Does It Feel Like The Market is Loosening Up?

Just told a broker I'd pull for $900. He said he needed me closer to $550, because he was "trying to get the best rate possible for his customer". WTF? Why would you shoot yourself in the foot by intentionally driving freight prices down?? Meanwhile the shipper gets to laugh at you all the way to the bank? Find some other sucka, sucka.

 

Honestly, he's probably operating off a load list from a cheap shipper, and may not have a full understanding of what he's dealing with.

 

Maybe. Meanwhile, I just booked one for $5.56 per mile. Just takes a little patience sometimes.

 

Not that I'm inclined to defend all of my competition, but I've seen that a lot, is why I say that. That said, good on you for that.

 

Or he just wants to please the shipper, so shipper gives him more loads.
It's a constant struggle for brokers, bid cheap enough to undercut the competition and get the loads, and then be able to find a truck for that money.

In a normal market, brokerages with access to multi-year data, don't have any problem doing that, it's the crazy unexpected market swings that messes up their smooth operation

 

Trust me, I know this alllll toooo welllll.

 

All of them do that. When you see the same load listed by 6 different brokers on Internet truck stop all within a $10-50 price difference is because they are all cutting each others throat, bottoming that rate out as low as they can.. Not even enough money to load it on a pickup truck.

When I see loads listed by numerous brokers, I dont even consider calling, those are the bottom feeder brokers.

Just like there's to many trucks out here, same goes with brokers... way to many of them.

No load needs 6 brokers to list it on the same website, thats ridiculous.

 

Like I said- probably load lists... It's one of those things that, especially starting out, a lot of guys wind up falling into, because the people who send load lists are the ones most likely to sit down and talk to you, especially if you aren't super confident in what you're doing. After hours of cold calling, you get someone that goes, "Oh yeah, sure send me an email and I'll get you added to my list." Then the next thing you know you're getting an email from the shipper going, "Oh yes, we have the following loads available" and you send over a quote, and then suddenly, "Oh we covered this one" or "When will your truck be in?" "I just sent you a quote, I don't have a truck." "Email me when you have a truck." So you go and find a guy... And then it's "Oh, no. That's *way* too much for that load."

Lot of newer brokers fall into this trap pretty handily. It's easy to conflate responsiveness from a shipper with genuine interest to do business with a shady cheap-###. Folks that last at brokering tend to figure out that the amount of time you spend on this stuff isn't worth the relatively low margins you make it. And of course, there's plenty of folks who don't figure it out.

 

Thanks for the info. It's good to know what's happening on the other side of the phone.

If I give a rate, and the guy on the phone says: "Let me check with the broker." What's he talking about? I thought he was the broker.