Agent_Z
Well-Known Member
I had a load locked in today from a carrier I cold called on DAT. We agreed to the $3.02 a mile the carrier was going to get, and I start filling out the paperwork. I tell the dispatcher to give me about ten minutes to get the ball rolling. Ten minutes passes, the paperwork is forwarded to my support office that does the rate confirmations, and I call the dispatcher back and send an e-mail letting him know that we're working on the paperwork. I tell him it will take approximately thirty minutes to an hour to get the paperwork sorted out, we were busy, blah, blah, blah. He says that's all fine, the price was right. No worries. Whatever. Cool beans. --- In the mean time we call the shipper, have them pull the load, and go about our routine, which for the most part works. I send the dispatcher an e-mail and leave a voicemail letting him know the load now belongs to us / him.
45 minutes pass and I send another courtesy e-mail to the carrier letting them know my support staff is on hold with the receiver waiting to hear about appointment times so they can put it all on the rate confirmation and assure him that the load is locked down. The dispatcher tells me he's sorry, but the rate confirmation took too long, and he already booked the truck, without calling me back first.
This happens EVERY-SINGLE-DAY!!!!! Despite my complaints with this business, we always call our shippers and lock down a load before the rate confirmations are signed. It's a double-edged sword. On one hand we can guarantee our carrier that the load does in fact belong to them. On the other, we don't have a signed contract to hold the carrier liable for said load. So once a load is dropped, or a carrier changes their mind on a whim, it's on us and we're responsible for a dropped load fee, which can be several hundred dollars. (I bet a lot of drivers didn't know this.)
Nothing is worse than everyone wasting time just to have another brokerage book a load before the paperwork is finished. And since we have a good relationship with our shippers, they allow us to lock down our loads without having proof of a signed rate con. But it keeps coming back to bite us in the ass time and time and time again.
Yes!! When a brokerage has a good relationship with a shipper, they can get exclusive rights to a load on a whim. We do it every day. There's mutual trust there, and when we tell a shipper we have a carrier locked in, they let us lock in the load.
No!! You won't be able to book that load with another brokerage when we do this. If you don't believe me, feel free to pull up the listing and call the other 10 brokerages advertising the load. --- It won't be there. I promise.
That sale was $50 in my pocket today, and I still offered those Ruskies $3 / mile. Then ... this happened.
It's one thing to say the rate sucks and blow me off. It's another to verbally agree (on a RECORDED LINE), and then back out without notice. Especially when I'm calling and sending e-mails. I always maintain communication with my carriers throughout the process. At least once every 30 minutes. When carriers back out, I have to explain why. In this case ... the dispatcher was an a-hole.
Other brokerages ruin it for us, probably by not doing what they say they're going to do. Then crap like this happens. Drivers whine about brokerages, but in many cases the brokerage can risk 100's of dollars in penalties for dropped loads just to make sure that driver gets what they're negotiating for and isn't wasting time. We do.
Am I going to have a hard time selling this $3 mile (860 miles) load in the morning? No, but if I don't we are going to have to pay the $200 penalty. No risk, no reward? --- Don't say a brokerage never did anything for you. Because if that's happening 2-3 times a day, that's a LOT of money LOST. That's a lot of monetary risk just to lock in a sale. If you want the Freight Agent guarantee, then you better let me do my job, and be patient with paperwork. If I don't collect the right information from the carrier I get to pay that $200 out of my paycheck. Thank god this time I did, so that money would be on the agency, not me.
If you think brokers don't take monetary risks to offer you the services they provide, you're absolutely wrong. Penalties add up FAST!!! And penalty fees are the risk of offering good service. I do what I say I'm going to do. I expect the carrier to do the same. Else it's my ass. If you say you're going to book a load, book it. Once a brokerage shells out a $200 or $400 dropped load penalty on your shenanigans, you're black balled. That's with us, or anyone else.
If you're some a-hole that only types 25 words per minute, take a look in the mirror. I type 130wpm. My support staff probably averages around 50. They input that data as fast as their little fingers will possibly allow them to, one rate confirmation at a time, and unfortunately, TYPING TAKES TIME!!!!!! So does sitting on hold confirming the appointment that you requested. If you want to that 8am appointment locked in, someone has to call and make it for you. So sorry the receiver was busy and my support team had to sit on the phone listening to god-awful hold music to accommodate your needs. --- I guess no one cares that multiple staff members in my agency pissed away their time for nothing. And time is money, right?
