Rates in the toilet?

That's no more of a hindrance than truck insurance. And actually a heck of a lot cheaper. There are several ways to meet that bond requirement, and only one requires an actually outlay of significant funds. Many companies out the bond up for you and you just make small premium payments much like how insurance works.

 

Not sure what your point is. Are you saying you will give a load back before taking a loss on it? If that's what you are saying, it just means you don't have any good paying contracts with taking a one time loss on.
The good stuff is never given back because no matter how big a loss is taken on one load, the profit margin for the other 98 percent more than over comes the times you gotta suck it up and break out the check book. And then there is the contract signed with the customer. In many of them, giving a load back breaks that contract and their goes your customer to another carrier or brokerage firm.

 

So, you're saying even though you refuse loads that we are somehow not able to show a similar prerogative?

I've turned down several out of hand because I knew it would be a waste of time to post them. They had no room for the carrier to get even an average rate and for me to get my minimums. (one downside of being a landstar agent.)

 

The typical landstar triple brokered load no money left to even get an idiot to take it.
I haul some of those loads straight from the logistics company so I know how much they are cutting.

 

If you're giving the cheap loads back, why did you take them in the first place? And how many customers are going to call twice after that experience?

 

If cheap freight is what they do then they aren't worth having. Of course some carriers have a really skewed perception of cheap.

You know what happens when you ASSume? I never double broker, but I am not always the only broker given the chance to get a truck for a load either. Indeed one of the first customers this agency gives it's newer agents is one that has a broker board. So I sometimes find myself competing against other brokers offering the same freight. It is not however double-brokering or co-brokering.

 

I think it is funny when a broker says a carrier has a skewed perception of what is cheap. I have said it before take your best stuff and put it on your truck at the "good rate" you pay your carriers, then try to build around it with othet spot freight.

I think it would be an eye opener at how difficult a task truckers have trying to scratch out a living. A hell of a lot more difficult than making money off selling loads. Most of you guys don't have a clue that your "good paying freight" is only a marginal rate because you've never actually ran a truck before.

I would give Bob a pass on that as he says he used to run his own truck so he knows what that is like. The vast majority of spot freight has really low rates and your marginal rates coupled with really low rates do not make much, if any, profit at all, for a truck.

So think about that the next time you accuse some carrier of gouging when we take advantage of market conditions and charge a fair rate of $5 a mile (or whatever higher rate) on a 500 mile run when it normally only pays half that or much worse.

As a carrier you HAVE to score loads like that every now and then to run a profitable truck. There is nothing unfair about it. And it is not a "skewed perception". Get out here and run a truck then tell us all a little something about skewed perceptions.

 

If the tables were turned and owner ops were the only ones to see the true rates and the owner ops were the ones who lorded over how much the brokers deserved, you'd see a whole forum of brokers squealing like stuck pigs.

An owner op has to earn enough to cover the cost of living back home (I call it COL, several thousand dollars a month) then has to cover fuel and overhead/maintenance for the equipment(several thousand dollars a month).Truck insurance ($10,000 give or take). This is just to break even. Can't get ahead on break even. Have to cover health insurance ($5000 or more), retirement (IRA's and solo 401k's, Certificates of Deposit, Money Market Accounts, Annuities, and Life Insurance $30,000 or more), and of course the all important equipment replacement schedule ($20,000 or more). Finally, TAXES.

 

I've been thinking about getting my brokerage authority for a while.

I think I'll be very successful.

 

There is nothing unfair about it. If you believe in free markets, it is your duty to charge what the market will bear -- doing so allocates scarce resources (a truck in a hot market) to the most important loads (the ones willing to pay).

You don't get points for hauling a surplus load of dog food for $1.50/mile when Ford is stopping a production line because they couldn't find a truck to get their supplies on time.