Co-Broker vs Double-Broker

http://www.carrier411.com/co-brokering-double-brokering.cfm

http://www.freightbrokertraininghq....okering-the-boon-and-bane-of-freight-brokers/

 

There is no difference. They are both the same.

Shipper pays $1000 to move a load.
Broker A takes $100 and passes it down the line to Broker B which takes $100 and then passes it to the trucker for a total of $800.
That is so called co brokering.

Trucker gets the load from a broker that took $100 off the $1000 load and trucker passes it down the line and takes $100 for another total of $800.
And that is so called double brokering?
Same thing.

Any time you have two middle men in the shipment taking a cut, I don't care what you call it, co brokering or double brokering, its the same thing.

Co brokering, It's a term that is somewhat new to the industry that is trying to polish up its tarnished reputation from double brokering.

 

It's not illegal though

 

6 wheeler guy said it pretty good, some brokers know other brokers double broker, a lot of brokers lie to customers claiming they have trucks and then broker to companies, this whole industry is 1 big lie. Its not illegal to double broker, it's illegal if you dont pay the companies that hauled the freight, then it gets illegal. Every one double brokers and lies, then you have scumbag companies like Carrier411 that tarnish carrier names but brokers never get in trouble.

 

6 wheeler summed it up. If you want a definition of double brokering, I posted a thread What is double brokering. It explains the legal term and well as the perceived term that the trucker believes it to be.

Co-brokering is just a fancy term they now use to confuse the trucker. Add to the confusion get more money. In the end it is about the greed and lies of our industry, there are very many honest folks left in it. We are getting more and more discouraged every day. I try and share as much honesty as possible with others so they don't get caught in the tangled web of deceit that occurs in the industry.

 

Guys it's not really fair to lump actual co-brokering in with double brokering. If you take the time to go to the links in post #2 and read the actual difference one is a very legitimate business practice while the other is clearly not. Lumping them together as "fancy catch terms for the same thing" is un-true and wrong and really just dis-information in general.

 

Simple cure to the "i hate brokers" syndrome. Get your own customers.

 

The links in post #2 lead to the brokers definition of the terms. I stated in the posting what is double brokering both the legal definition as well as the trucker perceived definition. The reality is that co-brokering is not illegal, while double brokering is. The reality is that co-brokering often times, not always, involves a greater piece of the pie being taken from the one doing the work and taking the bigger risk. I have seen as many as five brokers involved in a load, the communication lines become very screwed when this occurs. Each party stating that they needed to call the customer to find out how to fix the problem. The end result is the carrier ends up getting the blame for the problem, getting screwed out of additional monies, and ends up having a bad taste in their mouth. When we find out their are multiple brokers involved on the load, we generally give the load back and kindly say that we are not interested.

Just think of it this way, why are the brokers allowed to practice this practice without having stipulations as to the amount of margins they can take. Carriers must still submit their tariffs for approval to the government when they reach a certain size. Let's see the trucks are told they can only make so much profit, because it might hurt the American people, but the brokers are allowed to make all the profit they can off of the trucks. What is wrong with that picture.

And before I get accused of hating on brokers, we have been the broker and never once double brokered a load, or co-brokered a load. We were operating on the up and up. Just decided to quit when the bond went up to $75 K. A lot of good small brokerage firms went out of business that day.

What do you think is going to happen if they get the price of trucking insurance from 750K to 4M, a lot of us small trucking companies will go out of business that day as well, or we will have to join forces with the mega-carrier or mega-broker.

Like I often say who cares how many brokers are dividing their piece of the pie (except for communication), as long as we get our piece that we deserve. If we all knew how to bid properly, then the brokers would have a much smaller piece to divide amongst themselves, and they may not be so willing to co-broker their pie.

 

I can go back over the past 4 years and probably pull up a couple dozen or more co-brokered rate confirmations that would blow your mind what was paid to move the freight. I am certain the broker that booked my truck also made bank. That is how it goes. Any broker worth their salt co-brokering for one of their compadre's, that is having difficulty locating a truck(s) reaching out for help (it doesn't come for free), darn well better charge accordingly when they locate a desired truck. I think the real problem here stems from operators out here who don't know how capitalize on circumstances. Can't distinguish from one load to the next something that needs to go and might pay a little better versus something that can sit.