Load board confusion

Only wishing he could do what were doing...lol

 

I don't think it has anything to do with how you get dispatched. I book 98% of my loads myself through the agents. But I call the agent on every load. Very rarely will I use the load board to book the load. I usually keep myself booked up enough that my coordinator doesn't have a chance to call an offer me loads. Plus he knows me pretty good and won't call me unless he really thinks I'll take the load and even then I turn it down about half the time.

What I've come to understand is CBD yes loads are loads that are offered to Mercer and other carriers and they are posted on public load boards also. Agents put them on our board when they are offered the loads but they don't have time to check on the loads regularly to see if they are still good loads. It's really no biggie. I understand how it works so I just roll with it.

 

problem is some agents will put load on several boards and at different prices that's why some loads mysteriously cancel. ... they found someone on another board to run it cheaper so they cancelled you out there are many pjama agents out there that don't have any loads of there own and just relist loads from other agents or brokers .... when you call about a load and the agent says hang on while I call my customer to see if the load is still available that's going to be a doub

 

sorry lol .... that's going to be a double brokered load if it was his load he will know if it's still available .... and often times these loads seem to be dealing with aholes at either the shipper or reciever. ...... the newer play is the load would be listed at 1500 and when the agent comes back on the phone will say the customer can only pay 1200 .... I tell them that I can do it for 1800 ... I don't like that new game so I don't play fair Lol ...... I deal mostly with agent's that are the prime contractor of the load it is there load they have all the details and they seem to be a lot better people to deal with on both ends ... sometimes in order to get to point b from point a you have to take a double brokered load but in my opinion stay away from them if you can

 

You are right to an extent. A lot of loads the only way to get them is through a broker or a 3pl. A lot of customers won't deal with trucking companies anymore. That's what happens here a lot specially on the van side.

 

You do understand that a lot of companies send a list of loads out to multiple carriers right? The agent doesn't know if the load has been covered or not until they check on it. I've never had an agent come back and say the customer wouldn't pay what they had the load listed for except one time and the amount was $5. The agent threw that in so the load still paid the same. I'm not saying it doesn't happen but I've only had it happen that one time in a year and a half. If it did happen then I would do what you do and bump it higher than it was posted for.

 

There's a Savannah 3PL warehouse that loads me when I get through there. One day a TQL agent called me and offered me a load out of Savannah. We negotiated and agreed on $1200 for the 350 miles or so. An hour later, I get a call from TQL saying the customer doesn't want to pay that much. I tell them to stuff it. We had an agreement.

Since I was in the area, I called my guy at the 3PL warehouse and sure enough, I get the exact same load from him for more money. Since that happened, I won't even consider TQL anymore. It's like they have hundreds of college drop outs manning their phones looking to cover other broker's loads or something.

If a broker won't give me specifics, I figure it's double brokered and just book with someone else.

 

that's what why I said it's a new game some of the agents are playing. .and when guys start saying ok I guess there will be a lot more playing it...... and those companies that send there loads out to multiple agents you will find those are the same companies that take forever to load you too and probably a long unload too .... to say it short I do my best to avoid ahole agents shippers and recievers it makes this job a whole lot less stressful and more profitable

 

You are right on about some customers sending load offers to multiple companies.

What he is talking about is completely different. LS has a bunch of agents (most can't speak english very well) that post broker loads at a higher rate just trying to get you to call them.


There game is to post it for $1500, hoping they can talk you into doing it for the $1100 it actually pays. That is the only way they can get people to call them. They are constantly changing their agency codes, and phone numbers. Even use fake names.

That is one thing I sure don't miss about LS.

 

Hmm... Wonder why he even brought it up. I bet you can't find very many drivers at Mercer that's had this issue.