Rates are crashing and fuel to the moon!

Automated trucks are coming??....

Company to offer driverless trucking services on 1000 mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix in 2025

 

If he didn't negotiate for what he wanted or needed than that's his problem. Blaming TQL is misguided IMO. They cast a very wide net and are able to get loads moved for less than most brokerages on the boards.

They use every bit lf that to their advantage. Any business owner with sense does the same thing. TQL isn't the only brokerage on the spot market so that carrier you've mentioned could have used a different one.

 

By finding his own customers instead of running garbage spot freight relying on brokers in a horrible market.

 

Maybe you don't know much about the freight lanes from Pacific NW down to California. It is like Florida. All of the outbound is cheap. At least on the loadboard freight. The only other option is to deadhead empty. Now the guy has a regular lane going north, he could have deadheaded empty, but he got himself 1 dol a mile to return before the weekend.

 

Indeed, the spot market is a garbage bin of freight, no more no less. Every now and then, they just throw away better, reusable chunks of meat.

 

When the market is good there's decent money in spot freight. Problem is, those "good" periods don't last very long compared to the down periods in the long run.

 

In areas like that one and TQL in the game, there is no time for negotiations. Either take it or they hung up on you. Maybe they'll give you $100 more. Simply, too many California trucks wanting head back to reload for somewhat better paying loads going back up north.

 

Like I said, I was taken aback by learning that the broker gets to keep three thirds of what the shipper paid. It just didn't feel right to leave all that money on the table.
I don't know why it upset me. Must be because it was TQL.
They always kept saying, that's all they got in it.

Maybe the shipper reads this thread and will sell the freight to someone else for less. Better that than seeing TQL getting fatter than they are.

 

Or the shipper finds their own 1 buck shmuck to run it




Easy to hate on TQL
I won’t deal with them
But they’re filling the gap where carriers could insert themselves if they had any sense.
A lot of O/O truckers are too busy driving to go do the work that benefits them long term- (look how many people ask about having a dispatch service for their single truck MC)
“Most people are too busy working to make money” - that is, most people are so task focused they don’t see the bigger picture- I’m guilty of it myself.

What if the trucker you used as an example stopped hauling tql loads and spent a week or two cold calling places that had freight he wanted to haul? Lose 10 days revenue for a potentially business invigorating change.

 

Most truckers have very little people skills. There is no way they can sell themselves or the service they offer. Either they are too shy and timid or they can’t read the room and talk to everyone like they are in the drivers lounge. They are single minded in what benefits them and fail to understand the challenges a prospective customer has. They aren’t interested in solving others problems. Only their needs.

It’s not easy being a salesman. It’s takes a special talent/skill. I am not a natural at it and find it rather intimidating myself. But, it’s something that must be done.