In my experience, no call can be a good thing. Means everyone is on track doing their part. The driver is on his/her way. Now, I do believe if there is any kind of mishap/issue that can cause a signifigant delay there should be communication between all involved. My driver does not answer numbers he dont recognize. 95% of the calls go through me. Why? Because he is MY employee not theirs. No, the shipper/broker etc. does not need my drivers phone number. He needs to focus on his job which is driving the truck. Its my job to handle all the rest. My driver knows when I call its important. Its my job to make all the contact calls and make arrangements with each end.

ok, Kim, in my last post I said that my driver is MY employee. His job is to focus on safely getting that truck down the road to the next load/unload location. It is my job to handle all the details with everything else. If my driver has a problem he will call me. If there is a problem at either end of the load I, meaning ME, will call my driver and let him know. Whoever is sitting at the desk is the person that should be on the phone handling issues that come up. A truck driver is supposed to DRIVE the truck. In order to safely DRIVE the truck, you DO NOT worry about that phone! And if I remember correctly isn't is against the law to be on the phone while driving? If someone you're dealing with doesn't communicate in a way that you like, I'm sorry there's nothing anything here can do.

How are your loads paying that carriers don't care if you happy or not?

Brokers who consistantly give me good rates get the best communication. I find that brokers who pay the worst are always the high maintenance ones who bug you non-stop... They just aren't paying for that kind of service.

I have a couple of brokers I don't even call because I know their rates are always the lowest in a particular area AND they bug me nonstop from the time the load is booked until it's invoiced. Yeah, they rush me to get the paperwork in for a load they won't pay for 30-45 days.

If carriers are shrugging you off, maybe the issue isn't them, maybe your rates just don't pay for the service you want.

THIS! Couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm not pointing fingers. All I am saying is there are brokers who treat me really good on rates and when they email, call, or text, I answer them back immediately.

I am also saying that I am not so quick to reply to problematic brokers. I will not call anyone out, but carriers know there are brokers who just pester you to no end and the load doesn't even pay that well.

I don't know what your rates are. But you do get what you pay for.

I'm not on the broker end of things, so I have no idea what other carriers are like. I have heard stories, but I don't know.

But this is a very tight community in a niche industry. Everyone knows everyone.

I have brokers I can reach 24 hours a day on their personal cell if there is a load issue and then I have brokers who answer the phone 9-4 Mon-Thurs and 9-noon on Friday and they have the "screw the driver if a load number is bad, they can wait" attitude. Fortunately there are not many I deal with like that, but it has happened more than once. There are good an bad on both sides of this fence.

I'm not pointing fingers. But if you were paying me good money for a load, I would bend over backwards to make sure you were happy. I would want to keep getting good loads from you.

All the brokers I deal with, I answer almost immediately.

You asked what the issue might be, I gave a possible answer and you get upset that it might not be the carrier who is the problem.

I apoligize if you feel my perspective and experience wasn't what you wanted to hear.

I value the brokers I use over and over again. I have good relationships with them. But there are a few that once is enough and I don't call them again.

I really agree with this. Email or Text unless it is an emergency. I'm a one man show and I am on the phone all day. Nothing worse than cutting off a broker so someone can ask something they could have texted.

I find it works the best. Phone calls should be a last resort.

That being said, I have broker I like dealing with (and they are nice people), except... 3 people tend to bomb me at once. Email, Text, and telephone call all within a couple of minutes from 3 different people. Once I had to cut the call short only to answer the phone to a call from the same office asking the same question.

I hope this texting and e-mailing is being done from an office desk and not the driver's seat of a moving truck. Call me. If I don't answer, leave a message. I generally don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. Nearly no one leaves a message so I assume they are bullshit calls.

It is a big deal calling drivers. Theres an order of operations that must be followed. The driver takes direction from the dispatcher, not a broker or a shipper. Theres always 2 bookends to a story. How many times are you calling your carriers, how many times are you calling the drivers for updates etc.

