I'm a Independant Dispatcher in Training Looking for Advice

That right there is exactly what somebody told me if I wanted to go into the logistic side of trucking. They told me if you ever want to be a good dispatcher/logistical person you have to be a trucker first. That way you can fully understand what that trucker is going through so you can say to that trucker I know exactly what you are talking about if they have some sort of problem because chances are you have been in there shoes.

 

If you spend any time reading any of my posts you will find the reason they tagged me "bullishly optimistic" is because I take the approach of just because it hasn't been done a certain way before or it is little different does not indicate it can't be done.

My issue with your plan, or as I am getting the feeling, lack of plan is that it is not different but the same old thing that has been tried over and over again from people with more experience than you and failed. It is not your attitude but the business model that is flawed.

That person that booked a load in 20-mins, he is one of my drivers. He knows the load, the market, everything you could possibly want to know about the load and it still took 20-mins. But he will tell you he has sat in one place for days calling and looking at loads before he found something.

When I say "50%" I am talking about you will be booking a percentage of loads for the drivers you are dispatching. You are not going to get a cut of the 20-min load Rollin booked. Actually, you may have spent hours looking for a load to have him email you and say he found something on his own. So when I say 5-hours, I am talking about taking all the time you work and dividing that by the number of loads you book. Now you have the true time it takes you per load.

I am not saying that it can't be done. Just saying you should build the business based on more factual numbers and not from what the people that are selling you are saying.

 

Too much of this sounds too close to what a broker does if you ask me. If one is establishing relationships with shippers and hooking them up with trucks, then that is a broker, not a dispatcher. I see this crossing too many lines to even consider it for myself. Sure, a dispatcher at a trucking company is dealing direct with shippers at times, but that trucking company has it's own operating authority that allows it to book said loads either through a broker or direct. Something just doesn't sit right with me on this, nothing personal.

And the learning curve???? I think that's a bit large for someone who has no knowledge of trucking, HOS, etc to even think about taking on. There are just too many factors to take into account . . . even experienced drivers and dispatchers screw up on that sometimes. Having been a driver myself, and with a hubby on the road and a father who drove for over 30 years, there is no way I would use a service like this. I'll handle my own paperwork thanks!

 

I do try to let you know when I am looking to put bids on anything you see. You know right now I've been busy as I can be with other freight though. After I empty out tomorrow I really will not be looking to roll again until Sunday night on something from a source that will contact me. Failing that, you don't have to bother with looking at any bid freight for me til monday unless you just want to work on Sunday

Anyways, my point about experience. I'll lay it out as it is at Farm2Fleet. Now Lauren or Brooke can certainly book freight and do a good job negotiating but honestly, and this is not a dig at them, they haven't done that for me in almost a year now. And they only have vague ideas of where I run and what exactly to look for. Even if they did know they don't have that, and this is something only drivers or those who gain experience dispatching have, they don;t have that road map in their head of cities and states to be able to look at an email in a glance and think to themselves in an instant "yeah that works for Chris". You on the other hand have a roadmap in your mind. You also know exactly what lanes I run and exactly what loads to ask me for a bid on when it comes your way. In the instant you call or email and tell me pickup and destination I pretty much know exactly what the load will move for at any given time and can bid right there in that instant... And usually I am too high and miss out on the load. Relationships come into play here where we are told what the carrier that can secure the load got it for and it is offered to us for that same rate if we want it. I always pass. Then there are times when the carrier with the lower bid losesz out simply because they are an unknown service wise then I get my higher rate simply because.

That stuff is really beside the point. My main point is your experience Bill cuts out on a lot of unecessary questions and wasted time. Minutes and even seconds matter in this game. That is where experience matters. And it's not that Lauren or Brooke or anyone for that matter couldn't learn, or figure out, it's just that without that roadmap in their head and other little things it will take a long time to get good at. Many loads that didnt have to be, will get missed out on from that lack of experience and flow... Drivers can sense if a person knows wth they are doing or not even if that person thinks they know but really doesn't... And newbies always get upset when guys poo-poo on their ideas about becoming owner operator or whatever aspect of the business side, when they get told they need to get some experience.. It's not telling them just so they put the dream off on hold, it's something that will empower them to succeed. Even so there are rare people who can pull it off with zero experience, that is not the nrom though, failure rate is high and competition is fierce. So OP, I am not trying to discourage you or anything, you just need to know what you're facing...

 

Well, I think that was very well said.

 

Hey Rollin Coal I will PM you on this, so I can help you out. Sorry I didn't get back to you until now, but I was having a rough day physically and had to lay down.

 

Hey this is the most ALIVE thread in this sub-forum

 

wow....I'm impressed.

 

Hi Rollin Coal,

I hope I am not hijacking a thread, but your inbox is full. Here is the answer to your proposal.

