Why does it seem everyone hates brokers

Hello all,

My Dad drives and owns a small trucking company. The man is a trucker, he drives and is hands off with all things business.

Brokers don’t have the best reputation in his logbook ( pun intended ). So, he enlisted me to start a brokerage so that, and as he often says “ can haul less to fund his fuel and more to feed the family”.

Im asking if anyone has any information of shippers out of Albany , GA down into Florida or any shipper willing to work with us on the brokerage side.

Dad seems to think it’s as easy to connect with shippers as a broker as it is as a carrier. It’s not.

 

Looks like you're learning lessons from Dad left and right.

He doesn't like brokers so he wants you to become a 'better' one? With no experience?

 

Correct. The experience is primarily his instruction in regards to how much a lane typically pays, whom usually has loads on said lane, and much more.

I also took a broker course online that was pretty thorough.

 

Hey @wichris and @JimmyTwoTimes wanna give the new guy the secrets to our business, for free?

At the end of the day, @BlackGrid, this is a patently horrible way to attack this job. Your dad has set you up for failure, and the faster that you realize that and get the hell out of this to something else the bettter off you'll be.

I've been at this for years. I've not started my own brokerage for a whole pile of reasons, not the least of which is the longevity of the company. That gets me a lot more action and buy in for customers and carriers alike. A one-man shop built on the premise of "being a better broker" without much else (ie: no customer contacts, no established book of business, etc) is pretty much doomed to fail. It doesn't help that you and your dad have collectively decided to enter this industry smack in the mid of one of the worst freight downturns in the past twenty years. The current rates have significantly less to do with coming from brokers than from a capacity oversupply from both brokerages and carriers alike. We've discussed this ad nauseum on these forums. The fact is that there are approximately 100-150k too many carriers on the road, and about 10-20k too many brokerages.

At the end of the day, you're competing against all of that, and not bringing a whole lot to the table.

Edit to add, since you posted as I was typing:

How much money did you waste on the online course? Because it's a waste. The information you got from that can be gotten in many places online for free, or even better: learning the brokerage side of the industry on someone else's dime. If I had less scruples, I'd sell a freight broker boot camp. Pure profit, baby.

 

@PPDCT I appreciate your wisdom. Your post reverberates optimism. Your perspective is valuable. I believe what you’re explaining are the principles of supply and demand.

How can an entity thrive in an over saturated provider industry w/ diminishing supply, if said entity seemingly have little to offer.

I think you asked very important questions that in the absence of a business plan would make one change course.

Im grateful for your input.

 

Stick around @BlackGrid. There is mucho valuable information on this forum but it requires thick skin and constantly wading through BS. The brokers that participate here are very generous with their experience in general.

I'm an OO, not a broker, but I'm independent and I've learned a lot from brokers, both the good and bad ones.

My general advice for you knowing your situation is to remember that VERY few people succeed in family businesses. They are often an unpleasant life sentence. Your situation could be different, just a reminder that if it is you're in the minority.

Just like most OO's here tell new guys to go drive for someone else first I recommend what PPDCT said above, try it working for someone else. You'll quickly know if it's for you.

 

Is the goal genuinely to become established and skilled in the brokerage space? If so I'd highly recommend what @PPDCT suggested and just hire on with an existing brokerage. It's a much more cost effective way to learn the tools of the trade and has significantly less financial risk. If you get to a spot where you feel like are ready to go at it on your own you will be much more likely to achieve success.

I would love to know what you paid for the online brokerage course by the way, purely from a curiosity stand point.

If the goal is to just find more (and higher paying) loads for your dad, why not work for him as a sales rep? It still might make sense to join a brokerage as a BD rep to learn the ropes first though.

One thing I can promise you, you are going to close exactly zero accounts by posting on this forum.

 

Procter and Gamble
Miller Coors
Coats and Clark
That's it
Edit.....if you run reefer, M&M Mars

 

Holding a steering wheel is easier that picking up a phone and hearing "no" 500 hundred times

 

Alright. So, do you have a business plan? If so- share it. How much time and capital have you already sunk into this venture? Have you secured any freight, and if so, what did that process look like for you?