Truck Broker?!!

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/forms/r-l/op-1-instructions-and-form.pdf

 

How much of your work is direct from customers? Is all your work currently through brokers? Are you trying to get into the double-brokering business?

 

If it's direct customer freight you're best bet is to become a sub-agent for a broker already established. Let them deal with the $75k broker bond and the headaches. Another option would simply be to work with that broker as a "salesperson" of sorts and get a commission for every load you send their way they cover. I'd get everything in writing in a legally binding contract though.

 

You better have some power behind you. Old Mary had 22 million in the bank. She could talk a sheep out of it's coat. Lie like the best of them. We had to record any phone call with her. She had a way of "forgetting"
25 Tombstones, not 23. $25.00 a drop Sweetheart. A woman in a 20.00 dress, and never enough $$$ I hauled her tomb & stone. She was something else.

 

"That's OUR Tramp!!! Lmao

 

Get a bond quote, file for authority, pay bond, start brokering. You'll need a different business entity to do this as your truck insurance will cancel you if you have broker and contract/common carrier authorities. Pretty simple really. I had mine, but never had the time to put it to use.

 

Great advice!

 

I asked this question in another thread, but could that salesperson work directly with a carrier and the shipper, without benefit of the broker? Shipper pays carrier, carrier pays salesperson commission. I was approached by a salesperson for this type of scenario...seems legitimate to me, but was wondering if this type of thing is common, particularly with a very small carrier. One way for a small carrier to have a 'sales' staff...

 

What you're describing is called freight brokering. It's just a roundabout way of doing it. No carrier is going to have enough capacity to handle all shipments of a shipper all the time, so then you're going to have to broker out the excess or risk losing the customer due to lack of service. You need a broker in the mix to handle the capacity surges.