New Broker wants O/O advise

The deck is stacked against you as a solo broker these days. A $75K bond with no experience. Better have cash to put down or deep pockets to cover the vig you are going to be charged.

Then you better have a VERY strong rate ($1.70 out of FL or CO maybe) and the ability to pay 50% on PU and remainder on delivery.

How many responding are going to risk working with a new broker?

Plan on setting up Co-broker relationships with some of the bigger brokers. When you have to move something this may be your only option to move it and not lose money.

Also, hope you are multilingual and have a strong stomach for working with new carriers and carriers with poor safety records.

Finally, if you have a book and can show you can make some money I would suggest looking at some of the agent programs. Even giving up a cut you will likely make better money with them than being on your own. Thanks to OOIDA/TIA you have limited options to being independent. They feel selling out to the major brokers is in the best interest of the industry.

 

Keep your expenses down, underbid everybody for loads. Then you just have to set up a call center, if you can take enough calls you can find a carrier willing to haul cheap. Phone calls are cheap and eventually a carrier will call who needs to move his truck to get his driver home or to his next load. Sure, eventually someone will come along and bid it even cheaper than you or else the customer will get tired of all the slipshod carriers you send, but you can just go get more cheap loads.

I guess the only other option would be to be patient, think long term. Find shippers who want quality service and really learn and understand their needs and communicate it to the truckers you work with. I mean, if you do it right you could build something over time where you could just move a few loads a day and make good money and still pay the trucks well and have quality carriers who are happy to work with you. Nah, that takes too much time, go cheap.

 

Seriously... do NOT even attempt to quote $1 per mile freight to an Owner/Op... I have a very long list of cheap as sh#t brokers who NEVER get a second call from me... and I move my truck for an AVERAGE of $2.25 p/m... there's plenty of freight out there that moves for more than that... if you insult carriers or O/O's, you quickly become a leper in this biz... just as an example, here's an email I just got Friday from a broker I've hauled for in the past:

Please let me know if you can help with an available Van load picking up this Sunday 7/28/13 from Sarasota,FL – Mid Florida,FL. Picks early and delivers straight through. Requires 15 straps, 1 pad and 1 bar. Pays $800 on 127 miles. Please call or email with any options.

Thanks




This is an ACTUAL request from a Broker who KNOWS the level of service THIS O/O provides... that rate is $6.29 per loaded mile IN FLORIDA (also known as the "Dead Zone" for freight).

The point of the above is to stress the importance of treating carriers and O/O's fairly... as it turns out, my truck is in the shop for an inframe, so I wasn't able to haul the load... Soooo... I contacted a carrier I had previously leased onto and referred the load to him because I know he can be trusted to do right by my contact, who TRUSTS me...

There is plenty of $$$ in this business for people who refuse to compromise standards and provide professional, reliable service for the freight customers -- shippers and receivers alike... I've been an O/O for 2 years plus, and I have NUMEROUS brokers AND shippers who call me out of the blue asking for my truck... and it ain't because I haul CHEAP! It's because I haul WELL and reliably.

Establish, and, most importantly, MAINTAIN, good relationships with carriers and O/O's... the day is coming when trucks will be harder to find... I'd rather haul for slightly less to help a broker or shipper who has treated me well in the past who finds themselves in a bind... because I know, if the tables are ever turned, they will bend over backwards to get ME out of one. Relationships THAT strong take time to build, but are PRICELESS when the going gets tough.

Good Luck to you...

 

i feel your pain brutha. 11 times over. cuz all you gotta deal with is florida. i've got the entire western half of the country.

 

Jimmbuds, are you saying you are making money on your outbound loads from Middleburg, FL but you can't find profitable loads to get you back there ? What kind of trailer are you pulling ?

 

I don't know why you do not understand nor can comprehend said FMCSA regulation regarding this.....

 

frghtshkr,

One of the biggest issues for me is not the rates but knowing what is at the other end. I was in a small truck, offered a load that had 12 pallets, still considered a full load for my truck and I get there and there are 36 pallets sitting there waiting for me. A lot of times the loads I got offered was a load from other brokers and they were posted multiple times as different loads so info got lost, was excluded or what ever the excuse was.

The other big issue is keeping in mind that if I do you a favor, like take an bad load for you, you return that favor. I stopped keeping count of how many favors were owed to me so in turn when someone would ask me to take a bad load to please a customer I would tell them no, even if it would get me home. The principle is that if I do you a favor, you owe me and if I call you up looking for something to get me out of somewhere I don't like to be, you actually find me something.

I saw a few mentioned the invoicing, I had brokers who not just made the offer and followed it all up with good manners but when I sent in the paper work, they actually sent me the invoice they sent to the customer so there was a clear picture of what it was all about. These were loads I asked for a percentage of not a rate - I made more money with those loads than I ever did with flat rate.

This is all about building relationships and learning how to use the resources you got to make money, not just make the money.

 

that's spot on red foreman, whats someone else is getting doesn't concern me one bit, as long as I get what I require, I care less about what someone else is getting.

 

Hear, hear - on all your points.

I don't care what the broker makes. I care about the rate to me, the shipper quality (in terms of loading time, etc.), receiver quality, etc., and the broker's credit score.

For me, having access to a particular broker's freight listings - including the rate info - is important. Broker's with websites that list dates, rates, any special loading or unloading info - or brokers that email this info to me directly - are those that I want to deal with most often. Looking at load board or brokers' sites that list loads but still require a phone call to check the rate are too time consuming. Get the info to me upfront and let me see if it is likely to work for me at a glance rather than require a phone call.

I might take a lower rate to get to where I want or need to be - or to get out of an area I will be (or am in), though I have my minimum preferences. If most of a broker's rates are lower than preferred I might look at his/her list later in the game; if I know there's a good chance of at least some loads at good or better rates I'll look sooner. My favorite brokers are those I can email with a date and location of where I will be - and they will call me with possible loads and rates on loads out of wherever I'm going.