Time to eat crow

Soooo...I talk a lot of stuff about the benifits of having your own authority as leasing to a carrier, why would you give up 25% of your money and I can do this that and the other all the great contacts that I have and how being 100% Independent was the bees knees....

I leased on with a carrier today

Recently I developed a contact with a direct shipper and I did 95% of my business through them since around the end of November. This shipper has additional loads that are "contracted" through a larger steel company, but you have to be an approved carrier for this larger company and they do not accept any carriers with less than 20 trucks. I sat down with the local agent and negoiated that since I have had this contact and get loads directly from them that I will get a higher percentage when I utilize these loads. So in total I gave up between 5%-19%, (the 19% comes when I utilize the agents loads) with the ability to add additional lanes to my all ready productive work schedule.

I have been agonizing over this decision since January since it was time to renew my insurance. I considered purchasing additional equipment, but at the end of the day I have been there done that and do not currently want the hassle of dealing with employees.

So yeah I talked tons of garbage and believed most of it...but for what I do and the area that I operate..........