does Brokerage company mean anything ?

I'm starting to think not. It's just the individual broker that matters. I got my first load from Mercer today, I've been wanting to get set up with them for awhile. The load was posted to Fargo, ND. I had already booked a partial to add to the load also going to Fargo and was also working on my next load from just north of Fargo. The Mercer broker calls me and says all the paper work was in order but the load was cancelled, however, they were able to get me a load to Elbow Lake, MN for the same mileage rate.

Now, at this point, am I supposed to assume that he is being truthful based on Mercer's good reputation ? If it was a TQL broker I would automatically figure they were jerking my chain. Elbow Lake is 80 miles from Fargo so the rate drops almost $200 dollars from what we talked about. I asked him if they could do $90 more because I already had lined up to go to Fargo. He acted frustrated with me and said, look, you don't have to take the load. It's the same rate. I had to bite my tongue to keep from launching into a diatribe that he just took $200 out of my pocket, and it might not seem like much but when you figure my expenses I just lost 20% on this shipment because I still have to go to Fargo !

Also, he described the load as being one piece 33' long and a crate. I picked up 6 crates, 6 pieces, and 4 tires barely leaving room for the partial.

I guess I should be happy it all worked out, I'm still making decent money and got my next load lined up. And I am happy about that.

But really, a brokers job is to represent the shipper to me, and represent the trucking companies to the shipper. If you call me blaming the shipper, you are really only blaming yourself. To me, you are supposed to BE the shipper, and to the shipper you are supposed to BE the trucking company. The idea that you can blame the shipper when talking to the trucker, and blame the trucker when talking to the shipper is BS.