Cutthroat

Sometimes stuff just gets to me. Today I had one of those situations. Sorry in advance for the long rant.

Lousy week so far. Got a decent run Monday ($800 0n 325) after way too many phone calls and this put me in a known dead zone in northern VA so I suffered with another 300 mile for $450 backhaul which put me a couple hundred miles from the house. It was a same day drop at 5 this evening. $1250 gross in two days which isn't awful but and I'm already sick of looking at the boards and making calls and getting told .80 to .90 cpm.

So, not wanting to deadhead 200 home I'm looking for a short run and luck strikes, 200 mile run right to my town, 100 mile deadhead to get to it. I have had no deadhead at all yet this week so I decide to eat it.

Quicker than I can dial and get through it disappears. Not a surprise, especially lately. Dang.

I wait and look a few more minutes and about 10 minutes later it pops back on the board. The broker is Scott Logistics. Back in 2018 I ran some good loads for them and haven't since due to their lousy and cheap freight.

The lady says 400 firm. I go for 500. No personality whatsoever. "400 firm sir". Not even 425. I say OK, I'll take it. She then asks me the typical stuff and says my insurance needs updating. I say OK and I'm waiting on her to give me the info I need to update it (address to send it to or tell me she's emailing me what I need to do, etc.). She says "Please go to our website and follow the link to update your insurance". I say just give me the info and I'll call my agent, she's quick. "NO, you have to go through our site and do it". I say ok, I'll call you back in 5 minutes. "Sir, I cannot hold the load for you." What? Just give me 5 minutes, I'll be quick. "Sorry sir, I cannot hold the load while you figure out your insurance". I told her what to do with the load and hung up.

So, what was her advantage? The load didn't pick up until the next day (tomorrow) with an open pick window, not a morning appt. It's not hot, per se. There was absolutely no benefit to her doing that to me and we both know the load would be gone in 2 minutes, which it was of course.

I'm a big boy and I did find another load and life goes on. Here's the reason for this book. Why would she do this? I have a problem free past with this brokerage. Is this the kind of crap we're going to start seeing from bottom feeder brokerages? They can't possibly go lower on rates or we'll be paying them to run the loads.

 

I disagree. Lumping all brokers together is not true or helpful. I knew when I called I was dealing with one of the sleezy ones but I needed a load.

If I have a good history with them the load was as good as sold and I had gotten in line when I called and got through. Why would she do this? It's not like a big paycheck. What does a brokerage rep (no way an actual broker) make on a $400 load?

 

That's actually a logical scenario that I hadn't thought of. Makes sense I guess. I have been thinking, though, what if I was a new carrier who needed 10 minutes to do their packet? Brokers give me time all the time to do this. Would she say "I can't wait on you to do your packet". Where's the job security in that?