How much do you pay for your dispatching services???

Discussion in 'Freight Broker Forum' started by syva, Nov 23, 2012.

  1. DispatchQueen33

    DispatchQueen33 Bobtail Member

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    This is what I did for a living for a very long time. With that being said most of the time driver's paid me a flat fee of five percent a load. Once I took on factoring, invoicing, fuel taxes and weekly payroll, well the fee increased. Just depends on the owner operator. If they have dedicated freight with little to no paperwork involved I did a flat fee per week. Someone who runs all over with numerous brokers ( requiring alotof invoicing and money chasing ) we worked.off percentage. Just how I ran it. I am sure others do it differently.
     
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  3. trucking.shine

    trucking.shine Light Load Member

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    I think this discussion has been on forever. Obviously, it depends on the skills you have and time you've been in the business. If you're starting maybe you need a little (or a lot) of help and once you get the hang of it you can do it by yourself.
    But I think that most O/O try to handle everything by themselves, especially nowadays with internet tools that make it easier.

    The only problem with the current tools is that it's hard to track how the market is doing and compare that with what you want to make (your goals or aspirations). Unless you're a very experience Driver, with maybe direct contracts in some lanes, trying to make a strategy work with Loadboard information can be pretty difficult. Or at least that's what I've experienced so far.

    Discovering what is the best strategy and any given moment with the options you have on that specific time window is a hard thing. I don't know if there are tools that help you with that, if you have to be for many years in the business to learn, or you just have to get contracts to minimize the risk. Or maybe I should just try to get the best-paying Loads at any given moment for the Trucks I manage, even if that "best-paying" is just really cheap freight.
     
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  4. rollin coal

    rollin coal Road Train Member

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    The best way to learn and get experience is to dive in. It takes time and that's how everyone does it. There is no magic pill. No-one can answer it on a message forum. You just have to do it every day. I say this in a constructive way not a looking down on anyone way, that fretting over difficulty and looking for a crutch to lean on is very counter productive. Attitude is everything. I should actually take this advice myself on certain matters.

    It's not easy even when experienced. I laugh every time one of the resident brokers says something along the lines of "rates are so good now you have to be stupid to not make any money" because obviously they don't have a clue. Not really and in my opinion they are never good enough either. Brokers have a distinct advantage of nearly always holding most of the cards and having better info. Missteps are easy to make out here and even in good times it is not easy. The sharks are always circling for blood in the water and aggressively looking to grind you down into nothing.
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2018
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  5. PPDCT

    PPDCT Road Train Member

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    Well, no, rates are never good enough for any of us. Hell, I'd love to be able to pay you guys $20/mi to run a dry van cross country. I think though, that you'd agree that in the current market environment, rates are way, way up over where they were a year ago, let alone two, and that makes the barrier to being profitable a little bit lower for you guys and gals out there running the freight.

    In the main, though, I'd agree with your statement that it's probably not as easy as it sounds. I'm still learning things from my side of the equation on a daily basis, and sometimes data and previous experience indicates a load should move for $X dollars, and then it goes for $Y, and vice versa. You're always learning, and refining as it goes, and no two loads, however identical, are ever really the same.

    Now, it's definitely going to be harder on those who don't have a clue. Especially, and using an example from today, when you've got dispatchers and drivers like the one that don't realize a 107"W diameter bearing won't fit inside a standard conestoga trailer (Two of them, today. Two.) One thing that I've noticed is that this is an industry with ridiculously low barriers for entry, on all sides. We had a gal who apparently interviewed well who worked here for a very short time who asked me, completely seriously, "Paul, is Australia its own country?" She had been doing cold calls to a company's offices in Australia for two weeks, before she finally got ahold of someone. I can only imagine how bemused this fellow was. She did not last, obviously.

    But folks like you who've got a clue? I gotta imagine you're killing it out there right now.
     
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  6. DSK333

    DSK333 Road Train Member

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    Neither of which have any business doing what they do at all. Both should spend some more time honing their crafts before being set free on their own.
     
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  7. rollin coal

    rollin coal Road Train Member

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    No, I'm not. Rates are a little better but the market seems softer than last year. I know that sounds ridiculous when all you hear about are easy riches but it's exactly what I am seeing the past month or so. Yeah there are some decent loads out here to be sure. There's also a LOT more junk loads with excessive transit times that won't be compensating for time though. That was actually a big thing I saw a lot of last year surely in anticipation of EOBR. But last year no-one would book those loads and they were forced many times to pay double rates or more to move them, which fairly compensated for the time involved.

    Seems like this year they're not paying near as well and those loads are covering. I notice long haul rates have improved significantly. Seeing $4,000-$6,500 on 2,300 mile east to west hauls which used to always be about a $1.30 or so. EOBR mandate has done wonders for long haul. I think it will depress short haul. Just my O. That's exactly what the mega's anticipated and why they wanted it too. Wait until the bottom falls out again it's gonna be really desperate out here.

    I'm getting sick and tired of people trying to sell me 300 mile loads that pick up late afternoon today then deliver the next night or even 2 days later exclaiming "it's paying $4 a mile, wow! Don't you want that!?" Brokers talking sillyness about rate per mile. It's condescending and I can't take anyone like that serious. They're just another snake in the grass. No-one in a truck out here is looking at rate per mile anymore. Not in the same way. Or if they are they need to re-think that. It's the time. Time is everything. Never enough of it and always some lousy customer out here wasting mine business as usual.
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2018
  8. PPDCT

    PPDCT Road Train Member

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    That's fair. I'm seeing less of that on my end. My shippers are starting to get on board with paying more for time spent.

    Edit: I wonder how much of that is a matter of different market segments? I have no reefer accounts, and two van accounts. Everything else I do is open deck.
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2018
  9. rollin coal

    rollin coal Road Train Member

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    It's good one week not so good the next. Most people I know, and I agree, would say it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time because otherwise there's not exactly a panacea of pick whatever you want out here. One of my friends that runs similar lanes had a look see at old rate cons from last year and says it was May before it got really good. So May is here and I guess we will see... I will say this that 2017 ended up being a stellar year.
     
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  10. PPDCT

    PPDCT Road Train Member

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    Fair enough. I'd agree that 2017 was a ###### good year. And here's to a good year for both of us, either way.
     
  11. trucking.shine

    trucking.shine Light Load Member

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    @TallJoe I have a question for you. Would you say that Finding good loads is hard? or is it Negotiating the loads you want so they become good ones?
    I mean, because one thing is navigating through loadboards try to Find the good loads, which most of the time is pretty hard. Especially if you ended up in a not so good area form your previous trip.
    And another thing is choosing where you want to go and Negotiate your way into high Rates.Obviously, the second option requires experience and training.
    But the point of my question is that if you think you can choose between one or the other.
    Does that make sense? I hope I could explain myself.
     
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