What has happened to ethics in the truck indus..or were there ever any ethics at all?

So.... we all know that the brokers have had the upper-hand in the industry for many years. The trucking business is a Tsunami on the rise at the moment. The economy is doing well and getting better by the day, other than fuel prices, things are looking good for the trucking industry. With summer upon us, buildings will start to climb in the high-rises of the big cities, home construction is back on the rise, creditors are fighting for you to take their credit lines, and lastly rates will climb to an ultimate high on a per/mile basis. As we all know in this business drivers are the hardest thing to find, and without the drivers, the trucking industry would not exist. Therefore, life itself would be feast or famine for those of you who have been living on the moon for the past 100 years.

My question is..... When did $4/mile in every direction become the standard rate for trucking companies? Yes, we all want to make a dollar and a cent in this business, I get that. Maximizing profitability is every companies goal, we all want to increase our bottom lines. I have worked in this business for 10 years, this month marking my 10 year anniversary. I started out working in the trucking industry for a freight brokerage company in 2003, a BIG broker.....one of the biggest, most recognized, most arrogant, most unethical scumbag brokerage companies in the industry. At the time I started they were small, they were fair to the trucks, they were growing rapidly but that is neither her nor there. I am not saying any names, for legal reasons, but I think we all have a pretty good idea of whom I speak of. Regardless of the name they have made for themselves now, I was taught to be fair and loyal and take care of my carriers. I've always built a good report with my carriers and offered them the lanes that they love and lanes that they run on a daily basis even though I could have thrown their loads on the board and covered the loads for much cheaper prices raising my commissions on my sales. This is what we call in the brokerage industry, "Hor'ing the freight out" All that aside.....

I am seeing some serious greed from the trucks at this point in time. I'm not talking about carriers trying to make money, I am talking about carriers bending brokers over who loaded you with good rates all winter long. The brokers who threw their regulars an extra $100 - $200 for your extra deadhead on loads that take you right to the house when we could have easily whored it out on the board and made much more profitability on the loads. Listen, this is no sob story. I am not only a broker but also a flatbed dispatcher for a 20 operation fleet. I have PREMIUM freight sitting all over the Midwest and I work for a trucking company that wont even haul my own customers freight because some of the brokers have deeper pockets momentarily and are willing to pay $5/mile. Yes, you read that right............I cant even book my own companies trucks right now. On Friday I had a truck in Cincinnati OH and Indianapolis both looking to come eastbound. I had well over enough to load both of my owner operators to the house happily, but nooooooooo......wait............... "this broker is offering $5/mile to NJ, we cant afford to pass these loads up guys," says our head dispatch. Where are the ethics in this business? Where do you think the "good guys" will be for you when everyone of these trucking companies adds another 4 or 5 trucks on the road. You must protect your direct customer base, and your good brokers who load you with year round freight. It is a tidal wave industry and yes the trucking companies are at the crest of the wave surfing their way to the bank. But remember, the wave always breaks at some point!!! Don't forget about the guys who were loyal to you in the cold months guys and gals! Just because the weather has gotten warm, don't think that the guys like myself will forget about who didn't take care of their guys who took care of their carriers all winter long.

I have good freight all year long so I will tough it out just like the good, bad and ugly brokers are all doing. I sit here and struggle to cover my own freight that pays $4/mile out of the Midwest when I have 20 flatbeds in my own company that my dispatcher wont give me because Stanstar Brokerage is paying $4.50/mile on the same lane. This is just a friendly reminder to the greedy ones, that it is not forgotten who was fair and who was greedy in the warmer months. And the funny thing is, most of the greedy trucking companies out there run their safety scores into the ground, skim from their drivers (A whole other story - we wont get into that detail just quite yet), hire/fire drivers left and right and then just turn around and start a new company that is a mirrored image of their previous company under a new MC# because their safety rating has gone conditional and their reputation has been shot to $h1t. God bless America!!!

I cant wait until the trucks start to loosen up and these guys who were begging me for freight in the winter start filling up my inbox again with available trucks with messages like ' "PLEASE HELP!!!!!!" That time will come again my friends.........for now.........enjoy it while it last.

Please don't get me wrong.....A lot of you deserve it, you work hard, you deserve the money you earn being away from your families week in and week out. Without trucking and drivers we wouldn't have a stable economy, I praise the hard working truck driver! I dispatch and I am friends with 20 of my own, let alone the 50 or 100 brokered drivers that I load on a monthly basis. But to those of you who are going to bend us over now that things have tightened up..........forget about loading any of my freight in the months coming, when the leaves start falling off the trees and the snow starts to cover the plains and Appalachia. There will be a lot of "right click, delete going on in my inbox. And I am just one small little broker, working for a regular hard working, hard earning mom and pop company. I hope that everyone follows my lead. Show ethics guys.......make money, be profitable, but without having ethics...you will never retain a solid customer and broker base. Enjoy the top of that wave before the sharks start infesting the waters. We just added 5 more units and drivers to our fleet. I wonder how many other carriers did that this week........I wonder if availability will grow for the brokers before long? ; )

 

Pound Puppy, you are clearly missing the point of my post. Yes, broker A is paying you $1000 more to move his load, it makes sense to take the more profitable shipment that puts more money in the bank and food on your families table. You are probably running a small operation and are not moving the volume of freight and familiarized with the amount of freight that us "desk jockeys" cover on a daily basis. So you haul your load for broker A a few times in the summer and then in the fall he no longer needs your services, broker B will have long forgotten you by then and found a new regular to handle his $2000 shipments that you used to haul, then you are out of both your $2000 and $3000 loads. But what do I know, I'm only a desk jockey who moves between 25-50 loads weekly. And you obviously missed the fact that I stated we run trucks, it is just business....I get that. I've been on these boards for years but a comment that I made about a certain company miraculously locked me out of my old account somehow. So here I am posting fresh again. More power to ya bud, milk them for every red cent. My point is when you leave the guys who take care of you in slow season, don't expect them to be there for you when Freifht tightens up. But your probably a broker only loading carrier so you don't need to worry about keeping dedicated freight moving on a regular basis. Go get er' buck!

 

Skimming???? If that is what you want to call it. It should be called quartering. I see it daily. An owner operator hauling for a company who charges, lets just say 10% for: load finding fee, dispatching, setting up the reloads, setting up brokers, fuel card, maybe yard parking etc…..). On a $2200 load from a broker, the guys out heree that I know skim alone is generally $200.00. Well……..dont forget to knock them for their 10% too……Right there on 1 load, boom….The driver has just profited your company $400 on one load. Load 20 guys a week on 4 trips. Do the math. It adds up fast. The skims that one trucking company takes a week from a 20 truck owner operator operation would make a hell of a nice salary for 2 families to live off of at the end of year. Ethics…..there are none. If I were a driver, I wouldnt be paying any company percentages to keep me going, not from what I know and see on the daily. Just another part of the "ethics" that I was speaking of. It goes in ALL directions. So as these rates rise and the trucking companies keep asking for more and more $$$ per mile, guess what…..the owners IRA is growing by the day.