Broker freight, helpful or harmful

That is a very good point! I know that we have a hand full of year round accounts that keep us busy. We have good rates on them but with any part of the trucking industry there are slow times and we need to keep our drivers making a living. We only take what we can handle. We don't take everything that is offered and try to make dollar on it like other companies. I think that trucks will get weeded out fast as there just is no way to keep going when all you can do is make the payments at the end of the week. If you do not make enough to fix your truck and provide for your family then there is no sense doing the job! You are right that the strong will survive and we will be one of the survivors!

I don't believe you will need Band-Aids for telling the truth.

Well put Duane

I WILL TRY THIS AGAIN. IF YOU LIKE THE RATE...HAUL IT. IF YOU DONT LIKE THE RATE...DONT HAUL IT AND MOVE ON. IT'S THAT EASY PEOPLE. THERE IS NO NEED TO BE RUDE TO PEOPLE. THAT'S WHY OUR WORLD IS THE WAY IT IS BECAUSE OF CRUDE AND RUDE PEOPLE. GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU.

IF YOU DONT WANT SOMEONE CALLING YOU THEN TELL THEM TO STOP. IF THEY DONT LISTEN THEN BLOCK THEIR NUMBER. I GET CALLS ALL THE TIME I DONT WONT AND TELL THEM TO STOP CALLING. EASY FIX

Also there is a reason why you don't see our name on the load board. We take what we can handle with our own trucks! We are out here to make a living and are not looking for the fast buck.

I've been on vacation for 10 days or so and I see not much has changed. I would think it would be easy making a buck as a broker excepting lower rates when there are two bottom feeders lighting up the other phone lines wanting to move their trucks at any price. Have you never heard the impatience in a brokers voice? If you don't want it the guy on the other line will take it? Still thinning the herd. It could take a long time.

I'm not pounding on you Duane. Read what I said. When you have willing players melting your phone lines asking you to move their trucks at any price...

I think everyone has missed the point and if you guys are calling yourself SCUM SUCKING then the accusations must be accurate! It is human nature for shippers to low ball EVERYONE, broker or carrier! I turn down HUNDREDS of offers of cheap freight daily because it is plain and simply CHEAP FREIGHT! It annoys me when I turn down these loads and then see them on the load board by the standard brokers that just chase others freight and try to get a buck off the top or more. If you are offended by my post then you must be doing what was said but if you work hard and fight for the trucker then I have no problem with you. We use brokers and if we find dependable, respectable brokers we will show our loyalty to you and the respect that is deserved.

I feel that this subject NEEDED to be brought up! I believe that in my 30+ years that there has been a loss of respect, not only for the trucking industry but also inside the trucking industry! Back when I started driving rate cutting was rare. We all worked together and if someone had something good and they could not haul it all they looked to other trusted trucking companies for help. Now days if you show someone where your loads are they are going behind your back to try and take them from you! It has happened to me personally 4 times in 6 years but we ended up with 3 of the 4 back because of service!

Ok brokers in the hopper business, do you want to work with respectable companies that will have your back as much as you have theirs of would you like to be the scum sucking bottom feeders you refer to yourselves as? All I am saying is if we work together we can ALL make money but not if you just take athe rates that are offered! I know how much my trucks have to make to turn a profit and it is more than the 1.32/mile offered on some loads!

Good day and be safe out there!

Well Duane I guess my point is that I know if you do not take the loads offered to you, as a respectible broker, there will always be someone who will because in the governments infinate wisdom made everyone become a broker. It opened the door to anyone with a computer and a telephone to come in and try to turn a quick buck! I don't blame anyone who has been in this business for a long time for this mess, I blame government first and foremost and second I blame the quick buck brokers who could care less if the truck makes money as long as they do. You are exactly right abut not taking loads that are cheap and yes it is your job to offer them to your guys but if you hold fast on priciple and don't haul for less than minimum wage things should get better! I would suggest to you that is someone wants you to book cheap freight just to get rolling, that you suggest to them that they purchase at least 5 more trucks and hire drivers so they can go broke as fast as possible and leave the trucking to the people who can figure out what it costs to run.