That dispatcher wasted another carrier's valuable time. My support team could have been working on the next rate con instead of sitting on hold. That Ruskie was told up front it required an appointment, and agreed to it. Someone has to make that appointment with the receiver. So who does that? It just magically happens? I don't think so ....
45 minutes pass and I send another courtesy e-mail to the carrier letting them know my support staff is on hold with the receiver waiting to hear about appointment times so they can put it all on the rate confirmation and assure him that the load is locked down. The dispatcher tells me he's sorry, but the rate confirmation took too long, and he already booked the truck, without calling me back first.
This happens EVERY-SINGLE-DAY!!!!! Despite my complaints with this business, we always call our shippers and lock down a load before the rate confirmations are signed. It's a double-edged sword. On one hand we can guarantee our carrier that the load does in fact belong to them. On the other, we don't have a signed contract to hold the carrier liable for said load. So once a load is dropped, or a carrier changes their mind on a whim, it's on us and we're responsible for a dropped load fee, which can be several hundred dollars. (I bet a lot of drivers didn't know this.)
Nothing is worse than everyone wasting time just to have another brokerage book a load before the paperwork is finished. And since we have a good relationship with our shippers, they allow us to lock down our loads without having proof of a signed rate con. But it keeps coming back to bite us in the ass time and time and time again.
Yes!! When a brokerage has a good relationship with a shipper, they can get exclusive rights to a load on a whim. We do it every day. There's mutual trust there, and when we tell a shipper we have a carrier locked in, they let us lock in the load.
No!! You won't be able to book that load with another brokerage when we do this. If you don't believe me, feel free to pull up the listing and call the other 10 brokerages advertising the load. --- It won't be there. I promise.
That sale was $50 in my pocket today, and I still offered those Ruskies $3 / mile. Then ... this happened.
It's one thing to say the rate sucks and blow me off. It's another to verbally agree (on a RECORDED LINE), and then back out without notice. Especially when I'm calling and sending e-mails. I always maintain communication with my carriers throughout the process. At least once every 30 minutes. When carriers back out, I have to explain why. In this case ... the dispatcher was an a-hole.
Other brokerages ruin it for us, probably by not doing what they say they're going to do. Then crap like this happens. Drivers whine about brokerages, but in many cases the brokerage can risk 100's of dollars in penalties for dropped loads just to make sure that driver gets what they're negotiating for and isn't wasting time. We do.
Am I going to have a hard time selling this $3 mile (860 miles) load in the morning? No, but if I don't we are going to have to pay the $200 penalty. No risk, no reward? --- Don't say a brokerage never did anything for you. Because if that's happening 2-3 times a day, that's a LOT of money LOST. That's a lot of monetary risk just to lock in a sale. If you want the Freight Agent guarantee, then you better let me do my job, and be patient with paperwork. If I don't collect the right information from the carrier I get to pay that $200 out of my paycheck. Thank god this time I did, so that money would be on the agency, not me.
If you think brokers don't take monetary risks to offer you the services they provide, you're absolutely wrong. Penalties add up FAST!!! And penalty fees are the risk of offering good service. I do what I say I'm going to do. I expect the carrier to do the same. Else it's my ass. If you say you're going to book a load, book it. Once a brokerage shells out a $200 or $400 dropped load penalty on your shenanigans, you're black balled. That's with us, or anyone else.
If you're some a-hole that only types 25 words per minute, take a look in the mirror. I type 130wpm. My support staff probably averages around 50. They input that data as fast as their little fingers will possibly allow them to, one rate confirmation at a time, and unfortunately, TYPING TAKES TIME!!!!!! So does sitting on hold confirming the appointment that you requested. If you want to that 8am appointment locked in, someone has to call and make it for you. So sorry the receiver was busy and my support team had to sit on the phone listening to god-awful hold music to accommodate your needs. --- I guess no one cares that multiple staff members in my agency pissed away their time for nothing. And time is money, right?
That dispatcher wasted another carrier's valuable time. My support team could have been working on the next rate con instead of sitting on hold. That Ruskie was told up front it required an appointment, and agreed to it. Someone has to make that appointment with the receiver. So who does that? It just magically happens? I don't think so ....
Last edited by a moderator:
