Brokers - your negotiations

Not sure what your point is.

 

Lol, I get calls from agents all day long about loads already on the load board. I usually know what they are calling about because I've already read the load alert email. I screen the call with google voice. Sometimes I'll answer in while they are leaving a voicemail and ask if they can pay more. It's kind of funny the answers you get. Sometimes I have to remind them, that they called me when they get a little frustrated with my persistent need to actually make a living...

 

Believe you me...brokers know the situation that's happening and will only get worse - capacity is tightening up in relation to loads being shipped.

Not saying that it's a gold mine out there, but there is a lot more opportunity to make extra on loads. Brokers need capacity, and the ones that have the available capacity are the ones that are going to climb the ladder.

I also think it's a good idea for carriers to start thinking about forming closer relations with brokers.

Brokers are starting to come under extreme pressure to find that truck before the other broker does. Sometimes it's not all about price, but availability. I am thinking a shipper will start going more and more often with the first broker to find a truck, period, if the price is at least reasonable. And the brokers that get those loads are the ones that will stay in business. So form relationships with the good ones, and the bad ones will be left without capacity and thus the business.

With rates rising and capacity tightening, shippers are expecting better and better customer service from both brokers and carriers, to make up for the extra they have to pay to move the load. So give your favorite brokers the capacity, and they will be the ones with loads more and more often.

Shhhh...you didn't hear this from me.

And if a load to Texas is paying well and you happen to get it, why not? I think I would be getting bored doing the same lanes over and over again like you, Rollin Coal, I'd be itching to go somewhere else, but that's me When I was new back in 2005 I begged my dispatcher to try and get me to Arizona. After a few months of being dependable, she was able to make that happen for me and I was ecstatic. I really enjoyed the variety of places I got to go to, and I felt like a prisoner in the truck when they had me jumping around a 5 state area for months on end.

 

lol....reminds me of those "demotivational posters".

 

I'm currently having trouble getting out of Texas on a decent enough rate. I've just gotten lucky in the past and always made a quick turn around at $2 per mile to the truck. It seems the rates in are ok, then all you find is more going south, until you get all the way to Mexico. I thought I had one earlier but the shipper cancelled. I hate to say it but I might take this cheap load tomorrow I got my eye on, should clear about .17 CPM.

 

I've been load planning for O/O ICs with their own authority for 10 years now, and I've seen lanes that were gold get turned to absolute crap once a low wage outfit gets on board. Before I came onto this forum I used to outright hate company drivers that moved cheap freight for their carriers, because I saw first hand the damage they do with each load. Its same concept as construction contractors always getting under bid by contractors that hire illegal aliens. Eventually the contractor that pays his people a living wage has to stop doing that, or they have to get out of the contracting business. Between federal regulations and profitable lanes getting ran into the ground by low wage outfits moving freight that barely pays the fuel costs, O/O's are getting squeezed tighter and tighter with each year.

I'm glad I've been able to keep the wheels turning for my 11 clients, but i'm not optimistic about the future at all.

 

I hear ya. In other cases I've been able to take a good paying load with a long deadhead. Even though I cleared about the same it just feels wrong to haul cheap freight.

 

If you're not dropping a hint that you're open to negotiate, then you're equally to blame for the call ending quickly. But then, you knew that already LOL.