Under $2/mile loads with $6/gal diesel.

As a lowly company driver here, I'd Ike to think I understand the trucking industry pretty well. One thing I have a rough time understand is owner operators thinking that transparency to the brokers will help them make more money. My thought is what if transparency became aggressively enforced, what's to stop the broker from telling a driver a BS number? Also, why do drivers think that "transparency" will automatically force the broker to pay a driver more money? I don't think transparency is a good thing. I look at transparency as something like a stranger asking me if I ####ed if and how I ####ed my wife last night. A little too intrusive.

 

It is clear that speed limiters would not as much hurt it but bring an annoyance.
Transparency would not affect it in any negative that I could think of.
You tell me, what is wrong with transparency. What's so immoral about it. I don't want to find out what another carrier wants to hual it for. I want to know what shipper pays for it when I decide to book it.
What's so wrong about wanting to know?
If that info is attached to the rate confirmation, WHAT'S the harm?

 

The harm is it really ain't none of your business. It really ain't a guarantee that it will improve your business. I think people want transparency so they don't have to veer out of a comfort zone. I think getting in a comfort zone is the kiss of death for any business. Folks want what they want and God ###### they are going to get it come hell or high water, as opposed to just going to a different, or better paying lane.

 

The lessons from the megas have to do with sourcing work, not learning how they operate.

Owners cold calling brokers or calling for loads posted seems to be part of the problem, reaching just enough to get by for most. Learning how to market the truck and work the brokers and even customers is how to make good money.

The thing is people now are overly dependent on load boards and can't find a balance with work.

That said ... what this industry needs is a really tight regulation that forces a lot of brokers to disclose who initiated (I say own) the load. Too many loads are scraped and reposted without any disclosure of that fact and this has to end. Many may say it has to end because of the attitude that the owner/driver is owed the money that is made off the load from that specific broker - which this attitude is a problem in itself - but it is because when there is a liability created, there are too many fingers in the pot and the owner/driver usually loses because of the layers of communications involved.

 

Skimmed. Same story titled.

Trucking changes, Then I Cry.

 

For example:
Brokers quite often use an argument that they would not pay you more because they don't have more money on the load.
So in a way, they offer transparency themselves.
Besides, this is not only about "get more money" leverage but also creating one more useful advantage for owner operators. That information is an advantage.
There are things that brokers do too in order to better their own business position:
Non solicitation clause. No contact with shippers to execute payments. No double - brokering (I've nothing against this one).
Those can also be seen as artificially invented entitlements to serve nobody else but brokers.
Transparency would something similar but on a carrier's side.

 

Maybe double brokering should be forbidden and transparency would be a way to enforce it then.
Choosing load board booking was due to technological change.
People can work for themselves, instead of someone else, doing exactly the same thing, getting paid better.
This increased efficiency of load matching and lowered the shipping costs. Transparency would further ensure the transition to more direct shipping model without brokers in the middle.
What you need to ship a product?
A carrier with a truck. If the technology is capable to facilitate all the formalities performed today by brokers, they won't be needed and then only carries and shippers will decide about the rates.
We are getting there.

 

Joe is just saying he's frustrated with how the "system" of freight pricing is determined and how carriers have zero say in what the rates actually are because brokers play both sides of the coin. Now, that's their business...nobody disputes that...it's just that if people don't stand up and declare what's right vs. wrong, some folks will find themselves working hard and not benefitting from their own labor. It's a cat and mouse game with rates and some people just wish "we" were all on the same page.

Truth is, anyone can know what the freight rates are with a little research and data analysis. In my opinion, DAT provides the most data. You can buy data sets and run whatever algorithms you wish...but at the end of the day, you have to negotiate with someone that may not have the same data as you so it would appear as some people are WAY off on their rates.

The market is a collection of many folks that all come to different conclusions based on different data for different purposes. A broker with a sales mentality that just wants to push out as many loads as possible to make their commission is going about freight rates completely different than an owner operator that wants to drive across the country and enjoy driving. Each's purpose drives them, pun intended, and the rates they negotiate are subject to all sorts of qualitative data, not just quantitative.

If you want to know what rates your broker got paid, send them a request to know that information. I don't care what you signed in their contract. You cannot sign away certain "rights" you have. Also, you cannot use a contract to usurp the federal rules.

For example, brokers make you sign a contract that says you cannot see the rates they get paid. This is just posturing. They are making the claim that they can keep rates a secret. However, the law says:

Brokers CANNOT enforce their own rules and disregard the CFR. You CANNOT sign away your rights...even if you do, you really didn't.

It will just take a carrier to request those records, be denied those records, and then file a lawsuit arguing the point I made above. Brokers cannot make their own rules and enforce them. If they could, then I will sign contracts with any owner operator that wants to operate outside the rules too. Come drive for me and we'll sign contracts that say you don't have to abide by HOS rules. We'll sign contracts that say you don't have to stop at weight stations. Finally, we'll sign contracts that say you don't have to pay taxes anymore either!

See how signing a contract doesn't make all parts of the contract valid. Maybe we need carriers to come together and file a class action suit against all the megas and brokers to learn how much they've been charging shippers. We need the court to enforce the rules that are already in place...see above.

Just know that if you request the rates from loads you shipped, you probably won't get more loads from that broker so be ready for that when you send your request.

 

Whatever it ain't or ain't not is a matter of perspective. All to many things on the carriers side ain't business of someone else - brokers included - yet they want to know it.
It ain't about guarantees either.
I know that If they pay half of what they got, someone can tell them shame on you. That itself is worth it.

 

I'll be honest - I'm having a real difficult time trying to follow your points here. @Ruthless may have short communications, but they're usually to the point, and I wasn't born here either.

Forgive me if my take seems primitive to you - but I always thought that if I call/They call with $2,000, I say I can do it for $2,500, they say no - $2,000 is all we have - then after a polite ending of conversation, that's the end of the story.

Whether they have $2,000 or $10,000 in it - I don't know, nor really care.

It seems to me that you want to dictate what another man is allowed to make in a day. I don't agree.

Let's say Mr. Broker has used talents/skills to sell a $5,000 load for $2,000 to a carrier that is happy with that rate. He makes 3 or 4 phone calls, sends a rate con, then goes golfing the rest of the day. Good for him.

You'll have to break it down for me I guess.