Rates

They have actual relationships with the carrier. Which means they understand that carrier. I might get 2 dozen phone calls a day from brokers and most days I only recognize 3 or 4 of the numbers. Those are generally the ones I always answer. The others get largely ignored.

These are people who understand my lanes. Professionals that I respect. Rates can vary depending on the situation. Your typical broker is brain dead and really only interested in covering the load. I don't have time for brain dead brokers. Most of them don't even bother to look at your destination points or read the extra info in the comments.

It's too bad there aren't many actual long term successful brokers who post here. I'm confident they would agree it is much preferred to work with a handful of carriers they know will get the job done as to risk their good accounts on the wild unknown of 600,000 random carriers from a load board.

You will figure out quickly that's playing with fire as dependable carriers from a load board are about as rare and sought after as good brokers are. Hope you enjoy pushing low paying low margin freight all the time and wondering if it will ever get where it's going. That's your future when your number 1 concern is always price.

 

There is no one answer to your question. Supply and demand changes daily, rates are not set in stone, there is no one " BIBLE' from which you can look up rates for certain. You determine rates paid by reading load-boards, talking to shippers / truckers involved in the product / lane you are interested in. Not a magic number to go by.Actually if brokers set published rates as a group, price fixing ( an illegal activity ) could be charged. Or at least used to be that way in produce industry. Brokers could only publish 'suggested ' freight rates.

 

Call a dozen carriers or more and get some quotes.

 

Depends on what kind of service you want. Do you want the mega carrier mentality of inexperienced drivers who don't give a rip as long as it gets there and I don't run out of hours doing it? Or, do you want a smaller company or independent driver who have built their reputations delivering quality one load at a a time? Do you want the drivers who represent YOU by delivering the loads YOU brokered showing up in sweats and flipflops, unshaven, smelly from not getting out of the truck and bathing once in a while? The ones in a busted up truck and/or trailer because they hit the utility pole for the 47th time this year? Or, do you want the clean cut, clean truck driving guys/gals who show up at a pick up or delivery dressed and ready to do good business and actually care if you load arrives like it left? Now realize, this doesn't apply 100% of the time to 100% of the people. I have seen mega drivers who do care and small guys who don't, every situation is a bit different. The latter will cost you more on both accounts. Once you figure that part out, you can move on to the next step, rates.

As was suggested, call some carriers and get quotes. If I say I can do it for $XXXX and you tell me Company Z can do it for less, I'm going to tell you to quit wasting my time and call them back. If we have the same conversation over and over, I'm going to tell you to lose my number. At that point in time, I will consider you a bottom feeder. One thing I have to ask, if you're calling to get rates in an already depressed market, how bad did Company Z screw up your last loads that you need to find another carrier or how many underbid loads did you wind up with and can't cover?

Most brokers are viewed with the same disdain as politicians, lawyers and car salesmen. Figure out what the carriers you call can run it for and set the rates accordingly, that way everybody gets piece of the pie. But remember this, if it didn't cost so much for businesses to ship their own products on their own trucks and still make a profit they would do it themselves and brokers wouldn't be needed. Don't expect the quality carriers to do it for little or no profit either.

I'm not singling you or anybody else out, this is just my opinion worth what you paid to get it.

 

My company works on about a 16% margin. So, just add that to what you plan to play the carrier.

If I can also throw my opinion out here, I'd much prefer to deal with a handful of carriers I can trust, then a busload of ones I can't.

 

Say we are talking general legal freight on a van of flatbed. Cost and reasonable profit for a Independent O/O for one tuck is about 1.85 to 2.00 PM and that's not getting rich. Cost before paying himself and the company is .90 to 1.25 depending on tons of variables. Driving your own truck for .50 PM is nuts considering all the headaches and risk. Many Brokers and shippers just don't care about this factor and only care about their cost being the cheapest way they can get it done.

So say you start at 2.00 then need to add in 15 to 30% to cover your costs. I am thinking that cost is more like the 25% to 30% in reality. If your a agent then the Brokerage has costs passed on to you and if your a Independent you have those costs all on your own. So in most cases you need to sell the freight to your customer at some where in the 2.50 to 3.00 range. Or you are a cut rate operator in the market place.


Also there are other issues to consider like where it is going to. If your shipping to a low reload freight area like FL for example the rate needs to be higher going there. Unfortunately if your selling freight out of FL the shipper has you at a disadvantage because you might not be able to get a good price coming back out. So you have to sell even higher going in. Maybe like 3.50+ going in and 2.00 going out and that might be tough.

Big question is do you want truckers that can afford quality and safe operations hauling freight or guys hanging on by their finger tips constantly cutting corners.

These numbers are going to vary a lot on current conditions. I can't tell you how frustrating it is as a Carrier to open up a load board and see 400 loads all paying crap rates. 1.00 to 1.50pm some even below a buck. When i call on a load with no posted rate many times it is a crap rate. I really would like to just slam the phone on the guy. So many Brokers/Agents are really rude when you try and negotiate or pass on their crap rate.

You will find a lot of hostility directed at brokers from a forum with mostly O/O truckers, unfortunately it is mostly deserved. I don't think it is easy to get great rates from shippers but it can be done. As a IOO I have direct customers. About 60% of my business is direct. Its not easy getting a good rate. I get turned down a lot.


PS. Funny thing is I am done driving for myself, I am considering becoming a agent, while keeping my Leased O/O team on my authority. Putting all my direct business on them while I sell as a agent for a larger Brokerage. So I could be needing to listen to my own advice.lol......


Cheap freight is my biggest concern. Can I sell at a reasonable rate to cover all parties concerns. Truckers, Carriers, Brokerage, Shippers, and myself?????????? Tough question do you post cheap freight because your starving and that's what you must settle for. Or as a Agent/Broker do you need to have other income as you build your business and refuse to take the shippers cheap freight.

Leave it off the load boards and don't put it all on the Trucker/Carrier to leave it on the docks. It takes both good Brokers and truckers working with the same goal in mind. A fair freight rate that keeps everyone making money. Too often our society thinks Cheap, Cheap, Cheap... First and never considers Quality and Stability.

If I decide to be a Agent my goal is to keep the big picture in mind and a cut rate Broker/Agent is not where I want to go. I hope this helps some. I think getting a fair price is tough. Hint look to smaller under serviced shippers they are more likely to be open to a fair rate.

 

It really is. Interestingly enough DAT puts out a weekly report of the previous week's hot spots and cold spots. With the hot and cold maps daily to show how it went. My experience last week mirrored exactly what they reported. Hot, hot, hot around the house people scrambling for trucks Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday and Thursday it was back to cold, cold, cold. Crickets were chirping Friday and have been all weekend.

The thing is unless a person is actually making the phone calls soliciting the trucks or the freight they really won't have a clue what market rates are. That stuff can change by the hour literally. And info about what happened last week does not necessarily reflect on what will happen next week. It could be the exact opposite. Or it could be cold all week or smoking hot.

If you are honed in on a few keys areas you will know one way or another. If not, and you are random willy nilly all over the country hoping for the best, you basically just take a stab in the dark or throw darts.