Brokerage Setup Question

I would keep it separate just makes good business sense also if you’re married one option is to have your wife start as a minority owned business !!

 

we have both, we separated both, under different name,address,tax id,mc,bond everything.
you could get into sticky situation if not being very careful and shipper is not aware. if you know your shipper well then you can be up front with him, you can hire your carrier as long it is best thing at the time for all the party,

 

My brokerage is the same name, LLC, tax id, bank account, etc as my trucking company. Just two authorities but same company.

I regret it now but at the time I just had 2 or 3 trucks and didn’t really think about it. However, now that I have 8 to 10 trucks and the brokerage grossed around 800k then the insurance starts getting kinda antsy. I’d say once it crests 1m then I’m going to have to break them up which really sucks. It would have been FAR easier to just do it to start with.

The liability carrying over from one company to the other so to speak puts them each in danger. I’m actually buying an umbrella insurance policy right now to help cover liability but I need to break them up sooner then later.

Good question and hope this helps give some insight!

 

Back when my company had trucks, we had two separate MCs and names. That was before my time here, though, so I can't speak too much about it.

 

Was always taught that separate businesses should be separate legally, that way issues with one can't expose liability to the other.

 

conflict of interest can get you in whole lot of legal trouble, which can set ethical watch dogs to come after you.
That is what i was referring to in my earlier post.

 

Can you elaborate more? Talking about trucking company giving info to brokerage to back solicit? I’ve had this done to me.

Or talking about you have a trucking customer and they expect your truck but someone else shows up?

Please explain more so I understand.

 

sure...
As a broker when you enter into agreement with shipper you are suppose to be impartial looking out for what is best for shipper but if you turn around and hand that load to your carrier then it smells bad ( it appears you have not done your due diligence as a broker). that is why i mentioned couple of my post back that if you know shipper well and under the circumstances your carrier is the best suited and available at the time then you can hire them. our typical loads are 8 -14 k but some are upwards of 30k so shippers are very alert regarding price.(i don't blame 'em)
we only do heavy hauling as a carrier and i only broker heavy haul loads so we get into these situation often, that is why we have created a complete separation wall between two businesses, on the paper and physically.
hope it helps

 

Understood! Thank you sir.