Go our own, or team with company?

[NEWBIE_WIFE]

Hi All,
This may be a little involved, but here goes. Hubby and I purchased a truck a few months ago. The work we thought we had for it didn't work out due to many factors. Now we have an option to team with an established trucking company, a small one, that will broker loads for us until we can get in doing what we want to do (which pays really, really good.) What is a fair percentage for brokering loads? We feel like the company is upfront and honest and will do a good job for us. This is just based on our impressions, of course. We don't feel comfortable trying to find our own loads yet because we are so new and hubby hasn't been trucking in recent history.

In addition, the company has said if we team with them, they will eventually try to get us in with them hauling what we want to haul which pays much better. This may happen in a month or six months. They would want a percentage of our loads once that takes place, what would be a fair percentage of that? We would be running under our authority, but with their name on our truck as well. Without their helping us, we may not get our foot in the door with this type of hauling because it is oilfield and we all know how that is going right now. They also want a year commitment from us.

Besides them securing the work for us, there is also the "price" of them helping us get up and running in a field that is hard to break into right now. I don't know how to put a value on that. Any advice or typical percentages y'all generally pay would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[DubbleD]

Certainly seems there should be an easy answer to your obscure question and there is....


HUH?


Money differs greatly from region to region, state to state and...

Type of trailer, type of tractor, what you haul, where you haul.....

...and those questions came to mind with just one eye open. If I get the other one to cooperate I'll have more pertinent questions and in the event it won't ....others will surely ask.

 

[NEWBIE_WIFE]

There were two questions in the post. Both fairly straight forward as far as I can tell. The rest was back story, explaining the situation, which changes things a bit. But mostly I would like to know what is a fair percentage to pay to a broker for finding loads? It would be power only loads, hauling mostly regional.

 

[DubbleD]

I don't deal with percentages cuz I don't count well.

Others on the forum have mentioned 5% to 75%.

Now I wanna see what them exports say......

 

[mndriver]

When I was leased to companies, I got 85% of gross. They basically did the billing, paid insurance and I did the rest.

 

[NEWBIE_WIFE]

Mndriver---

In both scenarios we would not be covered under their insurances. We'd be required to carry our own. In the first scenario, they'd be simply finding us loads and billing for it. We would not be leased onto them, I don't believe. In the other scenario, we'd be leased on, but still carrying our own insurance coverages. And what is a fuel surcharge? Is this paid by the company shipping goods to the carrier? (Yes, I'm a newbie, so don't laugh!)

 

[mndriver]

I always had to have bobtail, carrier had cargo and deducted it.

Fuel surcharge is a brokers/shippers gimmick to change rate based on fuel cost.

Ie, base rate is $1.80+ fsc. Fsc might be 26cpm now based on fuel and was up to 47cpm when fuel was $4.00/ gal.

 

[Duck]

5-10% if you're completely independent of the company for everything except freight, brokering, etc.

They get a bigger cut if you use their trailers, their fuel network, they file your IFTA, provide insurance, license plates, operating authority, etc.

 

[Blood]

Mndriver---

In both scenarios we would not be covered under their insurances. We'd be required to carry our own. In the first scenario, they'd be simply finding us loads and billing for it. We would not be leased onto them, I don't believe. In the other scenario, we'd be leased on, but still carrying our own insurance coverages. And what is a fuel surcharge? Is this paid by the company shipping goods to the carrier? (Yes, I'm a newbie, so don't laugh!)

Public liability MUST be acquired and maintained by the MC.
They can do a charge-back per your lease agreement but you can not carry your own public liability under a lease agreement with a MC.

FSC (fuel surcharge) is a standard addendum to a rate agreement designed to maintain the carriers operating costs and profit margin when a contract is agreed upon. In the spot market fuel costs are generally reflected in the quoted (all inclusive) rate.

http://www.ooida.com/EducationTools/Tools/fuelsurcharge.asp

 

[Blood]

OOIDA will review your lease agreement and alert you to red flags should any exist.

816-229-5791

 

[bullj21]

If you are running under your authority and you own truck and trailer it is up to you and cost is on you for most everything,red flags if broker wants more than 10% for finding loads, you are putting up the money for cost . brokers lie and you need to understand all paper work and the words in a lease and how they are written on that paper. be very careful in what you sign.