Yesterday I got a call for a " When is that load going to be here". He as was on the pit waiting to unload. Comunication?? Tracking is another BS annoyance, for another day.

We need more drivers like you!

Of course

Don't get me started communication goes both ways of course I'm tired of brokers just wanting to text me and not talk to me I drive for a living so I need to not have my hands texting back and forth call me I got a headset and I can talk and relay my information easier with you guys by voice it is very annoying when a broker will only use text or email and not talk to you personally and you have to wait and wait and wait for a text to come back or whatever I'm having this happening right now and it's pissing me off rants over have a good day and remember communication goes both ways

Freight Tec

Is this the company you work for? They do not even list Hopper as what they do. They list Van, Container, Reefer, and Cars.

This thread has gone off the track of whatever you were hoping to accomplish. You wanted to blast carriers this whole thread and it blew up on you. You might try to locate a broker forum who will tell you what you want to hear.

Hopper is not the same as Van/Reefer/Container.

99% of the brokers/Shippers/Receivers I deal with in the hopper world are respectful and personable. The complete opposite of Van/Reefer where you are treated like garbage by everyone.

Good luck in your search for answers.

Definitely not. I don't really want to work with any of you, with the way you view brokers and bash them. I feel like I'm talking to a bunch of children. So much for a productive, professional conversation on how to improve our performance with one another. Lesson learned.

Funny how there are 23 people that upvoted my first comment in this thread and only 1 didn't. I've heard excuses left and right, the most absurd being "it's illegal to talk on the phone when you're driving" as to why a driver wouldn't answer the phone. No broker is going to buy that. It's completely unacceptable. You're not going to tell me dispatchers never speak to their drivers because they can't talk while they're driving. Show of hands - how many drivers DON"T have a headset? I'd bet my next pay check the drivers are on the phone most of the day, USING THEIR HEADSETS, talking to the family they barely get to see or the people that sign their pay checks. This is the kind of crap I was talking about....always excuses, never a productive discussion or a real reason as to why this is such an issue.

Save yourself Kim. Get out of the "mud".

ever try texting? that way they always see it even if they are in a bad coverage area. It saves time and safety as the driver can actually answer you via voice text or when he is stopped, i use texting lots as now both of us have a record of what was asked and what was said. trying to control how drivers talk to you isnt very helpful as they are driving a truck or out loading/offloading. it really helps to visualize what a trucker's life is like. they dont sit at a desk like we do.

i dont think rates matter in this instance. if you take a load and agree to it, your service should the same as any other load, falling back on cheap rate excuse is just plain lame and shows lack of service attitude.

i have had my revenue slashed many times by competition, and you are right i do not choose to deal with customers whose loads are not fairly rated to the truck. it's business. As for the drivers, well, i have no control over how the company treats their staff.

It seems our frien Kim has a history of stirring the pot here in the forums. Here is a blast from the past that pretty much ended as well as her current offering.🤦‍♂️

Jan 20, 2020 at 05:01 PM CST Undo + 34 - 7

KIMBERLY GRAY FREIGHT BROKER Hopewell Junction, NY Member Since: Jul, 2019 48 Posts, 2 +, 4 -

