Eliminating Brokers

[MannyGill]

Does anyone know how I can deal with shippers directly and not have a middleman take a cut? Should I go to local businesses we have been taking loads for already for countless years and ask if they set loads they can give us weekly or is there a certain process I have to follow. Also, are there any legal ramifications if I don't have a brokering license and I attempt this. Some advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Manny Gill

 

[Ontario Outlaw]

Yes, you can approach businesses to be a direct shipper

Brokers can get ****ed

 

[ironpony]

Does anyone know how I can deal with shippers directly and not have a middleman take a cut? Should I go to local businesses we have been taking loads for already for countless years and ask if they set loads they can give us weekly or is there a certain process I have to follow. Also, are there any legal ramifications if I don't have a brokering license and I attempt this. Some advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Manny Gill

Yeah. Start making cold sales calls to shippers in your area. Getting past the gatekeeper at the front desk is the hard part. It goes downhill from there. Getting the name of the transportation manager and his direct number is golden.

Hope you're not allergic to rejection. You'll probably hear "NO" a hundred times before you hear "YES."

Good luck.

Sales is a lot harder than it appears. Have you ever read a book on the subject?

 

[MannyGill]

Yeah. Start making cold sales calls to shippers in your area. Getting past the gatekeeper at the front desk is the hard part. It goes downhill from there. Getting the name of the transportation manager and his direct number is golden.

Hope you're not allergic to rejection. You'll probably hear "NO" a hundred times before you hear "YES."

Good luck.

Sales is a lot harder than it appears. Have you ever read a book on the subject?

Yes, I'm actually in college and my major is Marketing so I have read many books on sales and done a lot of research outside of books as well. I just like to help with my parents business as much as possible in my free time and they are doing great but they could be doing better in my opinion if the broker wasn't involved and our drivers had set loads weekly.

Also, do you guys know if they usually give you load back or just one way?

Thank you again for the responses.

 

[Electric Chicken]

Yes, I'm actually in college and my major is Marketing so I have read many books on sales and done a lot of research outside of books as well. I just like to help with my parents business as much as possible in my free time and they are doing great but they could be doing better in my opinion if the broker wasn't involved and our drivers had set loads weekly.

Also, do you guys know if they usually give you load back or just one way?

Thank you again for the responses.

Eliminating the broker means no one "gives" you anything. You're on your own finding the loads. If that means there's one coming directly back, awesome. If not you gotta find one. I wouldn't count on the same shipper sending stuff both ways. That's extremely rare. Amazon might but you're more likely to do some bouncing.

Don't know if Amazon works directly with carriers or not.

 

[ironpony]

Yes, I'm actually in college and my major is Marketing so I have read many books on sales and done a lot of research outside of books as well. I just like to help with my parents business as much as possible in my free time and they are doing great but they could be doing better in my opinion if the broker wasn't involved and our drivers had set loads weekly.

Also, do you guys know if they usually give you load back or just one way?

Thank you again for the responses.

There's no doubt that you can make more money from direct freight than brokered loads. Be aware that a shipper may be looking for an inclusive, all or nothing deal.

Most frequently, a brokered load is one way, but it depends on what freight a broker has in a given area. In accepting a load, you have to consider the volume and availability of freight coming back out. If you go into a dead area, you may have to deadhead back out, necessitating building that cost into your inbound rate.

 

[mndriver]

Yes, I'm actually in college and my major is Marketing so I have read many books on sales and done a lot of research outside of books as well. I just like to help with my parents business as much as possible in my free time and they are doing great but they could be doing better in my opinion if the broker wasn't involved and our drivers had set loads weekly.

Also, do you guys know if they usually give you load back or just one way?

Thank you again for the responses.

I'd suggest you get and read this book. He used to have his own website but that went away a year ago or so.

Truckload Transportation: Economics, Pricing and Analysis: Leo J. Lazarus: 9780982784815: Amazon.com: Books

Truckload Transportation: Economics, Pricing and Analysis [Leo J. Lazarus] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Truckload Transportation: Economics, Pricing and Analysis covers every facet of truckload pricing including the truckload business model

www.amazon.com

Not many folks will give a single truck operation the time of day in most cases. You simply don't have the means or methods to provide a company the service a fleet does. A single or 2-4 truck operation isn't capable of handling 40-80 loads per day or week that some companies require.

