florida produce

yup thats what we do, run from NE to MW and back. Leaving PA is hard, but coming back for 2.80/mi is worth it especially if you are able to unload and reload once again running 5.5 days a week

 

I ####ing wish. My margins on produce are in the 8-10% range. The lowest margin loads I do all year are those IN-FL loads that I make 200 a pop on. (I don't even get to keep the whole 200, I get a fraction of that) Most of us make our living from volume.

Some of you guys need a reality check on how much money brokers are actually making. Some of us have insane freight where the customer overpays drastically but that's far from the norm. Those customers are also basically never large. I'm basically the transportation manager for the one customer I have that I make 20%+ on.

EDIT: And I'd punt my high margin customer over my low margin customer any day of the week. One of those accounts can do as much freight as I can move and the other has at most 3 loads a week. There is no such thing as free money, one way or another you have to work for it.

You guys have to understand that the market for brokers is mega competitive as well. Every customer we have gets cold called constantly by other brokers looking to break in. Many of them (TQL especially) will offer to run loads at cost initially to run the rest of us off. Of course once they start getting large volume their rates spike.

If a broker is making 1000 dollars a load he's a PROBLEM for the shipper. Not because he's screwing the trucks but because he's screwing the customer. He should be offering the customer a rate at LEAST 500 dollars better (I consider 300 dollars to be the standard per load markup if it's a customer I don't know very well.) Sometimes these kinds of markups can be justified with stuff like berries, cigarettes, booze, or complex OD stuff that requires the broker take some significant execution risk when he takes the load... But usually the customer is shopping us constantly. Any broker who is making 1000 a load is going to be competing with me at 300 a load shortly.

SECOND EDIT: There are a lot of brokers who will take advantage of a customer in their moment of need. A lot of 1000 dollar brokerage loads happen that way. Basically if the customer loses a truck they need late in the day they are in a very bad spot to negotiate. The broker can often gouge the crap out of the customer in this spot.

Interestingly enough this is a terrible business move. Customers VIVIDLY remember having this done to them. In fact any time a broker brings a customer their *only option* and it's expensive they naturally assume that the broker is gouging them. Doing this, almost ever, is a guaranteed way to poison the trust your customer has for you... And that will greatly reduce the freight you get. Before too long you're the customers 'break glass in case of emergency' guy who gets 3 loads a year the week before Christmas. Good luck making a living off that.

I actually run the really expensive last minute loads at cost a lot of the time. And I prove it to the customer by sending them the Carrier Rate Con. Every time I do this it makes me look like a saint with the customer and it yields vastly more money than gouging them would have. People like to reciprocate when they get favors. This is also why one of my customers gives me freight in the off season at the produce season rate. Just a load or two a week. It's because they feel like helping me stay in business during the slow season is the right thing to do. I will admit I make 500 bucks on a 1500 dollar load on those lol.

 

interesting to hear this kind of stuff

 

We have a couple of customers we haul produce into. Their rates are right in there with the usda rates. FL rates included. Just because one doesn't get that rate doesn't mean that everyone doesn't.

 

@boredsocial So you show the customer how much the carrier is making? Do they really care about that or no?

 

https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/wa_fv190.txt
This might help

 

Not usually... But when it's a load I covered at 4pm for 500 dollars more than they usually pay I'll show them that I'm not making money on it so that they are grateful instead of slightly pissed. It's a special situation type thing.

It's fine to make an extra hundred or two off of a customer now and then, but it can't be because they were in a desperate situation. People resent being kicked while they are down. Resentment is something you're always trying to minimize if you want to last in this business.

 

That list is ####### insane. I was paying 2300-2500 for FL-IL during produce season this year. And I was covering literally 4-10 of them a day. Right now FL-IN pays 1000 dollars... and my phone would melt if I posted it right now. Don't take my word for it, go look at DAT or IT right now for anywhere within 400 miles of Orlando.

 

how do you sign up for the weekly newsletter on the usda website?> or where do you find the weekly postings?

 

The agricultural management service (AMS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes it weekly on their Web site.