Agent_Z
Well-Known Member
The manager of our office apparently hired some stooge to micromanage agents. Today we had several people quit, another, that had been there over 5 years, walk out, but not before saying he'd rather be fired than quit. The silly stooge hasn't even introduced himself properly, the man just showed up one day, and now he's just commanding everyone to do things: make 100 cold calls on a load, take detailed notes on every call, paragraphs long, fill out detailed call reports, etc. --- We basically have a dictator running our office now, micromanaging everything.
The senior agent that walked out today was #2 in sales for the past few years. He threw the "I'm a 1099 contractor" in the man's face and walked out the door. I don't know where I'm going with this, but this is the first step of a desperate business owner who knows he's on a sinking ship. Arrogance can only go so far, and cheap freight is cheap freight. You'd think when your most trusted carriers tell you that your office peddles some of the cheapest freight on the market, time and time again, management would get the hint. But the denial is strong around here.
100+ calls and detailed notes on loads that we, agents, using common sense, already know won't sell. Maybe when they start paying agents $15-18 / hr like the big brokerages do someone would put up with that crap. But not in a contractor's world. That's like telling an O/O when he can pull over and take a ****. Ain't gonna happen, hombre. This is a futile attempt to increase productivity. No agent wants to waste hours of his day making calls, missing incoming calls, and a chance to snipe the good loads that come down that pipe that will sell. All of that wasted time, for nothing.
Why would a carrier want to regularly work with an agent that can't offer them loads that will make their business money? They wouldn't ...? We're all nice people, honest, professional as can be, but we know that our freight is 20-30% cheaper than most everything else in the lanes that we run, and usually a last resort. And we don't hide that fact. Because we don't hide that fact, we do sometimes make some good sales. But the denial of those facts is gonna kill this office because management can't take a hint. Our relationships with carriers are mostly superficial. The dedicated carriers we do have know that when they are in a last resort situation, they can call us, and we will do a good job. But the freight isn't going to make them good money.
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