Aok Freight & LTLSAVER.com Freight Agent training

Certainly it does. What if you end up working for some hucksters that don't pay their bills? I don't know brokerage side of the business but really I can only imagine if it's anything at all like say, an owner operator looking at various carriers to lease on with.. ..then there are a myriad of details you want to be sure of before you sign up. Because a little due diligence now will save you the headaches of pissing away time for nothing later.

 

I spoke to the OP about this yesterday so I think his questions have been answered. But here are the factors that matter in picking a brokerage:

1) Brokerage reputation. Get the brokerages MC number and ask someone on this forum to look them up. You want to see any reports they have on them from trucking companies on DAT/IT/etc. You also want to see what their credit looks like. Anything short of perfect credit is a deal breaker. Obviously bigger operations like TQL, Coyote, and CHR are all perfectly viable options, but know that CHR and Coyote break down the brokers job into sales and operations so you won't get much experience in one of the two categories. It's not an accident that there are literally hundreds of brokerages started by TQL alumni out there. TQL isn't the greatest place to work, but as a career move it's not terrible. Plus if you can make it at TQL you can make it anywhere. I got my start at a brokerage run by an ex-TQL person.

2) Money. If you're new to the industry you generally want a salary/draw to start out. There's about a 90% chance that you will fail, so you really want to have gotten paid at least 30k a year while figuring out whether or not it's for you. If they ask you to pay them money run don't walk.

3) Length of non-compete. Do not go into this assuming that if everything works out you'll be staying at the brokerage you start at forever. Quite the opposite actually. You'll either be moderately successful (like I was) and want/need to quit around the 1.5 year mark, or you'll be very successful and the golden handcuffs will keep you there. Of the 10% that make it maybe 25% of those go into that second category. Ironically I kind of pity them... Working a big house account at a big 3PL is a good way to make a lot of money (it's not unheard of for the primary account manager for a big account to make 500k+) but you'd better love working because that's literally all you'll do until you burn out. Then they will replace you with the next up and comer without blinking and it'll be over with nothing really left to show for it. You want your noncompete length to be a year or less. Anything over a year is a deal breaker.

4) You want to go to an office every day. I work from home, but that's something you want to do after you've spent a couple of years learning the ropes. Having experienced co-workers around to ask questions of is absolutely critical. You also WANT to start as some successful brokers assistant. This will allow you to get hands on experience moving freight, something that you will be expected to do on your own the second you land a new customer. Cold calling is far too much work for it to be ok to #### up a new account because you're so green that you screw up the freight part.

New college grads and people with no sales experience should expect to make 30k as a base at their first freight brokerage. People with tons of sales experience (like me) should expect to be around 40k. All of these pay scales are based on Cincinnati/Louisville/Indianapolis job markets so adjust up in expensive places like LA, NYC, Norcal, or Chicago.