn't have if known upfront.......

My dispatch no longer gives me broker loads as he KNOWS I will drop it, bring it back or whatever I need to get out from under if I'm lied to by them in any way again. Dispatch won't take the chance, that's very telling of brokers, not the fact they know I do what I say...As a group, not everyone, don't get panties in ruffle, of course any reading this are the exceptions, all the bad are the other ones...

 

Good thread,,,brokers and carriers/drivers talking to each other...
I am new to the dealing with brokers first hand thing but, I believe things could be made more efficient. Lets start with putting all accurate info possible on the load board. All we ever get is basic info, which isn't enough to even start with but, gives you enough to make a call. How many call's are made to brokers on avg? 70? How many would you have to make if you already knew the answer to all the questions you have to answer today? Wouldn't your life, broker, be easier if you didn't have to answer so many phone call's? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't suggest you put the top tier price you as a broker are willing to pay for that particular load but, you can be fair and go from there. No other reason why the details of the shipment can't be on the load, off the load board. Some are btw but most are not. Have to call to find out what time it picks up, what time it delivers, how many stops if any... what am I hauling? How much does it really weigh? Can you tell me about the shipper? on and on... Just seems like a lot of time could be saved if brokers would put all the information they can on the load, on the load board. What am I missing?