Can this industry ever evolve to not needing brokers anymore? Think about it

Necessary evil @m16ty

I like em for the fact that we're not dedicated to anything day in and day out. Wanna take a day or a week off, go take it no worries. As long as your happy with the rate that's all that matters.

 

Or a month......or six.

 

As said before we are a free market country and myself personally would like to keep it that way. Everyone makes money if they know what they are doing. If you don’t think you are making enough money then become a broker.
This is how the free market works. There is money to be made from everyone and the game itself weeds out the window lickers.

 

As said before the industry is not going to rely on a truck driver..

 

all you have to do is ask look it up
49 CFR 371.3.

If the person/company that has the load, must haul the load then they wouldn’t need truckers because they would have to haul the load themself and use their own trucks.

there are already enough laws people don’t know about let’s leave the government out of as many things as possible. They tend to screw things up.

so no you didn’t fix anything.

 

I think the OP was trying to say was some kind of an app that maybe uses something like RMIS that make sure the companies have the right insurance and all of that type of thing and from there they just put their load out there eliminating the broker.

I don't know about that. First of all the shipper would have to have an employee or employees setting the prices and authorizing the loads. Depending on the size of the shipper that could be quite a number of people. Someone would still have to send out payments and detention to possibly hundreds or thousands of trucking companies. And what happens if there's a problem on the load? Somewhere someone has to be the point person that is responsible for that and coordinates that. What if it's 3 in the morning and the shipper does not open until 8 am?

And the worst thing that could happen would be they eliminate the broker but they make it God forbid a bidding war then whoever will do it the least expensive will get the load.

Say what you want about Brokers but I like the idea that one-on-one we negotiate it and if I'm happy with the rate and he's a reputable broker or he'll lock me into that rate and if anyone else calls on that load it's not available. Yes there are unsavory ones that will give the load away but the good Brokers won't do that.

I also think the Brokers probably give a lot of rate information for what they think the load could move for or what is needed depending on the timeframe etcetera. I do believe that requires at least some type of subscription or monitoring it again another person would have to do that.

And of course hopefully the broker is paying you before the shipper really pays them. So that would mean if the shipper pays you sooner it would actually cost them more money at least in a shorter period of time. And I doubt any of them would offer a quick pay because that's only more work for them.

So I think brokers serve a purpose and I don't think it's all rainbows and farts that smell like roses for them.

Unfortunately it's a business where they collect 100% and give you your percent and often when you have people that handle other people's money unsavory things can happen.

For me, I took some time off at the beginning of the year because I had some things to do. I like that I I can do that without having to answer to anyone. I also like that if I decide to keep working for the next couple of weeks without stopping I can do that too.

This is one of the few businesses that you truly don't have anyone to answer to.

Brokers serve a purpose and there is value in that.

 

The shipper agreed to a rate to have their commodity moved and the broker gets it moved for that rate. As far as they’re concerned the broker held up his end of the bargain for the agreed rate so they’re happy.

 

Or maybe they are willing to pay someone else as it simplifies their jobs. It allows the business to focus on the business and not trying to find a carrier that simply disappears with their product.