Had it up to here....

That exact same mentality can be applied to Carriers as well since they could go back to hiring a sales team to find customers for them and/or put their sales slacks on and make sales efforts themselves. But, like Shippers, they too have become "lazy" and let the Brokerages be the middle man and do some work too. Direct customers isn't always the best thing either.

I give nothing away for free. However, I do sometimes not bill certain things for repeat customers. That's just good business IMO.

 

Not necessarily, not all have the ability to carry the note for 30-90 days, or build the relationship with the customer, being a reliable carrier is not all that is involved with acquiring and retaining a customer.

 

You've missed the point entirely but if you're ignoring contract terms with Brokers you set up with by soliciting their customers you're...I'll just stop there. Let's just say I would consider you a morally bankrupt individual.

 

I agree they want to play middle man until they have to actually take responsibility for something serious. But having direct customers isn't always, "the best" avenue. I have a whole list of places not worth hauling for because they are horrible to load/unload at, have problematic freight, want too much for free and/or don't pay invoices in time. So saying direct is ALWAYS THE BEST choice is not true at all. Brokers certainly have their pros and cons just like direct customers do.

 

To the contrary, I've found working with smaller brokers to be a better experience than the mid to mega level brokers. Once a broker buys into a third party package (assure assist, rmis, myfreightbroker, etc.), the relationship is gone.

I just pulled a load for a broker I won't work with again because of this. Before I even picked up the load, the phone calls started coming in. What's your location? Are you dispactched? When will you be there? How long until you're there? What are you driving? What road are you driving on?

I replied I don't accept nanny calls. I will call you when I'm loaded, and when the load is delivered. Please don't interrupt me while I'm working.

Shortly, another call. Same stuff. I said, "I don't call you every 15 minutes to see if you're doing your job, do I? Please trust your own judgement. You hired a professional to do their job, now let them do their job. I will not respond to any further nanny calls."

Then, text messages follow. Do they really expect me to respond to texts while I'm driving?!?!?! Are they nuts????

As for the ratecons, I have felt free to redact lines I don't agree with, such as tracking software. They either accept it, or they don't. I was looking for a load when I found that one.

To summarize, a good broker relationship is great and beneficial until the broker starts outsourcing their admin functions and buys into software packages.

Most importantly, as mentioned before, you get what you pay for. If you find you need to badger a driver that you paid bottom-of-the-barrel rates to, maybe you should consider upping the pay and hire a professional. Then, let them do their job.

 

Amen to this post. I like your style, I'll definitely have to use one or two of your lines. One big problem with the big brokers is that a lot of them are the same big megas that have fleets of trucks driven by non-professional subhumans (JB Hunt is a perfect example).

I deal with small ones more too. I had to let a very good paying regular go not too long ago because of their silly corporate rules (nannying, as you say).

 

Just like any 2 sides of the story, the truth lies somewhere in between.

There are CRAP trucking companies, as well as CRAP brokerages. Not to mention CRAP customers. A lot of the fine print and nanny calls are because trucking companies generally suck. The customer doesn’t want to deal with it, yet expects perfection. So, the broker has to work double time to ensure it or the next guy fills his place. Many complaints about brokers here are correct but there are many outstanding ones too.

The OP lost all credibility when he says he ignores back solicitation clauses IMO.

Like one of the other members here said, how many trucks are you running OP? How many direct customers do you have? If brokering is so easy why aren’t you a broker as well?