Posting For Good and Bad Brokers

But you still have to get bonded right???
$100 grand I think
Which doesn't go very far

 

The bond required is $10 grand, and no that doesn't go far . . . if you don't pay the carriers.

 

Thats just a crazy number
I guess we need to add this with the transparently rules

 

The bond is just the tip of the ice berg to the whole thing.

 

There's more to it, but I am not going to get into it here.

The word "agent" is what scared me in the original post. Some brokerage firms are set up in an agency format. If a 'briefcase" broker (one without their own trucks) can't make the cash- flow work, or can't afford the bond, the broker can bring his accounts to an agency brokerage and take a percentage split of the profits. It's kindof like an owner operator signing on with a factoring company, but the fee isn't 2-5%, it's 30-40%. Niether one should ever be done, if at all possible.

The problem is, the poster also said that they 'had no experience' in the field of trucking. Well, how do you have accounts (customers) if you have no experience? Unless daddy has an orange plantation or a widget factory, you don't have any customers. So you have nothing to offer the brokerage firm, so they would be stupid to take you on. Even if they did, you would not make any money because 70% of zero is... zero. They sure as heck aren't going to give a house account to a new broker with no accounts of their own!!

Yes, you need a bond, authority, insurance, etc, etc, etc, but those can be bought. What you really need is customers, and that's what no one has enough of right now. Also, I would never pay for a lead- not in trucking anyhow. But let me know where I am wrong.

You can only learn to be a broker by being a broker. There is no school or book that can tell you how. Heck, ITS and DAT can't even get the rates right on lanes and they have info on 90% of the loads posted out there. How is a book going to tell how to rate a lane? The rates change on an hourly basis!! Again, I don't mean to be a jerk, but for 99.9% of the population, there is no gold at the end of that rainbow!

 

Working as an agent for a brokerage, you don't need the insurance, bond, etc. But getting taken on by a brokerage as an agent without any customers would be very difficult.

The insurance and such comes into play when you start your own brokerage, which is not easy or cheap.

 

Drivers opinions on Freight Brokers

 

I hear ya tarps! Brokers are not looked on very well at all.

 

I do want to answer the point of the original post.

Thanks for your respect for drivers and the profession. If you want to work for a company that respects drivers, you should go to an 'asset based brokerage.' These brokerages are a division of a trucking company that has their own fleet. Most carriers that have more than about 30-40 trucks will also have broker authority.

Most if these companies use their broker authority to keep their customers happy when they don't have a truck in the area to do the job. If you only have 100 trucks, you are not going to be in every city in the US on a daily basis. If you tell your customers 'no, I can't do that,' enough times, they will just find someone who will and you lose that customer.

If you want to be a broker, this is the type of company that you want to start with. You will be an employee, not an agent. You will work for salary, not comission (most of the time). You will treat drivers well because you will have contact with them everyday. You will pay above average rates, because the purpose of the brokerage is to maintain customers through service and not just expand profit margins. Also, asset- based trucking companies usually can command higher rates from the shipper because they have their own trucks.

As a rule, that is the difference between 'good brokers' and 'bad brokers.' There are exceptions, of course. Some say that there are no good brokers, but I think brokerage is a necessary tool for small carriers to give their customers good service. It is a good way to grow a company until you are confident enough in your freight base to add trucks. It has also been abused by many dishonest people as well.

 

the company i run for keeps giving my number to the brokers, im a company driver, aint that the office workers job to deal with them. the brokers are always calling bout where im at or did i get unloaded. the company has bout 7 people in the office running 7 trucks and they still suck at it.i have trouble getting fuel, permits, pay, stuff to work with.