Does freight pay better after 5pm

You hit that nail squarely on the head! I firmly believe that one is born with the both the ability and desire to "deal" or "negotiate". I know I have honed the skill set over the years and learn something every day, however, I have been doing it all my life whether buying feed, equipment, whatever AND I LOVE TO DO IT, I LOVE THE RUSH . Never, ever be afraid to walk away from a "deal". Make the "deal" your deal as best you can, every time. It can be done.

 

I have to honestly say that the thing I miss the most is the daily calls and emails with Rollin and others at F2F on the loads we booked and the conversations with brokers.

One of the things that I learned from Rollin was to tell drivers to "journal" every other day or so. Track your numbers and look at the rate, the DH, the roads, what you are seeing on the boards, the customer, any and everything that come into your head. I really believe that Chris learned as much creating and sending Lauren and I his legendary emails as I did. There is just something about when you write something down it sticks in your head better and makes things clearer.

I got to the point when I was driving that I would record my thoughts and retype them at night.

 

Me, I talk to myself....I replay every conversation in my mind, going over the details, remembering who said what, at what point, and what I could have said or done differently that would have affected the outcome. I am constantly analyzing and examining what just happened during each call, after the call is over....examining what I did right, or perhaps some mistake I may have made....My wife says it looks like I'm having a full blown conversation with someone, yet no one else is there...lol...she says she can always tell because of my lip movements and hand gestures...

I tell her that this was only get worse over time, that some day I'll be an old man walking around in his jammies, muttering to himself...lol...

She laughs, "you're that guy now", she says.

 

Best advice is be strong, Have the ball in your court. If you sound weak they will take advantage of the rate, ESPECIALLY when you have the equipment they need.

Quick example: Knowing your in a great area for freight don't be scare to walk away
Richy (trucker) Mark( broker)

Time is 3pm
Richy: Yea good afternoon, Im richy from w.e company calling for a load posted going to Laredo shipping out of Gary,In
Mark: yea its a coil 40k needs dunnage, tarps and coil racks picks up TODAY Wednesday before 5 pm NEEDS to be there Friday before 12 pm paying $3,000
Richy: I could be there in 30 min but i could only do it for $3,500
Mark: Man that's high i could probably meet you at $3,200
Richy: No thanks, thank you for your time.

its 4.15 pm Wednesday
Mark: calling richy
Richy: Hello
Mark: Are you Still Avaliable
Richy: Yea for $3,500
Mark: Give me a fax number i can fax you the Confirmation sheet.

Stay strong and believe what your Job/work is worth

When they say "how much will you do it for" or "im taking bids" Just say thanks and hang up Because your in the booking business not Uship Business. Is Basically a waist of your time.Companies will hit you with that or the yada yada i move for this much, Just be polite and say thanks and bye. With time you will Mark them companies that are not even worth the time to call.

Now they have a new one "we have a contract, so we could only move it for this much" - walk away if it don't meet your requirements.

good luck

 

good example kachup, when he says it pays $3,000. How did you come up with $3500 and not $3,900 or $4,000? How do you come up with the price without pricing yourself out of the deal completely?

 

Because ive been doing this too long lol. But Honestly is knowing your market and the area. Most broker especially in the Midwest like to make between 500-1000 dollars in a run sometimes more, So that being said, when a load is going to a place where no one wants to go because too much DH or freight pays real cheap, than you have the ball in court. Especially when you know its going to a Oil town in the middle of nowhere or a border town in the middle of nowhere or a city like Laredo that you know its cheap freight coming out (if you don't have a connect) you know that shipper is paying good and brokers know that they have to pay up. Especially when you have a equipment that they need, don't be afraid to ask.

And BTW Coils pay real good. But brokers want to try and make that 500 mark every trip, in 3-5 loads a week that they will cover. that's good living from home.

Same thing goes with Loaded Container when they ship them on Step Decks, A Container Hauling Company, they need to pay them Round trip no matter what area or city because once they take that container off the chassis, that driver needs to bring the chassis back to the yard or if he's lucky come bobtail but its still 1,500 miles back. So a 3,000 mile run they will charge $6,000. So if they got a broker authority that most do, They will posted on a load board, Loaded Container 40k 1,500 mile for $3,000 so a rookie who don't know this will think he hit jackpot and the container company stays with $3,000 bucks just for typing..

 

This is my favorite thread. The man I'm leased on with has allowed me to book all my own loads that Im inclined to book, or run his regular stuff. I've book most of my loads off the load boards. I must say that there is a lifetime of knowledge in this thread.

My experience is a learning one. I've booked those $10-$15 per mile loads on Friday nights, pick up asap, delivered straight through. I've also sat there with no load as I tried to ice a broker, and get a fat goose egg. My goal is $3 per mile loads (and I've found that light loads pay more than heavy loads) but as my phone number got into the "brokers" database, they would hit me with lower and lower rates until I caved. And I caved. I've been placed on hold while talking to a broker, only the broker didn't have me on hold and I've heard the conversation that I wasn't supposed to hear. Understand this: once they get a file started on you and they share that info, you are screwd. That one broker knew my name, my rate goal my last three lanes and rates that I accepted and even my truck info. We had never,and still to this day we're still not set up there. But they knew me. The only thing that I thought would help is to call on as many loads as I could for weeks and weeks and tell every one of those brokers that their rate was not enough and only book the ones that were adequate. I continue to call all day even as I'm under a load, hoping they are adding notes to my file, that I don't work cheap. Maybe it's helped maybe not. It's the slow season... We'll see.

Ive also learned that if a load is on the board, the reason is often a reason to stay away from that load. Not always but often enough. Ask a lot of questions. Also, when your broker is the first to mention detention pay when you call to inform them that you've been sitting and waiting too long to load/unload, then that broker is just disarming you and likely has no intention of paying detention. This experience has been true without fail. If I have to state my case they usually pay. If they mention it first, no pay.

 

I'm surprised at your experience with brokers mentioning detention but never paying. Why would they bring it up if they won't pay? Seems like thats an easy way to make a bad name for yourself as a broker. I bring up the subject of detention if any driver sits longer than two hours. I tell them to make sure they have their check in/out times marked on the BOL and get it signed by someone that loaded you. It makes it much faster and easier to get that detention approved, hopefully even before the driver delivers. Anyways - thats a very shady practice to bring up detention and not pay and frankly seems counter-productive to finding and keeping good drivers around.

 

I should mention that the detention issue has only happened while loading fresh chicken reefer load. But that's happened on all 6 of the chicken loads I've done this past summer/fall. I should have qualified that better. Its a bit of an anomaly really. After the first 2/3 loads I did and got shorted out of my detention, especially with the counter productive actions of the broker, which in my mind was meant to ease my frustration, I changed my negotiation technique to increase the load pay to cover the expected wait time. I will load chicken again, I plan to get held up, I don't expect a penny in detention.

 

Right. And don't forget coupons and discounts at the grocery store. When all is said and done, you could pay $175 for $200 in groceries if you put in the effort. Same with dealing with brokers... need to be fully prepared and educated when you pick up the phone, so you get the best deal. If it's $10 or $100, the people that fight for every dollar will do better than those that dont do it. Fight for an extra $10 per load and it adds to hundreds per month