Need Negotiation tips

For starters, make sure your tone of voice is at least neutral or positive. Nobody likes to deal with a bad attitude. You also want to be careful about the words you choose. Convey the message you need to convey, but in a nice way. For example,

• “That is too cheap.”
• Versus, “What is the most you can pay for this load?” (Better)

• “Nobody would be able to survive on that (laughs).”
• Versus, “I see this load requires 4 days. I’m looking for a little more to compensate for the extra days.” (Better)

You want to be actively looking for legit reasons why it is fair for you to receive more than what they are asking. Does the load require more days to complete than expected? Is it a freezer load? Is it an all-nighter run? Is it a last-minute load? Does it have multiple stops? Is it a chicken plant known for excessive delays? Is it a FCFS known for delays?

As already mentioned, do not call the broker until you know the least you can take the load for. Always be ready to say no, in a nice way, that is:

“Let me give it some thought, and I’ll give you a call back if I’m interested. Thank you.”

 

those lines sound like a person in dire straights, and will work for fuel money only.

set up your MUST HAVE rate to cover all your expenses and some profit, and stick to it.

set up a minimum you can live with like maybe as little as 5% to 10% off your MUST HAVE price.

they don;t want to pay it..??

then you were dealing with someone that wants everything for free, and will only continue to want cheap rates..

 

When you get a bully broker whos demeanor is to press, corner and overwhelm you into negotiations you arent ready to make.. Maybe you havent mapped it or checked if you have enough clock... Switch from "i" to "we"

They dont need to know who we is or if we exists. However there is a psychological strength in numbers.

"Sorry, we dont run for less than 2.20 all miles."

"Our policy is to price by days, $1000 a day for one, $800 for two, etc.."

"Okay mr broker ive got your details, let me call base and see if any of my dedicated stuff is on deck. If not i will call you back."

When a broker who has the last load out of the deadzone and is pushing you to get what they want at your expense, we switch from doing mutually beneficial business as partners, to doing one sided gain akin to politics or war. Sun tsu said appear to be big when you are small. Never make that broker a direct enemy. Outsmart him with a smile and a thanks buddy. Have fun with it.

There is nothing wrong with just saying it plainly, "my truck costs $1.55 a mile to run and i dont subsidize freight. Thanks and goodluck, im gonna deadhead out."

"Wait wait wait.. " might be the response.

If you fish.. You know only the runts hammer that senko when it first plops in. Big fish look at it on the river floor until it gets up and starts to crawl away. Sales is psychological.

 

I know where you live, and where your children go to school. But be nice when you say it.

 

LOL!

 

IF broker tells me Ive got this medical load paying 6000 dollars to Linfield Ct from San Diego CA I will want to already have in my mind what it going to cost me to run a big rig 18 wheeler from San Diego to CT.

It should work out to 3000 miles. Truck gets 7 miles to gallon, load is not that heavy. Fuel is 430 gallons, 1300 dollars. Truck break even mileage cost (Not including driver pay) 3800 (About 1.28 a mile)

Total roughly 5100 dollars. Throw in about 200 more for reefer at 65 degrees and apu idle. 5300.

Net earning to you out of that 6000 tender offer is about 700 dollars for 6 days work solo.

6000 solo is not enough. 7000 firm. Or forget it. Earnings to you would be around 1700 for 6 days work.

IF you two are a team you can promise 3 day delivery but rate must be higher, around 9000 or so.

 

Knock, knock, knock.

Who’s there?

The FBI.

 

It’s at its core a sales job.

Be positive. Everyone wants to talk to a happy guy. They’ve already been groused at that day by their boss, two customers, their wife, ex-wife and two kids. Someone just being happy and nice on the phone is like an emotional happy hour.

Speak CLEARLY. Buy a quality headset so people can hear you. If you’re from a place with strong accents, try to take the worst of the edge of.

Be professional, but be personable. If price is all you take about, you’ll get a lower price. Talk about service, communication, reliability, years experience, how busy you are. Never say something like “I need to be home by Thursday”. You are just flat out busy, but can squeeze this one load in if it helps the guy out. Talk about price last, after you’ve established you are happy with or without the load.

 

@PE_Trans you mentioned chicken plants and ungodly waits in a previous post, how do you manage that in your negotiation? Do you have an hourly rate for you and truck and how much time do you allot? I know as a driver for a large chicken company private fleet how screwed up it is for us, let alone independents coming in from the outside. I arrived at 2100 for a 2145 pull and they had not even begun processing for the load I was supposed to pull, estimated ready time was 0200-0300.

 

I think that I'm going to record the calls with the brokers.

Not really for a legal reason, I assume if it's not on the rate con it doesn't matter even if you have them on a recording.

But I think there's a lot of value in listening to your interactions and learning from them and studying them.

You can see right where the situation turned what it is that they did what it is that you did what your strengths are that you need to play to what your weaknesses are you didn't realize, etcetera etcetera.