Brokers 101

I dead headed out of MI to CA sometimes too, back when fuel was $.90, when loads were tight, i would get 6k coming back home so who gives a crap when on a round trip i spent $850 on fuel.... Wont do that #### today though.

 

There may be some good brokers out there but overall I think they are raping the industry. When a broker charges the customer 200 then tells you to collect 200 and then pay the broker 50... this happens a lot. They always say not to discuss the rates because they are making 50% or more for sitting on the phone... It is the truck owner paying the insurance and the fuel and the truck payment and the taxes and the driver and the maintenance etc. etc. etc... then they want to treat your truck like its theirs and hound you on the phone asking when it's gonna get there... when 9 times out of 10 they did not pay a decent rate in the first place...

 

Broker rates (all rates for that matter) reflect supply vs demand.

Capitalistic economics 101

 

Supply and demand... that deserves a little more thought, something that is not done too much today it seems. The more product there is the cheaper the product becomes; conversely the less product there is the more expensive it will be. Or, if lot's of people want it, it will cost more but if nobody wants it, it will cost less... is that about it. Now, before I tie brokers into this equation let's look at something that is happening right now in the economy. You are forgetting one very crucial factor; credit. credit artificially increases demand- artificially increasing cost. Two perfect examples would be cars and houses although there are many more. Question: what happens when consumer debt surpasses national debt? Now, brokers... The basics of supply and demand in freight movement would be that there are shippers- carriers- and receivers. That balance would be perfect and in the natural order of things would be balance. However, someone has figured out that by becoming the middle man (credit card/ broker) they can artificially increase the carrier base lowering the amount that carriers make... the reality is brokers 'usually' don't own any equipment. They 'usually' don't pay for fuel, insurance, truck payments, road and fuel tax and repairs just to name a few... They in some cases even do business out of there homes in they're fury pink slippers while eating bon bons. If you artificially increase supply lowering the rates- then what happens; for example, when fuel goes to 4 or even 5 dollars... do you still think brokers should be keeping 50% or better??? It is often said this this is a pennies business. That is true for truckers, so, why our brokers taking dollars from a pennies business??? The carriers/ owner operators/ drivers should be making the money. Now, don't get me wrong, as I said before- there are some good honest brokers out there. I understand this point very well... but, the carriers should not be the ones getting beat up over the rate. When brokers broker hundreds of loads, another 100 dollars should not make that big of a deal but to one trucker that is another 30 gallons of fuel or another 150- 210 miles to keep him in business... Brokers have developed a really bad habit of beating up the ones doing the job rather than the ones paying for the job. If you don't now what to charge the customer then get the carriers rate first and add yours on top... not the other way around. DON'T STEAL IT FROM THE TRUCKERS!!! YOU DON'T OWN THEM!!!

 

Agreed!! We need a law where broker shows a carrier how much a shipper is paying for the load and FSC...A good Brokers fee shouldn't be over 8%...anything over 8% should be illegal especially with this fuel cost and the broker should be sentenced to 20yrs in prison!!lol

 

Couldn't agree more!!!

 

seems to me ooida should be reading this thread and then maybe they can figure out just what we should all be fighting for...

 

Hello, I'm a Broker Agent. I just got started in this business and I'm working for a company that's been doing this for 10 years. I'm learning from this company to one day start my own. I cannot speak on behalf of other brokers but the problem I run into is the Shippers and stubborn on their cheap rate even with the fuel increase. I explain that to them and they sit there and tell me" Well I usually don't have a problem moving it at this rate" I can spend all day on the phone making 50+ calls to drivers but it boiled down to that the rate was too low. A lot of drivers were asking for $300+ more than I was even getting. I spend a lot of time on the load board and some truckers think I'm low balling them...but honestly I don't set the prices. My goal now is to try to get these shippers to pay 3.00 mile to compensate for fuel but they won't, they usually hang up on me and I see their freight never moves. But at 1.20 a mile who would haul it unless someone is desperate to get to that particular area.


What are some Internet boards that your guys frequent? Am I allowed to ask, Or does that goes against the forum rules?

 

i use one thats called my little black book

 

Go drive down the road a ways and look and see how many trucks you see in people yards for sale. Make it a rural area though, that's where we tend to live more. I quarantee you I can drive 30 miles to the south from my house and see no less then 15 trucks for sale. That's what I counted two days ago when I left the house.
That is why you're seeing rates go up. We just flat out can not haul it. Let it it and rot on there docks for all I care, I am not hauling it for less then I need to. After it sits those rates come up fast and we know it. The best loads we can get are the ones that are already late when we get them. heck that's how Heartland manages to pay company drivers $.50cpm. that's all they do is clean up late freight nobody could get covered and boost the rates up.
there is still guys who will run for very little but they are getting harder and harder to find because they have all run themselves broke