Someone help me understand

I'm have to disagree with you. Keep in mind that the rate is dictated by the market. We are not in the same financial position we were some years ago. The game has changed, and we are all trying to adjust the best that we can. Wishing ill on a carrier that is trying to hustle, certainly won't solve the problem you are having with the rates.

Scott I don't pray anyone has misfortune. I simply want people to think about what they are doing when they provide there valuable service at below standard rates, other segments of this industry won't be so gracious.

Scott,
How long would those loads sit if, NO ONE, would take them @ $1.35?

But then I would lose my job. So I would go home and take it out on my wife, who in turn would breakdown, and lose her job! Forcing us to move in with one of our children, and that stress would be too much for them, and they would in turn lose their job. We would then have to sell the dogs for money to eat, and they would most likely take it out on their new owners, which of course would cause them to lose their job.. See what's happening here? Half of something is still half. Half of nothing means I have to sell my dogs.

Scott , I have been in the trucking world for 35 plus years , and it was a lot hard to get loads and find truck with OUT the innet and computers to DO your thinking , for you , and I will not post a load i wouldnt but my truck on , You can always find some less then good paying loads from some cheap shipper if you are in a spot you need your truck to, So take it from a old fart , its easier to work on some find shipper that will pay a good rate and kept them happy with good service , so you can kept that work
Scott good luck sellling your dog

Brokers are THE only ones making money
the person with the least expense and the owner
operator makes least with all the expense
i wish shippers would deal with the carriers and leave
out the greedy brokerage co. It's a middle that killing
the industry !

I tell my Customer Service team, who then tell our Sales team, who then tell our Operations Staff, who eventually speak with the President. Look, we all know that rates are down, but the freight never stops. I'm but 1 of 50 brokers here, and all of us have someone to answer to. And without a paycheck, that person is my wife!! :)

He just says ok. He don't care how cheap it is. He has somebody to answer to that obviously does not care either. Simple answer just don't pull the crap. Let them load it in their own trailers and haul it themselves.

It's not exactly the brokers, 1 trucker told me, who is not trucking now! Said he took a flat bed load from Los Angeles CA to FL for $875 because he had to go, i know that's not the brokers bad.

I like how everyone just glossed over the rail point he made. The opportunity is there for a carrier that wants it. If not, it goes by rail when it needs to go.

i guess I don't understand the butt hurt over it. There are products that I pull for customers that can either go bulk, or in totes. Totes cost more but vans are cheaper in certain lanes than a hopper. At a certain price, one option becomes better than the other. I'll post a load bulk and dry van, take calls from a hopper carrier who complains about the rate and I simply have to say, any higher than this and the van prices become the cheaper option to the customer. So in that situation I should cost my customer more money to pay a hopper a dollar or two more per ton to keep him happy??? If anyone here for a second thinks that in that situation I should put my supplier's interest ahead of my customer's is truly not thinking, but being emotional in their rational. Not to mention the fact that if there are carriers willing to do it at a lower price but I choose to overpay a truck, I risk losing the account to another broker or carrier.

the thing people forget is that bulk trailers are not only competing with each other, but with van, rail, and even barge freight prices.

Also, 80% of carriers suck at negotiating.

At a 1.35 a mile, eventually you will loose your job or life. We all know that loads have to pay above 2.00 pm for profit. Shame on the government for not regulating some that should be regulated so we don't have to drive 18 hours a day to make small profit margins while scumbag brokers keep a lot of the loads profit.

He is just spitting out the same old BS that a lit believe. The amount you move a truck for did not change because the widgets market sucks. Matter of fact the price to move the truck actually should go up when there are fewer loads. My prices went up instead if down over the last two years. I just did fewer loads.

Service? What is that? I hear that a lot but nobody really cares anymore. It is all about the cheapest price. You get what you pay for. If you want fast food prices then you will get the fast good quality of service. I for one don't give a shit about his dogs nor his wife. That is not my problem. As far as the stripe deal instead of thinking we are all generic reverse your color scheme and you will have it nuts on. We as an industry by and large lack integrity so we resemble the skunk in looks and smell.

Let the trains move it north! I get better money hauling from the local terminals to my customers than they get hauling out of catoosa. I get 12-14 a ton to haul 60-80 miles and can get 3 loads a day. Well over the crap rate coming out of Oklahoma. I can make over $1000 a day for under 500 miles, half of which are empty, or go to Oklahoma and drive over 1100 miles for under $1000 for atleast a day and a half of work.

