Why is everyone complaining about the rates?

I do 104,000 total GVW. In real mountains.

 

I often found lighter freight payed way more than a lot of heavy freight. I have hauled loads as light as 2000 pounds that paid much more than typical lumber or steel loads, where they want you to park on a scale and keep adding 2X4's till your maxed out.

 

Loads are there and rates are there in and out of California.

People just need to learn how to talk to brokers and not accept the first offer thinking it’s what the market is paying.

This backhaul ######## is for the idiots. I dont care what direction my rig is traveling if it’s not what I want I ain’t hauling.

Yes you do have to be selective as well, you can’t go into a dead zone and expect high rates coming out. Reason why I don’t do NM or CO two known dead zones. Although I have made a contact in NM that has year round work for 1.80pm if I’m ever in a pinch.

Now I’m not saying it’s good rates right now but people do agree to early on the bs rates and because of my beliefs i don’t share what I get paid because it feels and sounds like gloating, however I will say this.


Majority of Brokers are hustlers. They want to sell the load not give it to you for free.


Majority of Carriers as stupid they will buy the load from brokers instead of getting it for free.


If you want the rates to go up change your way of thinking.

I don’t work for the brokers the brokers work for me, and if you ever let the broker get the feeling that he’s working for the shipper and not for you when you are negotiating then you lost.


When I call the broker I make sure he or she knows I’m not a $1 mile driver.

Simple conversation goes like this.


Broker: hi this is John

Me: hi john, how are you today?

Broker: I’m good ( May ask same question or wait for your next question.

A- if he asks how I am doing then I know he’s a little bit mannered and I make small talk a bit and go into the loaf details. I ask a ton of questions, like commodity, weight, where’s it going, detention, live or drop, floor loaded or palletized, lumper or not, trailer requirements like plated or food grade, straps needed or bars are ok? I would say 60-70% success rate or getting the rate I want and the rest being about 10-20% lower then the rate I want.

B - if he doesn’t ask how I’m doing then he doesn’t care, this means that I act like a an alpha and I start telling him or her straight out what I need him to do and what I need. It would go like this “hey john look in your system and see if you have this load still available?) I act the same way his boss would be acting. Lots of people can’t handle this alpha attitude and right away get into the mentality “chop chop” the boss needs this.



People need to learn peoples responses dictates the rates.


Brokers having a good time talking to you tend to give you better rates.

Brokers with manners tend to give you better rates

Brokers who can’t fool you tend to give you better rates

Brokers who like you tend to give you better rates

What makes brokers give you bad rates?

You not having manners,

You are a fool

You just can’t click with the broker

He or she is just simply not into you.



I make them laugh most do and the ones that do always work with me.

Enough typing at 5 am. Gotta go take my 10 now before I fall asleep at the keyboard and have bill gates fine me for not following the Keyboard-HOS rules.

 

Thank you sharing the negotiation skill. Can you get above average rate on each lane you want to haul?

 

Don’t look at the rates on DAT they aren’t real, I either get the rate I need to make the trip happen or I don’t. Any load that has a posted rate is 99% not going to change. I go after the ones that have no rates posted.

If you look at the lane averages on DAT it’s going to screw you up.


And yes 90% of the time I do get what I want. It takes calls and I don’t settle for just any rate.

If all my questions are answered to my liking then and only then I negotiate rates. So most calls don’t even make it to the rate negotiation part.

 

Nicely done. This is how you make money right here folks. You can beat the contract market in bad times and absolute kill it in good times with these methods and attitude.

 

I will have to add a caveat:

This is me learning from the guys on here and personal owner op friends. It’s adjusted to my personality.


What works for me might not work for others so they need to adjust it to their needs.

 

Man I feel I don't know how to negotiate. I feel every time i ask them a higher rate, the say no. And there is no deal. Also. how long you send on finding loads, sometime i get at 6:00am and can't find a good load for several hours...

 

Don’t think I’m an expert when it comes to this, even the seasoned vets have trouble these days.


It takes hours sometimes for vets as well.

It takes time to find brokers who run a constant lane. If these brokers can be found you will have steady work.


As for the higher rates, if your starting out it’s hard. I read up a lot here and read or watch videos like how to negotiate.

I’ve been screwed a lot to figure this game.

And don’t let a “no” get you down. Keep at it and it will come.

 

Do as LondRanger said and read read read. Myself and many others have written extensively on negotiating. There will be little nuggets pop up like in this thread. Keep an eye on the broker forum as well.

Unfortunately, rates are bad so it’s basically a kick in the nuts most calls you make. When freight is good it’s much easier to get your confidence up and be more demanding. However, you must hone your skills quickly if your to stay in business.

Take those questions that he posted and put them into a word file. Put them on top and bottom of the page and print out and rip and half or even make 4 sets of question per page to save paper. This way when you make calls you’ll get into s routine of what to ask and you’ll naturally be more in control of the situation. Know what you need before you make the call and start out a few hundred bucks above it. That way sometimes you’ll get lucky and sometimes you’ll settle for where you wanted to be anyway. Don’t be afraid to say things like “man I’d love to help you out but unfortunately I’d have to be at such and such rate. Can you get me there and I’ll get it done for you”. That’s when you want to meet in the middle. You can get more aggressive and say “As bad as that area is and with all my expenses and dead head, the absolute lowest I could go is this amount”.

Also if there are things wrong with the load then rip it apart so to speak. “With all those stops that will take up a ton of time, there’s no way I could do it for anything under x amount”. “Oh that’s floor loaded? I know it’s going to be slow going on the load and unload so I’m not interested for anything under x amount, I’ve been killed on these before”. Stuff like that