Once again I will say that it is human nature for any shipper to want to move their product as cheap as possible so the weight is put on the shoulders of the broker and carriers bidding the jobs to assure that some money can be made.

Also I would like to point out that out of the replies on this subject I have not seen a reply from one of the companies that we all know are doing what I said! All the replies come from established companies. Believe me guys I am with you in this fight! We need to get this figured out before everyone get driven out of business and all that is left is swift and jb hunt. I already saw Werner and many other refer companies pulling hoppers.

Without a doubt yes it's the givermint's fault. Deregulation ruined transportation. It's odd we curse Shaneequa and Juan for taking government handouts then on the other hand we support logistics corporations and mega trucking companies for doing the same thing even more by sucking up our tax dollars.

I think this was the point he was trying to make Duane.

on the other hand we support logistics corporations and mega trucking companies for doing the same thing even more by sucking up our dollars by paying us far less than what we are really worth. The system is rigged so that only the Mega Corporations (Shippers, Brokers, and Carriers) alike can seem to get ahead. They continue to write more and more regulations to make it harder and harder for the small business owner to compete. Yet the ATA screams about creating a level playing ground, The recent bond increase did not benefit all the small brokers that I used to work with, these were honorable people just trying to make an honest living, and most of them were like you Duane they used to drive. So deregulation of rates ended up making rates fall, but now we have over-regulation of business along with the cheap rates it is a matter of time before the smaller carriers and brokers will be gone.

The only investor in this operation is myself and the independants that trust me to make the right decisions to make their living. When you think about it, that is one hell of a responsibility. This operation would be nowhere fast if not for my guys doing their thing and me doing mine. Yeah it kind of was a jab just to see where you were coming from on that. I don't disagree that de regulation fouled up the works back in the day. I also don't disagree that the over regulation spree that our illustrious government has went on is choking the daylights out of independants like me. (I would have capitilized INDEPENDANT, but everyone says I type too loud and sound angry all the time.) I am angry. Angry about the way this industry has went in the past 30-40 years. Lo ball rates, non payment, all the goodies that everyone yells about. I may be a bit of a dreamer but I still believe WE have the power to say enough is enough. The only problem is getting enough people to see it the same way. I don't know if the power of the vote holds the same clout as it did back when I was a kid, especially in light of the election tampering found in this years primaries, but if every registered legal voter would exercise that right and raise a little hell about the way things are, maybe things would straighten out. Who knows.

Alfred in the early 70s we pulled stinking fresh pack chickens to Chicago and Detroit for about $2--$2.25 a mile. What would that convert to in today's market ? Im afraid to try giving a guess.

Just went back and looked at a rate sheet from 1978 that an old timer gave me. It was an easy flatbed load with just some straps.

Load paid $1359.00 for 1243 miles, $1.09 per mile

The old timer made 70% as an Owner Operator (Lease Operator in those days), .76 per mile

Here is what each party should be making today.

Carrier: $4.03

Owner Operator/Lease Operator: $3.06

So can anybody explain what is wrong with this picture?

Why are rates in the toilet like they are? Because they can, plain and simple.

Here is my rule of thumb: Take your cost per mile and add $1.00 to that and that should be your minimum rate to run at.

Another member of the Independent Carrier Group told me that his rule of thumb was to charge per mile what the price at the pump was for diesel. I will be damned that works too. So if you don't have the smarts to figure out your CPM and are too stubborn and prideful to get your ass out of that truck. Use the oldtimers method and you will be fine. By the way he was talking all miles just like I am.

