I am a Freight Broker at TQL - looking for conversation and dialogue

Only use TQL when they pay extremely high rates, otherwise don't

 

I like when tql calls and asks if I have a truck in Oregon or Washington. might as well ask if I have a truck in north America. or when I post it on its and write a note that only need a load from city a to city b and they still call me with other loads like they cant read. but tql is not too bad there are way worse than them

 

If they're calling you on loads 200 miles away delivering 200 miles from your intended destination, you know they're in a jam & they'll almost always pay $3+ for all miles -- if you have the flexibility.

 

Scottied67, you have one of the funniest posts, I've ever read. Love your sense of humor! Or....was it REAL??? Is that really TRUE...?? WOW! I've been trucking since 1979 and I never knew that. You've been a real help to me, driver! I'm gonna go to my KW dealer and tell them I want a 75% discount truck because I'm gonna do backhauls!! Yeah, man! You gave me HOPE, man!!!

 

"It was a good thing when a couple years ago brokers bonds were increased to $750K. It should have been more,,"

Pahrump, I see you've been trucking 44 yrs. You probably know a good amount of stuff, but you are wrong on the broker bond being increased to $750K being a good thing...and saying it should have been more.

I've been trucking since 1979 and I've had my own authority since 2000. Before that I was leased to several different companies. The increase in the bond only helped the bigger companies like TQL, J.B., BNSF, Schneider, CHR, Allen Lund, England, etc. gobble up more freight. So, have you seen the rates increase from them? No. Will you see crooks not able to enter the business because the bond is too high? No. A crook will steal the money somehow from someone somewhere to get into it. OOIDA made a bad mistake (and I'm a senior member there) in pushing this and I had several conversations with them about it - Todd Spencer included. I told them they were going to put small brokers like us out of business. They said, no, the fees won't be that bad. Well, they were and now we don't have our own brokerage. I told them it won't eliminate crooks in the business. It was the same as if carriers were forced to up their cargo insurance to $1M even though they didn't haul $1M loads. Our cargo insurance should only be as high as the average loads we carry. Why should a sand hauler have to have $100K Cargo if his loads are only worth $30K tops? I have a friend in the sand hauling business and that's all he has for cargo. I carry $350K because 2 or 3 times a year I haul a customer's or a hot load worth near that amount. It also looks good for brokers to see that when they are looking for a top notch carrier to haul an expensive load. So, if I'm only doing less than $10K over a three month period or even in one month, why should I have to carry $750K? Why can't the government allow people to do a small amount of business if that's the way they want to run their business?

Can you imagine how many loads (and their dollar amount) Landstar moves in just ONE month? Or a quarter. That's what their Bond should be. If they went belly up, how fast would that $750 bond be exhausted? How many carriers would be screwed and how many would be out of business?

The other thing is, if you file on the bond of a crooked broker (or one who is going bankrupt from someone inside stealing from them), you are not going to get your money just because you are the first to file on their bond. They wait til they have put the broker on notice, wait til the FMCSA has finally cancelled their authority and then they pay the oldest invoices from carriers FIRST - NOT yours! That crook can run up an awful lot of $$$$ in those remaining months he stays in business. That's why it's not a good idea or the answer to our complaints of how to keep crooks out of brokering. There are only two bond companies that pay the first carriers to file on the bond. There may be only one now. The rest ALL WAIT til all the invoices are in and pay them out (only up to the amount of the bond). The rest of the carriers get nothing. And they don't have to prove who they paid or that they paid anyone. I found this all out.

We did it just to cover loads for our customers that we couldn't do ourselves on our own equipment and this kept us in the forefront of their minds as we could still offer them service. And we often never posted the loads - just called reliable carriers we knew to cover the loads and always paid them well. O/O's would often say things like, "I LOVE seein' your number come up on my phone. That's _____ and I know he's got a good payin' load!". That's the kind of reputation we had. So, now we can't do it because govco has taken another step in running out the small businessman.

Did you notice the next thing the FMCSA wants to do is make us carriers all carry more liability insurance so these ambulance chaser lawyers can make more money on bigger settlements? That's another way to knock out the small guy. Why should we have to pay more so some blood-sucking, greedy lawyer can line his pockets by suing another trucking company for a drunk driver who slammed into the rear of a trailer and the driver and carrier get charged and fined (and likely put out of business) because of a stupid technicality, like "his log book wasn't up" or " the driver should have done this or that to avoid the accident"? You need to read some of the results of these lawsuits and see how crummy they are.

We were a small mom & pop brokerage who always paid quickly and our loads paid very well. We were very selective in who our customer base was. We often paid the truckers / carriers before we got paid to keep our name and reputation at a higher standard than other brokers - sometimes in a week or two. There were other truckers I knew who had a similar business model where the wife stayed home and brokered a few loads every now and then. And some of them really paid good. Those women knew how hard a job it was and respected us, because their husband or father or uncle were in trucking. Sadly, they're not around anymore either. Welcome to the up and coming socialist / communist / fascist world the obamas, pelosis, reids and soros's (and all the other worthless politicians) are bringing on with their wonderful "progressive" (communist) movement.

 

That's the golden rule. Those who have the gold make all the rules. Which are to squeeze the small fish out. That's what government does and that's who it works for. The big wannabe monopolies. 65mph speed limiters, e-logs, allowing CDL permit holders to team drive legally while the trainer is taking a 10 hour break in the bunk, Obamacare handing the insurance companies 350,000,000 guaranteed customers via the threat of fines, jail, or the target of a paramilitary SWAT team.

 

just know. if you get a good rate from tql theres is a high chance its gonna get canceled. that's why they have a separate sheet with pu# and address.

 

The confirmation does not have the address. The address is a separate piece of paperwork called a "load sheet". Until you have both you have nothing. Always insist when you book a load that they send both over right away. They should have no.problem with that. If they do something is up and you should probably walk away from that load. Even with both in hand stuff happens and the load may cancel. But with the "load sheet" you are officially dispatched so TONU comes into play.

 

Some Senators are trying to get the ball rolling on having shippers insure their loads and not having us carry cargo insurance. It would also be up to the shipper to take responsibility on how the load is loaded, secured and tarped.

 

?????? Every single load I have ever hauled has the pickup and delivery address on the rate conformation.