Going out to get own Authority. I hear that alot of Brokers wont use you for 3 months

I never had any of them tell me they wouldn't use me because I had new authority. I also wasn't asking them about their fuel advance or quick pay. I do the load and then bill you and then you pay me later. Easy for all parties involved. I think some may be fearful of using a new company because of issues of a truck breakdown and them not being able to pay for quick repair, or the load disappearing into the night, little to no communication, etc. If you do a stellar job for them the first time they will remember that and keep feeding you loads later. It will take a while to get their top customers who pay top dollar for top SERVICE/COMMUNICATION. Also you should have many brokers you get loads from so you can learn what the typical lane rates are. If you later find that early on, you really got low-balled on a load, then later on you find what it should be paying, you can now know how far you should be pushing for a rate. Don't listen to that crap they tell you "back on this day you hauled it for this price" - if they want to play that game tell them if they don't want to move you are moving on. Chances are with your previous history of good service they will tell you what really is a fair rate for the load. It will probably be rough for the first while, but once you make it a year, you should be fine.

 

Since you're going to be working a lot with the likes of CHR and TQL in the beginning make sure you take care of the small details. Cross every T and dot every I on every load no matter how well nor how poorly it pays. Treat every agent you speak with - with the same respect - again, no matter how good nor bad the given load may be.

Always do status updates every step up the way. Email, call, text them, spartphone app or whatever. Doesn't matter. Just make it an unbreakable rule that come hell nor high water will you never forget to update the broker of your status every step of the way. If you do this one small thing you have already set yourself apart from the thousands of slackers out here who never do it. And they wonder why prevailing spot is so cheap. And they will tell you "no-one ever pays a rate like that" - hahahah!!

ALWAYS answer your phone when they call. I don't care if it's 6am and they wake you up in the middle of your break. You're providing a service and they have choices. Answer the #### phone and do it with a smile. Most times drivers do not answer the phone or they're rude if they do. Most veteran drivers have this idea of "well I know what I'm doing. I'm doing my job and I don't have to answer them. why don't they just leav me alone" which is not the right attitude for someone in a service industry. And that is how everyone treats it, like it doesn't matter.

It does. And they do notice when you take care of the small details like that. With the likes of CHR and TQL they will make notes of that in their computer next to your T# or MC# (whatever the case may be). When they have a critical load with some really good money in it and they see a dozen trucks posted who do you think they are going to call? The carrier that is easy to work with and takes care of the small details or the ones who never answer the phone have an attitude, etc?

I get excellent rates from large mega brokers and small ones alike by taking care of the smallest of details on every loaqd, load after load. None of them are bottom feeders when they're seeking me out or they can counter, discuss load details (even if we don't book the load). Now, as for the cut and paste agents - and they could be at any brokerage large or small - I don't mess with loads like that anyways. But one or several bad apples associated with any organization do not necessarily make it a bad organization as a whole.

Take care of the small stuff and after a while you won't have any problems pulling rates.

 

Don't let anyone convince you to factor if you don't need to. If you have enough saved up, then you're good to go.

 

Funny you should post that I have three of the five blocked on my searches on ITS.

 

Agree with Rollin Coal except answering the phone at 6am. TQL would call every 6am for a check call update despite me having left a message or email when I stopped at 2am telling them where I was and when I'd be rolling again. First two days I answered and politely informed the broker-in-training of the concept of time zones. Day 3 I turned off my phone...

One of my main gripes with Con-way was their early morning low-priority QC messages -- I'm not about to put up with it now that I'm the boss...

 

I never really got ridiculous calls from them or anyone else unless it was a really critical load. Then it's not really so ridiculous it's actually part of the criteria and could lead to a service failure if not followed. I have done loads where hourly or every couple of hours check calls were required enroute. Again, that is a service you provide. Don't provide it when it's spelled out and they won't ever use your truck again on the critical stuff, account savers, deep pocket customers, etc. And those are typically the loads that pay phneominally great rates so if you don't want the hassle, good, that's more money for me. If a newbie broker going by the book that doesn't know any better calls and wakes me, or whatever, I still take it in stride. Even though it does suck. Cause if you don't you're just like every other carrier and driver out here.

 

How about when you book a load 2 days in advance and get a call from the broker the day before scheduled pickup looking for an update.

 

You know why they do that? Because your competition will screw up the load(s) a day or so before they get to the one they pre-booked and the broker is actually sweating if you will even show up to pick up the load at all. You think it crazy because probably you have never doen this before nor even considered doing it but there are carriers out here that will book loads and just never even show up. No calls to tell anyone about it either. Just not show up. Lol... so if they don't know you and you pre-book and or they are in the hotseat and maybe nervous about it staying covered anyways then yeah they might call you. But I do pre-book a lot of loads days in advance at times and have never had anyone call yet to ask if I was going to make it. Or at least that is something I can't recall ever happeneing or I thought nothing of it if it did. But understand what your competition is like out here in spot. It's truly pathetic. It's why rates and everything are such a sorry state of affairs and you have to be on your game to make anything in spot.

 

Like a lot of people in here said.

Landstar and CH R.

 

Ok, so I am missing something.

So first to the OP. I have had my letter for roughly 30 days. I have a step, with ramps, will do over with and weight. I am from the Albany, NY area. I asked Derailed this same thing a month ago, he was right, dont worry about it. As he stated he only had one or two that he ever talked to that had an age restriction. I have had the same experience. Today was financial carrier services (sounds like a factoring company not a broker) they are both. The item was a little drive on 10' long 11000lbs from Balston Spa NY to GA for $800. Would have been icing on my $2500 dump trailer cake going to about the same area. The guy sees no real feed back and Im not set up with them already and asks how long authorized, so cant do it, ok thank you have a nice day. So you think its done. He then wants to talk me into using them for factoring. I ask, the same company that I cant haul for? LOL

Now to the rest of the thread. I Made the mistake of posting my truck on ITS one day looking for a load out of the NY city area. I get more well paying load emails then I can ever move. The ones I have moved are from the companys that own the products that dont use brokers. It keeps coming and is getting larger and larger. I dont understand how anyone is complaining about money in this market. I click on some of the loads that I see posted with the rate on ITS that seems like a great rate to see if the details make it a crap load and its not. The problem with looking at these loads is, the broker then calls you to see if you want the load. I usually have to decline as I am already full. But wow the market is really booming. The other thing I wanted to do was call on some of these 48000lbs listed loads going all the way to tampa from ny for $1500. I would like to know what the heck is going on there.

Jump in! Good luck!