DONT CALL BROKERS

boredsocial....Please don't make a mountain out of a molehill-

30 years in transportation right here- Both sides of the Fence- 10% is More than sufficient on Volume for you guys- sure its a freee market- But the majority of 3pl's abuse that priviledge...If 3pl's did what they do now before dereg- They woulda been Buried alive Without a trace. Nobody would ever know.

No Im Not a Hoffa Supporter, But The Habits 3pl's do these days are outrageous.

Securing Customers is not that Hard spot or Contract-Don't Matter- I Took absolutely No Sales or Broker training and Aced that side of the Fence with Ease.

Try Operating a Trucking Company Professionaly And You'll see WHY you folks think we squeeze the Life outta your rates. And NO- The Carrier (These days) Doesn't set the rate at the end of the day- Its Gone beyond that Because of the explosion of new entrants- Carriers are NOT needed, Unfortunately.....The Balance These days favors the Party responsible for the freight Bill..

 

10% of how much? If I broker a bunch of local runs I should make 40 bucks a load? If I do long distance loads I should make 10% of 7500 dollars?

I find margin to be a pretty ####ty metric for thinking about running a freight brokerage. I greatly prefer $/time+risk type metrics instead.

At the end of the day those newcomers are carriers and they are setting the rates. Brokers aren't setting the rates by being willing to work with people who are willing to work for less than you are... those people willing to work for less than you are setting the rates.

And the business was completely different before Dereg. They barely had fax machines and they used to do trip leases lol. The load board was a bulletin board at the truck stop that the freight broker who had an office there would put up. I've heard stories of those days from old brokers and they were DEFINITELY making great money back then. And why wouldn't they? They had very little competition and probably got the job as freight broker by being some local bigshot who controlled the freight's cousin.

I'll be the first to admit that some of these big 3PL's are getting their hands on market moving quantities of freight and using that to bludgeon down rates on certain large customers. That's the danger of having large companies in any field... They tend to try to be monopolies. Monopolies are not generally good to their subcontractors. If it makes you feel any better I generally roflstomp those guys every time I get into a new account. I'm just willing to do a better job for less money than they are. Doesn't do the trucks any good, but it sure seem to please the customers.

 

If a broker is taking a fat cut off the top another broker will come in and cut his rate for a thinner margin for himself and maybe even pay the trucks a bit more. It's a dog eat dog game. Produce seems to be the most up and down and general b.s. to deal with all the way around.

If I have a broker I rarely move anything for and they dick me around whenever they make contact (can you guess which 3 letter one it might be?) and I know they are taking a big fat cut off the top I take that as an invitation to solicit the customer directly. I don't move anything for them because of their constant shenanigans so I don't feel bad. The good brokers I work with don't dick me around and we get along great and I have zero intention of ever soliciting their customer, which I totally could do but on the back end I also bring produce back from the edges or the country when I happen to get there and they always give me a fair market rate. I like the steady as she goes approach and there is never an issue with payment. Straight forward and fair.

 

Bored social and many of you in reality, have a lot of the same problems. Just completely different sides.

The bottom line is everyone has to be super aggressive or they won't survive. It's dog eat dog for sure. If you can make it in trucking, you can just about be successful in anything.

Both trucking and brokering are cash intensive businesses. No need to argue there. Both wait to get paid and with the carrier many times being paid first if your a first class brokerage. Try carrying those kinds of expenses. Think that 30k overhaul is expensive now? Well... yes it is! But my point is both need access to as much funds or savings as possible. Running a brokerage is not easy whatsoever nor is running a trucking company. There are bad trucking AND brokering companies. Weed them out and move on!

Everyone needs to work together. However, it's also a tug of war. If your not getting over on the broker now, then your behind the curve as when things fall back off they will in turn get over on you. BUT, only to the extent that CHEAP hauling and newbie carriers will allow.

I'll stop now... haha! Great website and so many unique insights. Love it!

 

Well said, 100% agreed. 8-10% for a few phone calls and several sheets of paper suits me just fine.

 

Another well put reply here.

And it's no wonder why there is hardly any loyalty between carrier/brokers anymore, why they work harder to secure direct shipper relations rather than deal with non-transparent rate structures. One slip of the tongue from an innocent person trying to figure out why they got whacked so much to have something delivered and it starts the ball rolling once we realize we're taken advantage of.

 

Somehow I suspect you'd be VERY angry if I suggested that 50k a year was plenty to drive a truck and that owning trucks annual ROI shouldn't exceed 10%. I don't think either of these statements are true... I actually hold people who run very profitable trucking companies in very high esteem. Hell I hope to join them sooner or later.

If I get a customer to overpay that's my compensation for going out and finding them and convincing them to overpay. Most of them don't. I'm averaging 12% this year and I'm not even a little bit sorry lol. I just got done moving a metric #### ton of produce without losing any money to claims. (I charged trucks less than 5k in deductions on 1M+ in revenue over ~500 loads) I also had only 1 major service failure and a hilariously high on time rate for the commodities I moved. I consider this season to be the best work I've ever done. An honest to goodness masterpiece of freight brokering. Just the lack of service failures justified every penny my customer paid me with revenue that wasn't lost.

The bottom line is that if you're very good at being a freight broker it's a pretty great job money wise. This is because you get paid by the piece rather than by the hour and can be VERY efficient if you're good. It's also a job that only a very narrow slice of the population can do well enough to keep the job much less excel at. I am a decent salesperson, a great transportation manager, and I work scary hard. Good luck hiring someone who can do what I can do for sane money.

 

I agree, it doesn't have to be an adversarial relationship. As a carrier you won't find you've been taken advantage of, if you do your homework and know what lanes and products pay.

 

obviously some of you guys need to go start a brokerage and roll in the easy money...lol!

what i think is funny is the same guys here that apparently think brokerages are filthy with cash,are the same to berate some new guy that comes in with any thought of turning any profit in trucking.

 

If indeed you're claiming all this and it's accurate, then you're to be commended for your efforts. If only your ethics would spill over into the rest of the brokerage industry, these debates wouldn't continue as often, if at all.
Many of us have had more negative dealings than positive ones unfortunately.

Send me the name and contact information for a high quality honest broker/agent, and maybe we can get that turned around. The search continues...