Likewise some companies don't have a volume low enough to support just one or two trucks.

It's a rare unicorn to find such a pair. And likely to be unsustainable the first hiccup either side has.

 

[mndriver]

Sales and marketing isn't business management. Focus on cutting costs you can control. Understand what fixed vs variable costs are and reduce your fixed costs and manage your variable.

 

[MannyGill]

Appreciate all the help everyone thank you so much and "mndriver" I will definitely give that a read and tell you what I think about it.

 

[Ontario Outlaw]

I'd suggest you get and read this book. He used to have his own website but that went away a year ago or so.

Truckload Transportation: Economics, Pricing and Analysis: Leo J. Lazarus: 9780982784815: Amazon.com: Books

Truckload Transportation: Economics, Pricing and Analysis [Leo J. Lazarus] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Truckload Transportation: Economics, Pricing and Analysis covers every facet of truckload pricing including the truckload business model

www.amazon.com

Not many folks will give a single truck operation the time of day in most cases. You simply don't have the means or methods to provide a company the service a fleet does. A single or 2-4 truck operation isn't capable of handling 40-80 loads per day or week that some companies require.

Likewise some companies don't have a volume low enough to support just one or two trucks.

It's a rare unicorn to find such a pair. And likely to be unsustainable the first hiccup either side has.

Friend of mine is being told he needs 25 trucks as a minimum before some shippers will give him work

Not saying ALL shippers are like that, I’m just giving one example of someone trying to secure direct freight

 

[mndriver]

Friend of mine is being told he needs 25 trucks as a minimum before some shippers will give him work

Not saying ALL shippers are like that, I’m just giving one example of someone trying to secure direct freight

Pretty common actually. Most transportation departments will send a weekly email out of say 600+ loads that need to be covered. How's a single or even a 5-8 truck shop supposed to cover that for the week?

I get regular RFQ emails for that kind of stuff all the time. I'd love to have a small fleet to respond.

Tribe logistics won't touch you with less that 10 trucks.

 

[tommyh]

some shipers want to get someone to haul a cheap load ,be a broker or trucker
I make it a point not to deal directly with those shippers/receivers

been there done it and it ain`t worth the myths

 

[Rigjockey]

I see a lot of small trucking companies that pick up the scraps from larger trucking companies being as drivers are hard to find these days.
That may be a direction to go. Approach a small mid-sized company and see if they have loads they can't cover and work for them directly.

 

[Electric Chicken]

I see a lot of small trucking companies that pick up the scraps from larger trucking companies being as drivers are hard to find these days.
That may be a direction to go. Approach a small mid-sized company and see if they have loads they can't cover and work for them directly.

Target got frustrated with all the megas they tried and switched to locals. I don't know if it eliminated brokers per se though.

 

[Rigjockey]

Target got frustrated with all the megas they tried and switched to locals. I don't know if it eliminated brokers per se though.

Target got frustrated because Canadians did not flock to their stores in droves the way they expected, So Target took their ball and went home.

 

[mndriver]

Target got frustrated with all the megas they tried and switched to locals. I don't know if it eliminated brokers per se though.

Ruan services Target..

Walmart is using regional carrier sized fleets.

 

[Electric Chicken]

Ruan services Target..

Walmart is using regional carrier sized fleets.

Every Tom's Hairy Dick services this one. The megas and big regionals come in and grab loads but they don't seem to have the big contract anymore.

 

[ironpony]

Ruan services Target..

Walmart is using regional carrier sized fleets.

Every Tom's Hairy Dick services this one. The megas and big regionals come in and grab loads but they don't seem to have the big contract anymore.

Which is why I'm dodging SNI, Swift, Useless Xpress etc seatmeat losers when I'm delivering at Wally World DCs...

 

[Electric Chicken]

Which is why I'm dodging SNI, Swift, Useless Xpress etc seatmeat losers when I'm delivering at Wally World DCs...

Nobody's in there when I'm delivering. Not even a jockey. Park it, drop it, find an empty, roll on.

 

[ironpony]

Nobody's in there when I'm delivering. Not even a jockey. Park it, drop it, find an empty, roll on.

Its safer for everyone else that way...