Risks of double brokering

I rarely receive a signed Rate Con from a broker. They typically email unsigned Rate Cons to me. Some are explicit that I need to sign them and e-mail back, some don't seem to care. I feel, that per forma , there should always be their signature already placed when I have to sign my part. I don't know how much of a big deal it is, but I never got screwed over it yet. I also don't understand, how it is when some say that they put their stamp on the rate con, stating their own detention and layover charges, as if their stamp could supersede whatever it says in the rate con. How would that hold up, if a push comes to shove?

 

It doesn’t. And it shouldn’t. Sign it or don’t. If you want specific terms refuse to sign until they put them on the rc. Picking up the load is the same as signing as well.

You can stamp away all you want. I’m doing exactly what I was always doing.

 

Temperature Control Express had a load posted out of Atlanta this morning going to Murfreesboro, TN. They have trucks are out of TN and I compete, or I should say they compete, on the same lanes. I call and ask about it. He says his own truck wasn't going to be empty in time and he needed to cover it for $750. Ok, later mister... They just double broker it when their own truck can't do it, now how cool is that? Or maybe their own truck was never in the cards. I knew they were a bottom of the barrel type carrier working plenty hard for cheap but that was a whole new low.

 

@rollin coal Thanks for the heads up. I purely hate that stuff.

 

Out of pure curiosity, what does that lane pay normally, $1,000-1,200?

 

Nooooo its a cheap lane. The only time it pays a $1,000+ is when trucks are really tight. I was shooting for $1,500 negotiable. Highest I've seen was $2,000. Normally Atlanta to Nashville pays $550 for reefer and $450 for van. DAT showed $700 for the previous 15 days but that number is skewed by the holiday. Nashville to Atlanta pays marginally better. About $700 for vans and $900 for reefers ordinarily.

Edited - I'm using Nashville-Atlanta and Atlanta-Nashville instead of Murfreesboro in these numbers above. The lanes are similar in pay but Nashville is about 25-30 miles further out than Murfreesboro from Atlanta.

 

I have no idea what lanes pay what honestly, except tanker. I saw a reefer load Chicago - Louisville at $3,000. Almost had me thinking I should get back into reefer. Then I remembered you have to deal with grocery warehouses and I threw up in my mouth.

 

Money makes that palatable. I like reefer. I have seen tanker numbers you have posted in the past and those are direct contract I would assume. Reefer on the spot market in 2017 has made those rates look cheap. If that was posted for $3,000 it probably could have booked at $5,000. Me and a buddy had a friendly competition the past 2 weeks who could book the best $5,000 solo run. I won with the best one but he got more of them. I imagine that'll all be over with soon. He thinks it will continue. If you are thinking about buying a reefer though - you already missed that boat.

 

Lol, I'm half joking, I really have no interest in chasing reefer work all over the country.
I posted my numbers in another thread actually, not great, but respectable. Slow & steady wins the race and I'm not looking to work any harder then I really have to. I have a good gig and another 4 years on the contract before I really should consider doing something stupid. (Assuming we don't have our contract cancelled, but I've heard the customer wants to add another 30-40% more loads by end of next year)

*** Yes those are multi year contract numbers. We do about 30-40% broker freight, but I rarely ever see those loads. I've done a couple and some a priced well and some are way too cheap, so I won't pull em.
Fyi, Most of the tanker companies were already on E-logs, it's the 20-50 truck companies that are going to be feeling the pain.

 

I saw those. Plenty of people doing much worse it wasn't bad. And there's something to be said for consistency. I get that. It wasn't all that long ago a lot of us guys working spot freight were starving to death.

I don't chase freight around the country though. I've never done that. I like being able to work the region close to my home and normally I'm not more than a day's drive from the house. I'm fortunate to live in a decent freight area which allows that.

I could never stay gone for weeks on end that's not the kind of trucking I like to do. I need to get home weekly and recharge, R&R (if the truck doesn't need attention) and then actually looking forward to starting a new work week Sunday or Monday. But when Thursday and Friday rolls around I have to be heading home, have to be.