Random thoughts on a snowy afternoon in MN

yur serious ain'tcha....


Sounds like a beer and seegar talk.

 

can we throw in a fireball as well?

 

Not big on whiskey myself, but see no reason not to if'n youz bringin'

 

The truckers are the ones that are empowering the load brokers to cut the truckers pay rates.

What is the benefit for the shipper not to put out cheap freight?

A big part of the shipper / receiver / broker relationship is the trucker that dose the work.

With the amount of trash that people post it's hard to see where the truckers are holding up there end of the relationship. If your not able to hold up your relationship why should you get paid top dollar?

Smaller brokers are able to give the service that shippers want, if the truckers they use can hold up there part of the relationship. A smaller broker will not deal with drives that are not professional and that can not up hold there standards. I treat my broker as if they are my boss even with me being an O/O.

A lot of smaller brokers will work together so when your out of state your still able to get good paying loads even after 2 brokers take out there cut.

I think a lot of truckers need to hand out the questionnaires to every shipper, receiver, and broker the deal with for 30 days. I know the truckers have already set the standards low, but how do you compare to the already low standards?

If a trucker can not be respectfully to the other truckers on the fuel islands or at the fuel counter; can the be respectfully to there customers?

 

i think the word "respectfull" is out of the dictionary..

 

I did all that. I went out and spent a better part of two years building routes with shippers. Bent over back wards and spent money I really did not want to, all to make them happy. things went great for another two years when CRST seen what I was doing and came in and cut my throat on the deals. They the shippers didn't care that they CRST could not maintain the routes at the rates they agreed on. Less than a year later they the shipper called me up and tried to get me to do it all over again. I had already sold so many of the trucks and trailers and was not able to rebound for another run at the routes. I offered to take over one of them and they told me all or none. Direct freight is great good brokers are great but always have a back up because when the megas want it they will do it at a major lost just to get the freight even if its just short term and the shippers and brokers don't care. And contacts....lol they are about as good as the paper they are printed on. if that much. So do I complain about them and cheap freight. Yes I do. And I hope that speaking the truth will open others eyes as to the issues in trucking and get them thinking. A few Megas have seen the issue with cheap freight and have had to deal with the problems they helped create and are now tring to get better freight and finding it harder and harder to find good freight. I don't want to get rich doing this. Just to make an honest living. Which I do. But not off of cheap freight. If I call on a load and they offer me some crazy low price I get the info tell them I will call them right back than I run the numbers figure out a bare min and add 20% to let them talk me down. if they wont work with the rate and stick to their number I tell them thanks but I wont haul freight that I have to pay to haul it.

 

What snow? We have no snow here?!?!?! I may be calling a snow day tomorrow.

 

Well...... I worked the load board thing...... and I did "ok", I mean I made money, but not a real killing..... sure, I can sit and wait it out, and score big... but when you factor in the waiting, well sitting costs money, as the fixed costs are just that, fixed..... and so they accumulate..... and I've done the regular route, regular brokers, consistent money, but really not what I had in mind when I bought the truck....... so now I'm trying something new, with a new outfit, specialty trailers, network of agents thing.... high dollar, those in the know kinda stuff....... The good part is I won't have to work boards, haggle with brokers, (although I kinda dig that, just don't dig how hard it can be to get good paying freight sometimes....) We'll just hafta see how it goes.....

 

My random thoughts about a snowy day in MN is that we could use some of that cooler air down here in TX.... lol....