Former TQL employee: ask away

They have some really big clients(Walmart, Kroger, Coca Cola, and just about every other major company tenders them some freight) those big accounts are ran by professionals with big support staff. I would imagine those accounts did insanely well last year.
It’s the new brokers who probably aren’t doing well and had a hard time even getting ahold of businesses last year.

 

Somehow I replied twice

 

Happens, especially if you're rolling mobile.

Always fun to get the information from the competitors. Thanks for popping by. As always, these kinds of threads make me super glad I came into this industry through a small brokerage instead of someone like TQL.

 

As a Logistics Manager for 36 trucks working for a Carrier, I have booked countless TQL loads. Some good, some bad. We have reached TQL Elite Carrier which I did not know was a thing. They sent a plaque award and all. Does that even mean anything? Rates have not increased due to the Elite status, so what's the deal there?

 

Well rates are determined my each individual broker, so that definitely won’t effect your rates. I believe that’s just a token for hauling a certain amount of loads and it will probably make brokers feel better about booking you on high value or time sensitive loads. Probably nothing more.

 

When you say $4000 per week, do you mean gross or net?

The million dollar broker, was that gross or net? If net, they get 25% of the profit generated?

TQL detention is terrible if I remember right. $30/hr after 3 free hours and $150 layover. Did TQL pocket all of that money or do they really only charge their customers such small amounts?

 

That would be net. The difference between what they charge the customer and what they pay the truck.
I remember their top broker made $375k in commission one week while I was there. I believe he had the Nestle account.

From my experience, TQL actually rarely charged the customer unless the customer ordered the truck and then cancelled it. They typically just eat the charge.

 

Following

 

I think you might have your numbers or metrics slightly confused. Is it possible the top broker made $375k in margin in one week, and was paid a portion of that as commission? If you annualize $375k in commission weekly that comes out to $19.5 million in annual commissions, and that doesn't sound right.

 

No, that was what we were told.
TQL pays commission off of when they get paid.
They expect you to have $4000 margin each week but if all your clients were to pay their bills in the same pay period, your commission check would be 20-25% of the balances paid.
There are definitely brokers there who make millions in commission each year. Very few but they have massive accounts and have been there for years.

 

I'm guessing you were sold a false bill of goods, but I could be wrong. The average pay of S&P 500 CEO in 2019 was 12.3 million, but I suppose its possible that some broker at TQL is making about the same annually as the CEO of McDonalds.