Negotiating with brokers when the answer is always no.

These freight market rate negotiations have nothing little to do with negotiation skills that you are lectured on in some business or salesman schools - as if you were trained in overwhelming powers of persuasion and based on that they will pay you a lot more than someone else, especially on a random dry van freight.
You can't beat the market by a lot. Even when you try, most of the time it is a pure luck combined with a little dose of cunning tactics like that waiting till the last hour of a day. But even then, a guy from Landstar calls you ready to pay you whatever you sing to him and you don't know if there is not going to be a problem with that last minute load. I personally don't have a stomach for that.

"You can't beat the market by a lot." I mean a specific lane on a given day or even days in a week. Maybe time of a day matters but the longer you wait the more the risk increases that you won't get loaded at all.

 

Great info in this thread.

Like Dune said posting your truck can lead to good things. It puts leverage on your side immediately. Also I wouldn’t get toooo specific of where your truck is “wanting” to go. That takes leverage away. Some classics are “I’m looking for more miles”(aka pay up or it’s not worth my time) or “I’d like to get more towards home and the ol lady would kill me if I took this load” or “Let me ask the driver, he really doesn’t like that area, what’s the best offer on this?”.(Then call back a couple hundred over their best and work from there) Get creative. It’s all about supply/demand and perception.

Edit: If you actually know lanes then you can say “Man there is just not any freight out of that area. I’d have to get paid both ways to make it worth my time.” Experience and information is key. Learn learn learn. There was a time when I couldn’t tell you an freakin thing about any lane anywhere. I struggled. Now I could pretty well tell you not anywhere in the country but a good bit and for a couple different equipment types. What do they say? Knowledge is power?

 

^^^^^^^ this
Word it, sugar coat it however you want, Midwest Trucker hit the bottom line!

 

Bid every load like you don't want it, and never bid desperate. If you can't find a rate you want, then keep calling until you do. Personally, I multiply the loaded miles by three, and that's what I throw out there. If they don't like the rate, I tell them I appreciate their time, and we part ways. I only hauled three loads last week, because I needed to go home and fix my trailer. But the rates on those three loads were $3.35, $3.74, and $3.82.

But I've hauled cheap before too, and probably will again...

 

For me personally, get away from the idea that you have to move every single day.....its about the money I make per day/, per day work. I try to do $1000 per day after fuel very minimum. And those are winter numbers. Sometimes that's 100 miles and sometimes that's 300 miles. I did 3 loads last week 2 350 mile loads and one 400 and revenue was $6000

I pull and RGN

 

That's awesome. I'd like to specialize, but I barely know what I'm doing with a regular flatbed, much less an RGN.

 

Im no expert by far. For me I do ok. I think I can do better

 

What they are telling you is we can move the load at the rate we get.

Being a business person is more difficult than being a driver.

 

Saw in another thread that OP is in Texas and operates in the surrounding states.
I don't even go to that area. I feel like no matter what you do in there, the spot market won't be in your favor 11 months out of the year.