Motor Carrier Apparently my rates are too high

Since you still seem to not have read the article. It’s not about regulating carriers. The article is about regulating brokers and capping the percentage they can take. There is also a group advertising for a minimum floor rate during emergencies.
That's just as stupid. Shippers are driving the rates down.
 
That's just as stupid. Shippers are driving the rates down.
No they aren’t. I called on a load yesterday. 110,000 pounds going 28 miles. Pay was 2,000. The broker told me all they gave him was $2100 and he knows it’s a little light. I was chewing on it because I haven’t worked in two weeks. Then the load disappeared, it reappeared an hour later with a different broker and only paying 1,000 now. That wasn’t the shipper.
You are foolish if you think the actual freight rate has dropped. It may have reduced due to fuel surcharges, but I promise you the rate itself hasn’t changed much.
 
Shippers are not driving down freight rates anymore than Walmart shoppers are driving down prices. The cut throat brokers and carriers are doing it by undercutting each other.
Shippers go to a broker, and say, I want this shipped for $X.00. They sign a contract. It's illegal to double broker loads, so if it appears at a different broker, it's because the shipoer pulled the contract, and renegotiated with a different broker.

You guys are smart enough to figure this out. There isn't an evil cabal of price gouging brokers out there trying to out you out of business.
 
Shippers go to a broker, and say, I want this shipped for $X.00. They sign a contract. It's illegal to double broker loads, so if it appears at a different broker, it's because the shipoer pulled the contract, and renegotiated with a different broker.

You guys are smart enough to figure this out. There isn't an evil cabal of price gouging brokers out there trying to out you out of business.
Actually most of the time carriers go the thr shipper and say I can do it cheaper tyss as n the company doing it now. The vast overwhelming amount of freight is under contract not by brokers.
 
Actually most of the time carriers go the thr shipper and say I can do it cheaper tyss as n the company doing it now. The vast overwhelming amount of freight is under contract not by brokers.
Well good. Go sign on with a mega, and slurp some of it up.

If that's all you have to contribute, we don't need it. I run spot market freight, and use brokers.
 
Lots of games going on right now, but let’s stop with ridiculing people’s opinions.

There are plenty brokers taking a higher than usual percentage because of lower overall rates. They are trying to avoid taking a pay cut.

There are brokers that are brokering our freight that hasn’t had a rate drop and trying to push it at the current low market rates and below in order to make more money.

There are brokers out there struggling with a lack of freight and low rates and just trying to survive. These guys will likely go belly up in the next 6-12 months when the carriers are back on the top of this game and rates haven’t increased to match out tight capacity yet.

There are shippers that fall into all of the above categories as well. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

When this turns around, there will be carriers content with average market rates and trying to build those relationships with brokers, even though they will likely be cropped on by most of them once things flip again in favor of the shipper.

There will be carriers that remembered the BS rates that they were fed during this time and will now be happy to choke every penny out of every load out there. Put me in this group because I know relationships out here are rarely a good option and I fully plan on getting back all of the money I lost at the hands of the games being played right now.

Then you have the carrier that will still take whatever the broker tells them to take. These are the weak links on the carrier side, the guys that cause the momentum to be taken from us every time freight gets a little slow. These pukes ruin it for everyone else and prevent us from ever sustaining long periods of profitability. They need to go away, but they never will. Those that do get squashed are always replaced the next time capacity gets tight.

The keyword here is “game”. It’s a game, and winner is always going to be who possesses the bat, ball, and glove. It will never be a fair game out here.

As for regulation, I don’t want it. I don’t want it because if you regulate brokers, or put in floors during times like this, it won’t happen with ultimately doing the same to carriers. We would end up with complete regulation again, something I never want to see.
 
A shipper has no clue of what the current spot market rate is. At least not ones that don’t have a traffic department. They contract with brokers because they don’t want to have to deal with it. Sometimes it’s a one and done shipment sometimes it’s once a month sometimes it’s 10 a day.

Most of the time especially van and flat and reefer freight it’s repeat lanes. The broker says I can move this lane at this price, the shipper agrees or disagrees. A large majority of this freight is contracted. It’s contracted to the broker. These rates don’t fluctuate during the contract period except for fuel surcharge.

Sometimes you may run across a shipper that says I’m only paying X amount. Those are the loads you see posted 15 times with six different brokers.

When you haul a load for $2900 and a week or two later it’s paying 1500 it’s not the shipper that has cut the rate, it’s the broker. They know truck capacity in that market and they know it’s a good possibility they can move that load for 1800. They start at 15 and you get them to 18 and you feel like a winner. In actuality you lost 1100 bucks.

In today’s market volume has fell to near zero, brokers know this. In order for them to continue to make their salaries they have to take a larger piece. Carriers are hurting so they agree to this.

I agree with some of what you are saying @ironpony, but the fact is I have played broker poker for the last 12 years on my own and another two before I started my own carrier. It’s not the shippers that are cutting the rate. It’s really not the brokers. It’s subpar owner operators that don’t understand how the game is played and they don’t understand what the actual rate is.
 
Lots of games going on right now, but let’s stop with ridiculing people’s opinions.

There are plenty brokers taking a higher than usual percentage because of lower overall rates. They are trying to avoid taking a pay cut.

There are brokers that are brokering our freight that hasn’t had a rate drop and trying to push it at the current low market rates and below in order to make more money.

There are brokers out there struggling with a lack of freight and low rates and just trying to survive. These guys will likely go belly up in the next 6-12 months when the carriers are back on the top of this game and rates haven’t increased to match out tight capacity yet.

