Is anybody really making enough profit?

i can't tell you how bad profit is. i know that transportation brokers are looked at as the bad guys (and some are) but not all. i've had to stop brokering flatbed loads b/c many of the customers i encountered don't even want to hear about paying fuel.

i had a dispatcher hang up on me and basically call me a crook a few months back b/c i wouldn't (really couldn't afford to) give $25 more on a back haul. he assumed that i was witholding hundreds of dollars. i in fact only was making about $15 on the load (which meant i owed my brokerage about $35 to make payout). about 20 minutes later, another person from his company called back and thought the rate was more than generous (for a backhaul).

we aren't all bad guys (some are). it's just that we can't give any more money than the shipper will give. it's bad out there for everybody. even thought about giving it up a few times but i got too much invested in it.

 

I can only say that brokers should follow the same rule that OO's should. If they (shipper) don't want to pay, don't take the load. If you follow that rule then you won;t be placed in a position to expect an OO to lose money hauling your load.

PS::: there is no such thing as a "BACK-HAUL" everything has a start and stop point, If it needs to be moved then it is a load, period. Insurance, tires, fuel,...... aren't any cheaper heading towards your home than they are going away. BACKHAUL is BS.

 

Thank you! How hard is this to understand?

 

My buddy was telling me that he turned down a $18,000 OD load this morning and he knows for a fact that the broker was getting $29,000 for it! Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered

 

How much of that would've gone to fuel and permits and pilot cars?

 

What would your buddy feel is an appropriate rate the broker should have earned on that load?

Superloads are quite different from your average run of the mill van/reefer/flatbed freight. I doubt a shipper is going to hand over a load to just any driver with a truck. And I seriously doubt this load just materialized over the past few days/weeks.

Remember, things are not always as the first appear.

 

He said he would clear about $6000 of the $18000.

 

I don't know what the broker should earn, but obviously my friend thought it was too much for the broker to clear $11000 and he would clear $6000.

The rates are relative for all types of freight, this is obviously an extreme example. If its a van load and paid $2900 and the broker offered $1800 its the same thing. Personally, I think that's too much for the broker to earn. He/she goes home at night to their nice home and sleeps in their nice bed while the trucker drives and stops to sleep somewhere on the side of the road or a truck stop. If he's lucky his A/C or heat is working and no one bothers him about idling his truck or where he/she parked and he gets some rest. The broker gets up in the morning and goes into his bathroom to pee pee and takes a nice shower. The trucker gets up, pee pees in a bottle, gets a cup a coffee and gets going. I think that's worth more than what the broker brought to the party, but hey, I might be wrong.

 

I agree, in theory.

I disagree, in reality.

The availability of trucks, or lack thereof, in a given region has always and will alway dictate the rate. For example, the rates for freight originating in Wisconsin destined for NYC/NJ (or anywhere on the east coast for that matter) metro, will always command a far better rate that the loads coming out. This is because the entire east coast is a mass consumer region, yet produces little, relatively speaking. Alot of freight going in, but not near as much comming out.

Same thing with Florida, but with a Jeckle and Hyde twist - Produce season. From late spring through middle autumn, there is little comming out of Florida, and I'm talking reefer/van freight. So, every trucking outfit here in Wis knows this, and will not touch a load to Florida unless the rate is high enough to offset the cheap ### kitty litter and chicken loads comming out. This gets reversed a little in the spring and fall durring produce season, as the demand for reefers in Florida is much higher. But the rates leaving Wis tend to get cut, as it has become desirable and more profitable to run Florida.

I get so tired of people saying that backauls are BS. It is simpley supply vs demand, in a capitolistic society. Nothing more.

Understand now, I am not trying to play pissing match or anything, but just wanted to take the opportunity to speak up. And yes, I wished I could haul loads from Florida to Chicago for $2600 year round. But if that were the case, my $4000 loads to Miami would end.