Hello Everyone

Greetings community,

I should start off by saying I am not a trucker. It's in my family- my grand and great-grand parents were logging truckers, and several friends were truckers- so I've been around it. I am actually a brokerage agent in training. I've been "tracing" trucks for some time now, and really enjoy working with drivers and carriers. The brokerage company I work for has very competitive prices, and we treat our drivers well. It's been my understanding that usually a load is booked, and the broker walks away. We follow our trucks, staying in contact, helping with issues that arise, setting up appointments, etc. It's a service and commitment to the carriers/drivers and our customers.

The reason I joined the forums here, is that I have been pushing for expansion within the company. We are all happy in the company (from what I can tell at least, ha). I personally only make a cut of what the agent that booked the load makes, which in itself is the split on the load. Erm, let me break that down a little better: our customer wants to move a product, he pays $1000. Agent books the load at $900, so the split is $100. He makes a commission on that, the rest goes to the company. I make a commission on the agents cut for tracing the load. It's not much money, especially for the amount of work to be done at times, but I truly enjoy it. It's dynamic, and I've met some really cool drivers.

I'm not sure how other brokerages work, and I've learned over the years it certainly is a competitive market. After reading a few threads here on the forum, I realized I needed to get on the ground with carriers and drivers. It's been pushed to me to find good customers, pick a commodity, and find golden lanes, bla bla bla. That's slow and rough, especially when I'm more down to earth and not exactly sales material... I'm "too honest" and laid back. The agents who seem to make the most money seem to be pissed off all the time, and have shady tactics. I know they aren't all like that- but it's what I've seen the most of.

So again, glad to have found a community like this, where I can see the other side of the curtain. I hope to learn more about how I can assist drivers and carriers, and become more efficient as both an agent and tracer. I'd love to pick some brains, and hopefully can answer questions (as best I can), and give insight to others from MY side of the curtain!