What about load boards that exclude brokers and include shippers and carriers only?

I came up with a good idea about 3 years ago that was born out of my painful dealings with brokers. I am not trying to badmouth ALL brokers, but a good percentage of them are horrible to deal with. They are the devils of the transportation industry. I wanted to create a SUCCESSFUL board for shippers and carriers only. At the time I was not able to find really any successful versions of this online or with research. Today I realized that not only have a few people put this idea into action but that one actually named their site the name I was going to use. That figures!

So this is a question for you owner operators, small carriers, independents, and the like who do not work for or have a brokerage division ONLY. Basically I am saying that no one coming here for answers wants to hear a defense about how great brokers are. We all know ourselves how great they are or aren't and what they bring to the table. None of you brokers need to defend yourself. I am sure you are great yourself, but that will deter my point for this thread so please leave that out. Thanks in advance! Has anyone used any of these sites that exclude a broker and if so can you give us any insight? Anything would help. With the help of those experienced maybe we could make a site like that so popular that all small shippers start using it.

We would all love to have a bunch of contracts with direct shippers, but in some cases that might be hard causing a need for a direct shipper load board. Regardless, we would love to hear about how you were able to land direct shippers without a board as well.

I plan to utilize one or two of these sites in the near future and I will be sharing information about that on here as well so keep a check. I want to help all of you small carriers and independents who are where I am.

 

I just spent an hour or so researching nobrokerfreight.com which might have been the site you mentioned. I had a broker tell me of one she used as a broker that would work well for me as carrier, but I forgot the name. Anyway nobrokerfreight.com got bad reviews. There was 16 google pages, 3 bad reviews, zero good reviews. 2 of the 3 bad reviews said it was a scam and was mainly brokers on the site even though they claim they don't allow brokers. A previous broker is the owner of that site. So I would say being there is not one single good review, it is probably safe to stay away from them until further research finds a different result.

I think there is a way to do a site for carriers and direct shippers that will work and I have some great ideas to make it work. However it would take a lot of time and money to put into action.

 

Rollin Coal: Wouldn't it be better to work on a site with direct shippers who actually have more wiggle room than brokers do? But definitely good point there on acting like you don't need the load. That is what we always do!

 

Good point Snowwy! I do already assume the broker might be describing the load as incorrect anyway though, but that is mainly because I have been around a while. Anybody could probably figure that out fast enough. We get a TONU about 70% of the time and that adds up to something like $1500 annually per truck. So we would be losing out on that $1,500 charge maybe but how much would we gain from the shipper? And here is something to ponder on too. A good percentage of the time the broker is ignorant to certain aspects and doesn't ask the right questions. Here is an example: A shipper has a tall load so he assumes it needs a step. Broker assumes that all steps can haul 10'3 tall. Carrier assumes because of brokers size and expertise that they know many steps can only haul 10'. If a carrier speaks to shipper there is going to be better communication. Not the best example but the first one I thought of.