What goes on behind the scenes as far as getting loads?

I am a new driver and speculating here, but do dispatchers use a system like TransCore to view available loads from brokers, then call the broker and negotiate a price to take the load from one place to the other? So lets say the broker says $2 per mile for a load from St Louis to Green Bay, then the dispatcher accepts and tells us where to go and pays us $0.32 per mile while keeping the $1.68?

I have been a business owner since I was 12 years old selling candy in school making $50 per day at that age and after that a successful car stereo business. Then I opened up a programming and web marketing business which has been successful and in my off time I would travel a lot and seen trucks on the road and researched for months and became a truck driver and love it to death. I hope I will love it like this forever and yes I have already experienced DOT harassment, breakdowns, waiting for days on a load, heavy traffic, dumb four wheelers, bad weather etc. and still love it.

I am curious in the future how this process works and yeah I know there is a ton of work involved having your own company like every other business but even after all of the expenses you have to pay for out of your pocket and keeping up to date with the rules you still make way more than working for someone else. Before I get lectures please note that I will do a ton of research before actually pursuing this idea but just for fun I want to know how it works.

 

you should give serious consideration to govt regulations. cuz the way they are going. the trucking industry is going to be regulated into the ground.

the word strike keeps popping up. see how the govt feels when this country is on it's knees begging for freight to be hauled agian

 

mega carriers don't get loads from brokers they get them directly from the shipper.

 

If you are this motivated then, I think you will Excell. Being out of nashville you should find no shortage of buisness contacts. Just don't get to ####y on your ability.

 

A lot of times I get a message to contact a broker so I call and he asks me basic info and tells me the time to be there and when I am unloaded. So is my assumption correct on how it works? Dispatchers surf the net finding loads, make a deal with the broker and tell the driver where to go? When I was programming and had too much work I would have a freelance programmer on the side and the company would pay me $500 to create a script and my freelancer would do it for $200 and I kept the $300.

 

most c arries have contracts or direct shippers.

but if they can't find you a load. then they turn to brokers. an brokers make 5000 times more money then truckers. so it's very important that you call them every 5 minutes so that they know where you are.

 

Carriers have accounts with customers so they get loads from them.But I imagine finding a load out of somewhere and their dedicated customers don't have anything,they go to the load board and find something.Don't know what board they use though.My last company used brokers all the time and certain boards(better paying loads) they could'nt get access to because of their safety rating.

 

The government keeps the regulation pressure up, because as the liberals transition us to a socialist/communist nation. They cannot control you if you are independant. They want to be like China, where the government owns a piece of every company. How to avoid the inevitable. First, never vote for a Democrat!! Second, never vote for a Republican liberal. Both are anti-business, pro-government. Vote for a conservative pro-business, constitutional candidate. Good Luck!!

 

Snowwy,

Put your focus and energy in areas that you have control over. Not saying ignore other areas.

Fuel price, inflation, regulations, politicians, etc are all areas that are out of our control (but we have influence). But there are plenty of areas that we have control over and if we put our energy into those area we can have a very positive impact on our lives, income and happiness.

 

Well said