Can any brokers or shipper prove that this is way toooooooooooo much money? Hell no, you all know that you should be paying the rates that I have shown, but you are just addicted to the drug like most of the truckers. We by and large have a nation of drug addicts, that have been fooled into believing they gotta go, gotta go. Just where in the hell are all you folks going to? I for one grew tired of that lifestyle and decided to do things my way instead of societies way. This takes an open mind to see the opportunities that abound around you, and know how to take advantage of them. I had a broker today acuse me of not having an open mind, well I hate to tell her, but I refuse to have an open mind to being taken advantage of and being lied to all the time. I think she thought she was Killery for a moment.

Most forget that brokers a getting hit by the big brokerage they work for. A broker gets a hundread doller margin. The company takes 75%. Leaves broker with $25. Also broker doesnt see commision until he gets above what the company is paying him. its not sallary plus commision. its cover your sallary and then you get commison. Plus no commision until the broker pays off his draw for the companie he works for. I would rather sit at a computer and move 15 to 20 loads a week and sleep in my own bed then be on the road thats for sure. No ones getting rich off any frieght unless you land Major player. Some lands do pay. go buy a reefer and haul from cali to colordo. 1000 miles. make yourself 3400. And yes ive called plenty of trucks and have been told 5000 for 200 miles. Dont forget some companies cant and wont deal direct with owner opps or small trucking companies. They are two big and spread out across the us. Only large trucking companies can get that frieght until brokers came along and took and it put it out on the free market for you. get rid of brokers and you get rid of guys that can open up a can of frieght to the market that before only major frieght liners had. Not sure about bulk stuff i work for a big brokerage we stay out of this stuff. no money in it. Some take a stab at it here and there. Van Reefer flatbed. Top profitability is Reefer. And goes dont forget about commodity brokers. They buy from someone and sell to someone else. use a frieght broker and probably never lay eyes on the actual product themselves. They send there load list to 4 or 5 brokerages and boom truckers get paid bottom doller on that freight now. And yes they comodity broker takes a cut out of the friehgt two. now you have three guys making a living on the same dollar. I could loose my customers tommarow the owners son might graduate college and become a broker. A trucker could wreck and have a claim. The companie could go out of buisness. A small companie that use to tender you frieght coudld get aquiredby a big and now its tendered from cooperate. This the way the freight game works. The winners adapt

This is a good discussion and I have enjoyed reading all of the responses!

First off, as I stated before, I have not seen one post from any of the brokers I have in mind when I originally wrote this post. I think that all responses came from "OLD SCHOOL" truckers like myself who were out trying to make a living trucking and then found themselves in an office. I have been in this business for around 30+ years and have seen a lot of changes. I have gone from watching my brother, who I idolized as a kid and who taught me to drive at the age of 14, go from hauling one way grain from the dakotas to Duluth and making a damn good living at it to deregulation where the rates took a total dump and now the brokerage thing. I have seen through all the posts some interesting comments and most I agree with and some I don't. I agree most with the fact that we have our own customers and we take what we can handle. Sometimes our customers just have too many loads they need hauled and we can not handle them all so we need some help. I think in the 6 years I have been behind this computer I have posted things on load boards 10 times or less. Now with everyone having to have a broker license just to get a little help covering their customers loads it now cost A LOT of money for a bond to hel ensure that the customers that I personally have forged a bond with get their loads covered. It is my belief that if government would stay out of our business that things would operate jsut fine. I know that self policing in this industry happens and if we were to be able just do out thing without govenment making up new rules to follow then we would be better off. You all know perfectly well that if you haul a load for a carrier and you don't get paid that you will never haul for them again and you damn sure will tell all your friends about it! Like I said before, I find it hard to pay for a 75,000 dollar bond when we only list maybe one or two loads per year.

Thanks for the different points of view. I think that the reputable brokers will do just fine in this world because they are needed but I also think that the bottom feeders will continue to try to skim a little cream off the top.

Thanks again and have a GREAT and safe day!

Keith Kemper
ET Trucking