Bypassing the Brokers

B-i-n-g-o! Whether they're part of a large company, a hired hand of the shipper, or a 100% independent broker...someone will always be there to sell the "capacity" and sell the freight to the truck.

 

I to am not sure of the correct term but OOIDA is not "backed", as in insured, by Lloyds. Loads holds the pool of money OOIDA has to pay claims. Say that pool is a million dollars and they have million and one dollars in claims. Lloyds is not paying that $1.

Because of the way OOIDA is structured is why they can't get a rating and provides a huge risk.

As we are moving down this slop of customers wanting to protect themselves from vicarious liability more and more brokers are getting contingent cargo and liability insurance. When we shopped it our carrier had a list of insurance companies they would not take and a list that the carrier needed a certain safety rating. OOIDA was on the list of carriers needing a certain safety rating.

 

Your story has merritt but as usual worse case scenario and the O/O Apocalypse.

 

Same here, I have known a few decent brokers from the big star but seems the scum of the earth happen more frequent.

 

Well, us guys that only pull LS loads have a do not haul list just like the independent guys. For me, if a broker code has a LJ in it or 479 area code, I just skip over the posting as they are the TQL of LS. I have others I don't haul for as well.

 

My prediction for brokers is that they will become all but irrelevant for standard freight in the near future. There will always be some sort of market for specialized and expedited "matchmakers", but technology is making the whole idea of a broker irrelevant in many industries. Just look at the stock and commodities markets. While uship is fatally flawed due to not being strictly b2b, it's the perfect example of technology eliminating the need for middlemen. There are quite a bit of middleman jobs that have been completely or nearly eliminated in recent history if any one wants to argue about it. I'll name one just to keep the arguments down. Travel agent. Basically a travel broker. You'd either go to the airport and buy a ticket or call up your trusty travel agent to book your flight, rental car and hotel. That middleman industry has evaporated due to technology. Can you even imagine paying someone $50-100 to book a flight or hotel for you today? Of course not.

 

The 479 is spot on, never messed with any LJ myself so cannot comment.

But I have had some good LS agents, like any large conglomerate the crowd can be difficult to deal with until one can filter the good and the bad from both sides.

 

There is one Landstar agency with the apt code of LOL and they normally post up lots of yawners on the broker side. Not sure if you LOL at their offerings on the BCO side but they're pretty funny from outside point of view,pun intended.

 

Never hauled for them and yes I yawn as well. Same with WTF. I did a lot for MRE back in my authority days during Katrina, so I was a bit disappointed in their offerings when I got here. I don't envy anyone trying to weed out LS agents, including new BCOs. Due to the competitiveness of it, no one is going to say call this girl, she's my best agent! So most just hear the negative side. My best agent supplied 70% of my loads in 2012. The agent code is ...
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Yeah right!

 

WTF yeah really, I have seen them, yep lol... I typically see from the good ones they are well respected by BCO's and usually see the same BCO's hauling for the same agents. Even knowing a good code doesn't always pan out if you don't know their freight. It can be feast or famine.