I'll say this... and I don't mean any harm to ANYONE... but some of these brokers/agents are just getting more and more ridiculous by the day.. I'm seeing the $1.60 a mile loads too... and now they believe that $2.00 a mile is the magical number. I've had a few loads over the last feww weeks that the brokers post and they say 'GOOD PAYING'.. when you call it's either right at $2.00 a mile or a little more... and I want ALL the brokers to read this part.... STOP THINKING $2.00 a mile for FERTILIZER loads are GOOD RATES!!! After you empty you've got to find a washout location, that is normally never close by and then pay for that.... and then alot of shippers won't load you after a FERTILIZER load... Trucking is just getting sad...

I would not consider a hopper specialized. An end dump or a pneumatic, walking floor is specialized. Some trailer specialties command a higher premium than others.

Basically the same as a flatbed world with a flatbed, stepdeck, low boy.

I know that if I need a Pneumatic I'll be paying a premium, but if a Pneumatic calls for a load that will work on a hopper, then he is getting the hopper rate.

This thread started out as help me understand here goes. Everybody can own or pull a van but not everybody has a hopper or a dump.a van can haul anything,a hopper or dump Is designed to haul only certain things. You can not haul canned green beans on a hopper but you can on a van so on and so on. this is the bull that the shippers and brokers try to give us. small truck Co. and owner ops must wake up to this truth. still don't believe me come to Baltimore Md agsource unloads imported grain out of container vans and loads same trailers with export grain. try loading or unloading a van load (canned green beans)on a hopper. what else can I say.

For those who would lump ANY BULK HAULER in the same category as a van or reefer is ludicrus. Come with me and let me see you unload that van or reefer on an 18 inch wide conveyor sitting on a rail spur, or lets get you loaded at the same spot. Hell pull into Saginaw and get in a 100 truck line and unload your wheat there.

With all due to respect, that logic is illogical.

Well, some haul ammonia for like $1.15. Figure that one out...

Oh come on really? You whine like that every time you get up in the morning? No one told you, you had to drive a truck did they? Why did you get in this business if you don't know your numbers? Do you know them? Break even for you is what? I'd love to know. You should know that within a few pennies on every load. And if you get the majic $2.00 a mile, what if it costs you $1.98 to operate? KNOW YOUR COSTS!!!!! Not tryin to start anything here, but the whining must stop, and start thinking of a solution.

Scott. Forgive me but you're the wrong kind of broker. I've been in this industry for 32 years. I started out as a broker working for my dad. The first thing he taught me was that shippers don't set the rates unless we give them license to do so. Your job is to bring available trucks to the bargaining table and negotiate. If a shipper is throwing you cheap rates and you're force-feeding those rates to desperate truckers; you're doing the whole industry a disservice. It's better to push back on shippers and tell them their rates are unnacceptable, offering them real trucks and real rates. Let them know that at the rate they're offering, they'll only get bottom-feeders hanginging on to the end of a very slippery rope. Those trucks won't be around long, and by helping them go out of business with all the sub-standard rates, you (as a broker) and your shipper will be blamed publicly for their failure. As a result; good operators who want to stay in business will avoid working with you.

Thank you for the response Bill, I can certainly appreciate your point of view, and I continue to enjoy this discussion. I'd like to consider myself a fair and compassionate guy, and I continue to do my best to make sure that both sides get a fair shake. My job here is to move loads that are given to me, as well as digging up my own loads to move. In some cases I am given loads without knowing about them first. This puts me at a disadvantage because I have not had a chance to discuss the rates involved. In other cases, I am consulted first, and asked to provide a rate that I feel comfortable with. Trust me when I say, the outcomes are totally different. My difficulty comes when I get a load with a terrible rate on it. It's something I deal with all the time. Unfortunately, I cannot simply refuse to try to book the load, That won't go over very well here. I can certainly voice my concerns, and I do, but if the load hits my board, I'm obligated to try and move it. I have many discussions with sales people about loads/rates, and in some cases, something good comes of it, and in others, not so much. Either way, I do my very best to insure a fair rate for my carriers, as well as my customers. It's a balancing act every day.