Why oh why are you drivers taking this cheap freight????

Well thats kinda why I went this direction, being a broker is very profitable. But its not as easy as just booking trucks all day. Although its no physical work like the driver, its all mental work. It takes hours and hours, days and months 1000's of phone calls. to get a good customer base. Just so that you can make a little money. And I dont what brokers you might deal with, but I am on call 24 hours when ever I have loads on the road. I get calls 3-4 in the morning all the time. And lets say the broker has one good paying customer that he does most of his loads with. He gets a truck on one of the loads, the truck either lies, falls out, or just flat out does something wrong and messes up the load. The customer does not blame the truck for it, they blame the broker. Then the broker could loose his biggest account over one truck. And all the phone calls, and the time and effort you put into it goes right down the drain. Being a broker is not as glorious nor as easy as one might think. We do take a lot of time away from our family, our children. e dont just go book loads and head to the golf course. So we take a little money from the load to make a profit ( which is why all of us work). I have 1200 on a load. I pay the truck 1000. The extra 200 does not go into my pocket. I get a certain % off of it. And after taxes and all that good stuf, that 200 might ony be $40. So I would make about $40 off a load that I had to 1. Make a whole bunch of phone calls to get the customer. 2. get the customer to finnaly give me a load. 3. Find a decent truck 4. make sure the truck gets from point a to point b. 5. deal with any problems that may occur.6. wait about 30 days for the customer to pay.

 

You mean there's more to it than a fax machine and a phone line?

 

Just a little more lol

 

2Tone what are you looking for when talking to owner/operators on the phone? Before giving them the load, do you look at their MC number first to see how long they have been in business or do you get a sense of their dependability simply by talking to them? What other factors come into play? Also, how long does it take you to develop a business relationship with a driver so that you know who to call and when on a regular basis?

Thanks for chiming in on this forum. You explained the broker business fairly well.

 

I agree that rates have gotten ridiculous these days. While I try to get $2.00 plus per mile, I also have to look at the commodity, market and geographic location. It seems anything dealing in wood products equals cheap freight. For example I called on a load out of Florida to western PA today which was 882 miles for $1000 on a 48,000 lb load. What are these people thinking? It will cost almost $700 in fuel alone.

On the other hand products dealing in steal pay much better. I usually get steal loads out of Jacksonville, FL for anywhere between $2.15 to $2.60 per mile. Steal coils, steal sheets, steal joists, etc are usually over $2.00 per mile. The goal is to get those loads, and make for a known freight lane where you can get another load for around the same amount, but not less than $1.50 per mile.

My question for owner/operators with their own authority are as follows: When negotiating rates, are you able to negotiate a rate plus fuel surcharge or is the rate "all in"? Do you negotiate for extra pay based on tarping, tolls and detention times. How successful are you in collecting the negotiated rates and extras? Does anyone have these rates posted on a webpage? Does anyone have a regular broker(s) that they call or calls them on a regular basis?

 

It depends who you are negotiating with. Many customers and all brokers will expect an all in rate. The only people that will do a base rate + accessorials would be customers wanting a long term contract.

 

We also have to consider the economic times we're in....Every downturn...It seems like more people jump into trucking.....And more become O/O's.....

It's simply the Demand not keeping pace with the Supply.....

As a result...Some of the more inexperienced among us will settle for cheap loads thinking that's the only way to survive....Little do they know....If they take a load for $1.50/m that was once $2/m....Someone else will take that same load later for $1/m.......

All this does is make it a "Race To The Bottom".....And the only "Winners" are the Shippers who are putting that extra money they normally would pay for shipping....Into the bank.....

 

so stop worrying about how fast they can race to the bottom and focus on what you can do to stay in the market.

As much as you'd like to stay at $2.50 / mile. Keep at it and you will price yourself out of work too.


Think Bell Curve.

You can't be at the top nor can you be at the bottom, not if, but when you will loose.


But you still have to adjust to the market place.

 

Oh I do.....I just didn't roll of the trailer yesterday.....

My point was for those who don't know...

There is a huge problem with ignorance in this biz....Let's help enlighten people.....

 

Their ignorance is probably my best reason for NOT saying anything to them.

I see every truck on the road as my competition. (some more than others and not so much the megas. They target a different market than I do.)

If I come across an O/O that is really trying, wants to do good etc. If we strike up a conversation and it's apparent he's got a good head on his shoulders, I like to share.

You both can learn from your successes AND failures.

But there are others.....

You just grin, nod and walk away.