Why does it seem everyone hates brokers

Which makes my job that much easier. Thanks, bad brokers!

 

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

I think most comes from the lies
that will be told to get their freight moved and not having any real assets in the game
Tons of reasons...

But... Let's not forget there are plenty of Dirtbag owner-operators and companies on the other side of the equation.
I honestly feel bad for some of the Brokers with the scum they have to deal with!

 

Yeah there are definitely two sides of the story. It seems a lot easier to make it as a scumbag trucking company owner than as a scumbag freight broker honestly. This is probably because as a scumbag trucking company owner you can screw drivers (very profitable!) AND customers/brokers. As a scumbag broker you really can only screw trucking companies. There's no way to profitably dick over customers with any regularity... The time it takes to land new customers makes that a guaranteed way to go broke.

I actually think being a scumbag is a HUGE mistake business wise though. Your reputation is all you have in this world ultimately. Money you can always make more of if you're providing value and have a good reputation. You can't make money long term if people won't shake your hand and do business. The only people who will willingly do business with a known bad actor are other bad actors... Maybe there's a living to be made in the land of the predatory ########, but it sure looks like a lot of work to me. All to avoid a little bit of honest work? Really?

 

Freight brokers take in X amount from customer, then pay truck Y amount. Only the customer and the broker know the true X amount. Every once in a while a truck works direct for a customer, and the X amount is sometimes surprisingly higher, in the 25-30% higher.
You wonder why trucks hate thieving brokers?
Duh.

 

What does a broker really do?
How much is that really worth?

 

There are great brokers and horrible brokers, just like with any profession. The great ones do their homework, and know everything about a load and not make up answers to the driver just so he'll take it. I've had brokers lie about lumpers and their fees after being asked multiple times. They only give in and pay for it when I threaten to abandon the load on their front door step. But that is extremely rare. You need to get to know them and get a good working relationship going.

 

Doesn't matter.
Like thousands of other things.
The internet will make brokers obsolete.

Just like a brick and mortar retail store
Thats a waste of time and money.
It'll be shipper straight to carrier.

Millions and millions of dollars wasted every
Year by paying a middle man for stealing
Whatever he can from anybody he can.

If every broker disappeared tomorrow,freight would
Still get moved. Shippers would simply call the carriers
Directly.
Three parts to the supply chain:
Shippers
Carriers
Brokers,
There's only one in that group that can be
Disposed of and freight can still move.

 

If that were true it would already be happening. Brokerages bring efficiency and cost savings and if they didn't the market would certainly eliminate them from the picture. Now this is anecdotal but I'm not seeing droves of brokerages leaving the business other than normal attrition from mismanaged ones. The internet has been around a long time, how much more time should we wait on the internet to eliminate brokers? Have you seen the massive growth by companies like Convoy and Uber who were trying to do exactly what you are saying will happen? I haven't. So far it looks like they are in fact nothing more than ordinary brokerages themselves.

It's been said many times - brokers save shippers a lot of money by keeping the shippers from having to invest in employees, office space, and supplies for the people vetting carriers and trucks who will have to take over when brokers disappear. If it happens that's not necessarily going to mean more money for you. The rates will still be determined by the market. Have you never seen direct shippers on DAT and ITS? Those are some of the cheapest loads I ever see. With truck capacity the way it is now if anything good brokerages that have the network to cover freight are even more in demand, not less.

 

We're the trucking companies salespeople and the customers purchasing department. Customers would have to setup new trucking companies constantly, which the vast majority of them are not setup to do, and trucking companies would have to spend 6-10% of gross sales on salespeople. Also trucking companies would have a lot less recourse when a shipper decides to #### them over. Believe it or not the shippers are not, on average, better customers than brokers. Some are, but most of those do not want to do the additional purchasing work and either want a lot of work done by every vendor (like 500-1000 loads) or have zero consistency in their lanes which would require trucking companies to be INSANELY flexible. Like you no longer get to say no to going anywhere or they are going to fire your ### flexible. And then you have to get home somehow without a spot market to help you get back.

The reason why things are the way they are is because it makes sense. I know it doesn't feel ideal, and automation is coming for all of us eventually. Thankfully (for me) there's basically no chance that Uber or Convoy can manage to be anything other than a normal brokerage anytime soon. They don't have anywhere near the data needed to do machine learning properly, and the AI is going to have to be very good to replace me. Convoy is the only one that I'm even a little worried about because they have a customer base that means they are good for billions per year in sales as fast as they can scale up. Realistically they could be a major conventional freight brokerage very soon just because of their access to Amazon.