I would go into the facility, and ask to talk to the person that hires the carriers. If it is a big business then they would have a Control officer that handles the contracts, and if it is a small business then usually the President or Vice President is the one that you would talk to in order to sale yourself and your business. If you can..have a packet of information ready to hand to them to show what level of business you have done, and also include referrals of businesses that you have dealt with. I would also include a business card, along with your rates, but sometimes the rates have to be done after the initial meeting.

The things that you have to sale yourself on:

1) What makes you different then the big competitors.

• You were a successful fleet before the recession hit, but it affected your carriers to the point that they either went out of business or they just didn't have enough freight to keep you busy. Due to this your company had to downsize your fleet, but you didn't go out of business. That tells a person that you have continued to service your customers without folding in the towel. It has been you and your partner for (how ever many years), and you are looking to rebuild your business back up to what it was before the recession. You would just like an opportunity to show them what you and your partner can do for them, and begin to increase your fleet size again.
• In the beginning you would like to take on 2-4 loads a week until your fleet has been brought back up, and then you can take on more loads. If we start off small that will give you an opportunity to build a lasting relationship with your company, and it gives your company an opportunity to have freight moved without the high service failures that a broker or carrier may have.
• Our company has our own authority, our insurance requirements, and our own surety bond. (Most companies will want you to add them as a payee to your your policies, and this can be done for free which I am sure you already know. Some companies may require that you carry 2 million in coverage instead of a million it just depends on the companies requirements) Tell them that you will comply with their requirements, and you can have those sent to them within 24-48 hours after a contract has been signed.
• You can offer the company a 6 month to a year initial trial period contract to prove yourself, so that if you do good then you can resign a contract for a longer period after the initial trial period. I would go ahead and figure up rates since you already know where they load out of and include all 48 states. I would be more then happy to show you a spread sheet that we used to do the rates for shippers. This way you can show that you have done your homework before going in to talk to them.

2) They are going to want to know about your rates, and if it is going to suit their needs.

• Is this freight palletized or non-palletized? Is this LTL shipments or is it TL shipments? Is it temperature controlled shipments or dryvan? Is it live load or does it require a drop and hook? Is it a inside delivery at destination or is it a live unload at a warehouse? Are there multiple stops involved? Where do they normally ship to? Does the destination require labor unloading charges?

Once you have all those questions then it is time to figure out your rates along with your fuel charge. We had cabinet accounts out of Goshen, IN and Jasper, IN. They went to all 48 states, but we gave them the rate of origin in Indiana to the destination points. For example: It was always a drop and hook at their facility, and if it delivered in Florida then the rate was 1.75 per mile, $50 per extra stop, and the fuel surcharge was based on the weekly doe fuel average. I know at $3.00 a gallon it was .40 cents per mile, and we gave them 2 hours free at destination for unloading before detention time would apply @ $15 per hour, and if an overnight was due to the driver because of their customer then we charged $150 for overnight. All accessorials had to be approved by the account before we could bill them for accessorials. We also charged the metro fees to the areas that required them (mostly it was New York which was $150, but there are other metro fee's in other areas that are $75).

3) How are you going to handle claims? This is a big one for most companies that ship because of the carriers freight claims. If you get to high of freight claims they can cancel you, but if you keep a low freight claim then they will start using you more then other carriers that have higher freight claims.

• You will handle all freight claims in a appropriate amount of time in order to comply with the companies policies. You will require a freight claim be filed along with pictures of any damaged product, so that you may investigate the claim. The normal claim time is 2 weeks from the time you get the freight claim to the payment of the freight claim. It is very important that you document any shortages or damaged freight on the bill of ladings, so that you can go back and reference it to what they are saying. There were times that we had to deny certain claims because the shipper signed that they got them, but then turned around and said that they didn't. We would deny the claim due to the fact the shipment was signed for as receiving everything.

4) What are your billing requirements? Do you want paid in 30 days or 15 days after proof of delivery is given with the invoice. Since you are small you probably don't have an EDI account set up which is fine, because they can pay you by check. You could offer them a 10% discount off the total invoice if it is paid within 10 days from the time invoice is received. So let's say today is the 11th, then you can put at the bottom of the invoice that 10% will be given if payed by the 25th, because you want to allow time for it to travel through the mail or if they pay off faxed invoices then you can say the 21st.

I can make an example of a proposal and send it to you, so you know what they look like. Just let me know, and I hope that helps you.

 

I think giving a 10% discount for early pay would kill your operation. Margins are thin enough as it is. I think 30 days is normal for most business and you should be able to handle that. Any discounts you give for quick pay come right off the top. These factoring companies that claim "we help you grow your business" are misleading. They make you grow your business. Now you have to grow your sales by 10 or 15% just to get your profit back to where it was before you started paying to get your money.