There are shippers that fall into all of the above categories as well. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

When this turns around, there will be carriers content with average market rates and trying to build those relationships with brokers, even though they will likely be cropped on by most of them once things flip again in favor of the shipper.

There will be carriers that remembered the BS rates that they were fed during this time and will now be happy to choke every penny out of every load out there. Put me in this group because I know relationships out here are rarely a good option and I fully plan on getting back all of the money I lost at the hands of the games being played right now.

Then you have the carrier that will still take whatever the broker tells them to take. These are the weak links on the carrier side, the guys that cause the momentum to be taken from us every time freight gets a little slow. These pukes ruin it for everyone else and prevent us from ever sustaining long periods of profitability. They need to go away, but they never will. Those that do get squashed are always replaced the next time capacity gets tight.

The keyword here is “game”. It’s a game, and winner is always going to be who possesses the bat, ball, and glove. It will never be a fair game out here.

As for regulation, I don’t want it. I don’t want it because if you regulate brokers, or put in floors during times like this, it won’t happen with ultimately doing the same to carriers. We would end up with complete regulation again, something I never want to see.
I’m not big on regulations either, but how do you keep the “pukes” out? They are in it just long enough to **** up the market and there is a never ending stream of them.

The Internet has been the best and worst thing for the spot market.

On one hand it’s fuel efficiency in transportation, but on the other it has allowed the pukes to thrive because of the ease of finding freight and the destruction of the need for relationships.
 
I’m not big on regulations either, but how do you keep the “pukes” out? They are in it just long enough to **** up the market and there is a never ending stream of them.

The Internet has been the best and worst thing for the spot market.

On one hand it’s fuel efficiency in transportation, but on the other it has allowed the pukes to thrive because of the ease of finding freight and the destruction of the need for relationships.

You can’t keep them out. Never have, never will. It’s part of being deregulated.

The industry has always dealt with it, but it was enhanced a couple years ago when we seen rates better than most have ever seen rates, along with a demand for trucks like has never been seen before.

We were getting adjusted to a normal. 2019 saw a drop in rates, failures of many poorly run companies, and a leveling off toward the end is the year and into 2020 that was resulting in better rates than 2019, but not quite where we were in 2018.

Coronavirus jacked it all up. Now, we deal with a severe drop in rates, which will result in very tight capacity and higher rates in the near future. It’s very possible that we will see rates higher than 2018. Very possible. When that happens, we are gonna get another wave of new entrants and expansion of existing carriers. That will bring another 2019 type drop before things level off again.

All this is out the window if we get hit with another nationwide shutdown of the economy. I pray that doesn’t happen.

The only thing that takes this roller coaster away is regulation. That regulation would prevent people like me from having my own authority, or make it almost impossible.

All we can do is make hay while the sun is shining, and be good business people and put profits back during those times just for times like we are currently in.

Right now, we should be operating on money that was made 6 months to a year ago, not depending on the rates we are getting right now. Normally, that is what I would be doing. This caught me by surprise, and I wasn’t fully prepared thanks to using that business money to get into a new house. I took the risk, now I will struggle for a short while.
 
I’m arguing just for the sake of arguing, but until you regulate the industry some shape or form nothing will change. This is the normal. We tend to place authority over profit, like it has some special power and a value in and of itself. But many would do better leased to a company.

We have to be honest about the fact that deregulation hurt drivers. Just like I’m not a fan of the teamsters union, but union drivers do better financially than non union for the most part.
 
I’m arguing just for the sake of arguing, but until you regulate the industry some shape or form nothing will change. This is the normal. We tend to place authority over profit, like it has some special power and a value in and of itself. But many would do better leased to a company.

We have to be honest about the fact that deregulation hurt drivers. Just like I’m not a fan of the teamsters union, but union drivers do better financially than non union for the most part.

That is a good point. What it comes down to is there are flaws in every path.

The best financial path is not necessarily the best independent path.

For me, I'm willing to accept the risk in order to have the freedom and the chance to succeed. It is near impossible to have both of these things if you work for a company, belong to a union, or even lease to a carrier. Nothing wrong with any of those options, it's just not for me.

That said, if it come down to being able to provide for my family, I'm not too proud to go make someone else rich. I just hope to avoid it.
 
That is a good point. What it comes down to is there are flaws in every path.

The best financial path is not necessarily the best independent path.

For me, I'm willing to accept the risk in order to have the freedom and the chance to succeed. It is near impossible to have both of these things if you work for a company, belong to a union, or even lease to a carrier. Nothing wrong with any of those options, it's just not for me.

That said, if it come down to being able to provide for my family, I'm not too proud to go make someone else rich. I just hope to avoid it.
That’s a very American sentiment and I agree wholeheartedly. I don’t think anyone wants to be subpar and haul cheap. I think most new entrants are uneducated really. That’s why I would like the freight rate to be displayed up front. Then if they choose to give the broker 40 or 50% they made an informed business decision to do so.

Back in the 80’s that’s the way it was done. They would tell you the freight bill amount and they would tell you what their cut was. Now they try to keep us in the dark as to the real rate.
 
Well good. Go sign on with a mega, and slurp some of it up.

If that's all you have to contribute, we don't need it. I run spot market freight, and use brokers.
I don’t need to I’m in a different niche. Maybe if you cultivated your own customers you wouldn’t have to worry about saving three cents a mile on fuel.
 
I don’t need to I’m in a different niche. Maybe if you cultivated your own customers you wouldn’t have to worry about saving three cents a mile on fuel.
Exactly where did you get that from?
 

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