Hello, everyone. I've been a broker for a couple of years now and would like to share my side of things as far as late fees go. We as brokers apply late fees to avoid being personally penalized by our customers for a carrier delivering late. My question to all the carriers is, why fight over it? If it's clearly stated on your rate con, you've been informed from the moment you booked the load. In my experience, A LOT of carriers don't tell the broker they're running late and don't answer their phone or email. I don't get it. To build a good relationship with brokers and customers, why not tell them what's going on? The customer is ultimately the one that decides whether or not the rate is going to get cut and if no one can get a hold of the carrier, it's almost definitely going to be cut. This also hurts my relationships with my customers. I've actually been asked why I "couldn't get my carriers under control". I've had to take a lot of the blame when it comes to unresponsive carriers and I'm seeing a lot of forums on here badmouthing brokers. My husband is an owner-op so I see the carrier side of things as well. I'm so on top of him with his paperwork, I will read over his paperwork completely because I don't want any surprises when it comes to rate reductions. If we're late ever, I tell the broker RIGHT AWAY. They can always get in touch with me or my husband for updates. I would never not respond and put us in a position where the broker will take money off. To date, my husband has NEVER had any money taken off. Communication is so important. One other thing that nags at me and I wanted to put out there....Late paperwork submission fees. I always put this on my rate cons and the carriers sign them easily. But when I'm waiting a month or so and the carrier STILL hasn't sent in their POD after several attempts on my part to obtain it, I've put in time that goes unpaid trying to track the carrier down. Just as carriers want to be paid for their time, so do I. I shouldn't have to spend hours trying to get someone to answer their phone or email to get paperwork that I should have already received. Carriers try to bully me and get nasty when there are rate reductions and it is so uncalled for. It's no different than paying an overdraft fee from your bank or owing more on your rent for paying late. I would love to see everyone work together and stop badmouthing each other, carriers and brokers alike. There's no reason EVER for people to be calling up and screaming and cursing at each other. Totally unprofessional.

How many times, in nomal conditions, should you dispatcher/broker communicate on any given load ?

If say, i as a dispatcher, accept a load from a broker a week before it ships. And the broker asks me "we good for tomorrow?" the night before, then "loading go good?, You on time?" day of... i consider that good enough

Brokers who ask me the day before, the morning of, mid morning of, early afternoon of, evening of, and the following morning about a load... then harrass me because i dont turn in my paper work the same day i deliver... drive me crazy

As a small company... i dont have someone just chasing down truck positions every other hour. and if we did, im sure we would have more driver turnover. You gotta leave those drivers alone to do their thing. As a small company, we have to run our own race... and sometimes that means not responding to you on the 5th time of the day that you are just "checking in" to see if our eta has changed 30 min. That also means we will turn in our paperwork at the beginning of next week, after our drivers turn in their tickets over the weekend... which is our program. Rather than change everything we are doing to match your program for the 1 load a quarter we haul for you that paid 1 dollar a mile.

If its so critical, that a load meet an appointed unload time... say it up front before the load is booked. Not hide it in some fine print on a rate con. I expect to hear the abc's of what is important to you on the phone before we book the load. Half the time, a broker wears me out about my eta over a 500 mile trip and we get there and the "bin is full" or "that wasnt scheduled to arrive till tomorrow".

Sometimes it feels like you must have a little more time on your hands than i do.

this isnt directed at anyone in particular... just the way the business works.

Some brokers will wear out your phone. These brokers are the ones who have ruined it for the rest, and what about the ones who call all the time and cant speak english!?!

Our little company its just me and my husband. I take care of all the office work, I dispatch, I'm HR, I'm accounting, and I'm safety. My husband is the driver. Its my job to handle everything INCLUDING ALL PHONE CALLS!! I myself was a driver at one time. I know ALL the headaches they have to deal with out there. I do not talk to my husband unless its an emergency or when he's done driving for the day (at this point its on a personal level). I have my job and take care of the home front and he has his job. TO FOCUS ON CARRING 40 TONS FROM POINT A TO POINT B SAFELY AND NO DISTRACTIONS FROM A BROKER HOUNDING HIM!!

If there are special instructions such as a delay on paperwork, I will let him know. Now, there are times he's not able to get paperwork mailed off when an impatient broker wants it. Schedules dont always match up. The trucking industry is 24/7, the mail is not! He gets the paperwork in the mail as soon as he can. When he's able to get it in the mail he'll call me so I'll know when to start looking for it.

If there is a delay in delivery he'll call me and let me know. He'll explain what is going on and together we'll make an executive descision on if plans need to be changed. If he does not call me, I'll know everything is on track.

This is how we have a smooth operation. Yes we've had other drivers but with this wonderful government we have today, we've had to let them go and sell our equipment. I told my drivers, I'll let him know the information, pick it up, deliver it and call for the next load. Any problems arise to let me know as soon as they can and we'll go from there. We're all adults we dont need to keep constant tabs on everyone.