Internet Truck Stop: How to Get Highest Rates

if you are asking these kind of questions....Its a Good thing,but also a bad thing.

Load Boards Suck! They really do,(Except the Classic DAT board) But its expensive,

Load Boards and Freight brokers are good for 1 thing only..Getting your truck back to your customers

You MUST secure your own customers to survive.If not You will FAIL...brokers will lie,cheat,steal from their own family,,They have already sold their souls to the devil, They are nothing more than Wall Street conservatives on PCP.

if you truly want to succeed in trucking.........Work Smart (Not hard), Negotiate with a firm demeanor....Be courteous and polite to all of your customers..And dont let ANYONE destroy your ambition.

Also, Keep your truck(s) in good mechanical shape..Or your profits will dwindle.

I have been an independent for a long time........Just to give youy an idea of revenue's... I put $20,000 away every 6 months of PURE profit.

That Means PROFIT..Savings money for anything in Life I desire.


Anyway,Best of luck to ya, Mick

 

Yes, everything is negotiable. You see, when you get your authority, you do everything on top of driving the truck. IMO, knowing how to drive the truck is far less important than being a good salesman. If you don't know how to sell, don't know how to be a closer, etc. I would invest a lot more time into learning to be an effective salesperson than wasting time looking at load boards. There are plenty of books on the subject, Zig Ziglar comes to mind. Glengarry Glen Ross is an excellent look at salesmen. Coffee is for closers!!! Learn to sell and negotiate while you're leased to a company like Landstar that you pick your own loads ( I negotiate many of my loads, and give plenty of quotes, too). When you learn lanes, what pays and what doesn't, when it does and when it doesn't, etc., you will be better prepared to go on your own.

As far as getting paid, you don't know. You use a combination of credit scores, industry knowledge, etc to make an informed guess on whether or not you'll be paid. I only was bit twice in almost 7 years, because I was very stringent on my credit standards. If a broker didn't have two years in business, I preferred not to do business. I made them prove their credit worthiness to me and then I only pulled one load until I was paid. Sure, I declined a bunch of loads, but the best paying load out there that you never get paid on is still a loss.

 

If your curious about rates. Look at the landstar load board. Find a load that looks interesting. Call the phone number. They will ask you what trucking company your with. Use whatever name you would call your business. And they will give you a quote.

 

Good point. After being dragged around Christmas shopping last weekend and bored to tears (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...h-girlfriend-insisted-going-clothes-shop.html) we ended up in a bookstore and so I went over to business section just to see. And I bought a John C. Maxwell book titled, "How successful people think". About a 1/2 way through it, a really short book 120 pages or so, it's good $10 well spent.... Got another one at the house when I get done with the first one, "Everyone communicates - few connect"...

 

When you ask what the rate is from any customer, you just lost the negotiation. You are the one providing the service and should ALWAYS be the one that sets the rate. Never let the customer take control of the negotiation by telling you the rate first.

Always be nice and always say thank you.

GREAT ADVICE from a classic......

[video=youtube_share;nTh5JzRziHE]http://youtu.be/nTh5JzRziHE[/video]

 

you could make a good living out of load boards if you know what you doing, and say no to cheap freight and like mention above, be nice and say no. They will ask how much you do it for and always add a good $200 plus and most of the time they will meet you in the middle. If they say no? just look for something else. You need to find direct shippers if you can, and than you will be the one posting up loads. Dont let people tell you their no money in this business no more. If you have a education in business or you are street smart in selling or buying you could make money in trucking.

good luck

 

Every customer is different. I had a few seasonal direct customers that I would call daily to book loads with as they were moving 50 loads a day. I have current agents that email or call me when they have freight, or I call when I'm going into the area for good agents I use less frequently.
Communication and reliability are the key factors in winning customers. All that customer wants is for their load to be picked up and delivered on time, with no problems. As a one truck operator, all you can sell is your personalized service.
How many steady customers Is a vague question. It can be 1 or 20, it depends on the lanes you run and the volume they ship.