okay how much money you brokers make moving loads

But everyone has their price, a rate that might work for one is completely unacceptable to another. I say no thanks about as much as I agree to a rate. If it's not worth my time I'm not turning the key. It's my decision and I love that.

 

You do flat, van, or reefer?

 

Van

 

This thread is funny to me, I have no problem telling a driver just how much i have in a load. I even offer to send a screenshot of the amounts. But for drivers to be talking about law and complaining about rates right now is just showing how little drivers trully understand the business. No broker has made money in last 2 months. I have been straight and honest with drivers all this time but the sheer amount of gouging being done by drivers right now is making my outlook change drastically. We have lost over 2.5m in last 2 months alone.

 

The broker above netted $24k which he does not get to keep all of it but, how is that not making any money?

 

For the record I don’t complain about brokers, nor do I want to know what you have in a load. I do want a fair rate to the truck and to feel good about what the truck is making. So what is gouging to you? $6 a mile to go to Long Island? $500 on a 10 mile run? $2000 on a load going 300 miles that can’t deliver til next day and goes to some job site? $1500 on a step deck with ramps load that goes 150 miles that delivers to Red Hook terminal in Baltimore? Please tell me what’s gouging? You as a broker do you ever consider the drivers time? Being away from home? The work he’s going to have to put in when he shows up to do a great job for your customer and make you look great? Do you ever put that into consideration while quoting a load? Or when a single truck owner operator that is professional gives you a rate he thinks is fair and you consider it gouging?

 

This guy hit the nail on the head. I can't speak for the smaller brokers whose primary method of acquiring business is the spot market, but if you are a larger broker with contracted pricing in place you got murdered the last 2 months. Larger customers (the ones that ship thousands of loads a week) want insulation from volatility in the freight market and tend to fight tooth and nail to ensure carriers abide by their contracted rates.

When the rate to the truck is $5.00 and the rate to the customer is $1.85, it's gets ugly quickly.

 

A key point here- I have no, and pursue no contracted freight for the reasons listed by @JimmyTwoTimes. Early on I saw how this could impact my business. To me, it wasn't worth the potential nutpunching I saw some other guys take in the months where rates went up past the contract rate.

 

They both have their pros and cons. You can capture a ton of volume through annual or bi-annual RFP's if your pricing is competitive, and once you have that volume you don't need to spend time chasing the business and instead can use that time to improve service metrics and become more efficient with that customer. When the market is cycling on the softer side our big contracted customers generate significantly more margin $ per head count than our spot quote customers.

The down side is when the market is shifting up (especially dramatically up like it is right now) you get kicked in the teeth, and it's a really hard kick.

 

Certainly, and I don't disagree with that. For how *I* like to operate, contract freight has not typically been the way I've wanted to do business. The flexibility with non-contract rates has allowed me to pretty consistently remain true to my goals. That's not to say that it doesn't make sense for some folks, nor that I'm not open to pursuing it in the future.