What questions are you asking when considering a load?

Weight, freight, rate. If reefer is it frozen or refrigerated. Pickup and delivery times..appointment or first come first serve. Do they reimburse for lumpers? Touch or no touch freight?

Most brokers don't ask any questions other than for your MC number so they can start generating a contract and all the other necessary paperwork. You can check their credit rating on your own, and how fast they pay.

 

My favorite: "Are you going to put that in writing, or do you want me to just write it on the rate sheet when I fax it back to you?"

 

There is also a lot of questions you have to ask your self, Am I going to be able to get a load out of the area I am going to and at what rate you might get $2.30 in but if you can only get $1.00 out or you have to dead head 200 miles you are losing money. the miles is another money loser if it pick up monday going 750 miles and dont deliver til wednesday you will have a lot of sitting time so you have to price that in the rates. And as Gear said delivery times if it delivers to late in the day you might not be able to get a load till the next day. And if it is a reefer load you want to know the tempture enve though 50% of the time the broker will be off on this. Get the detention rates most brokers will put in the rate sheet about detention and lumper but they dont put the rate get the rate. Beware of the saying my regular guy does it for X amount and dont be afraid to say I am not your regular guy and I cant do it fot that. Rates get better with time late in the day and on fridays brokers get more desperate to move some loads, I have had them call with low ball rates I will give them lets say a 650 mile trip 30Klb I'll say $1650 then they will try to neg. Then I'll say the best I can do is $1375 then they want to know if I can meet the at or around $1200 no I dont think I can do it for that let me do some checking and run some figures and I will call you back well they know you are not going to call them back and if they really need you they will call you back. And at the same time if a broker say they will call you back dont hold them to it they are looking for someone to do it cheaper. The idea is to find a few good ones to work with and they will call you to find out where you are Even though I have only been doing this about a month I have a few brokers that will call me from time to time to see where I am and when I will be back in the area, These brokers have loads that will never hit the load boards instead they have a list of drivers they will call. If you have an independent O/O that lives close to you he can be your best friend. Be aware of the switch had a broker call with a rate then sent a rate sheet with a different rate now if its higher thats ok

 

That one had me cracking up. That waiting game is a two-way street. The load we've got right now, I got to my price and that was the price. i don't even lie about running the figures for a call back and lower price LOL. Broker sounded like he was about to bite but hesitated. Said he'd have to check with the shipper and let me know. At issue was the unload time. I gave him two prices: one for delivery on Monday (would require a change, and my gut told me he'd have took this price for the load without conditions) and a higher one for Tuesday (as-is).

That broker is calling the shipper for a higher rate like I'm sitting on my hands doing nothing to hustle another load while waiting for him to call back.

He called me back yesterday morning and after a little cordial bs, I asked him if he was able to cover my quote. After a second waiting for me to backpedal on the rate, he just said yes. My next question was why don't I have your broker contract in my fax machine yet? LOL. I actually like working with this guy and will be watching for his loads.

 

If it is a new broker and I am accepting the load I will tell them that after I run the miles if it is more than a certain amount of extra miles I won't do it at the agreed rate. This gets some interesting responses.

I am getting far to many loads that turn out to be 20% more miles than stated. I think they figure out that you are the driver and driving and knock miles off of what they run.

 

yes, they do this ALOT. You need to physically run your own miles. I have had issues were broker was screwing you on 100 miles, but that isnt free for your deadhead. Ohh also one time broker broker told me that my routing software sucks, and its giving me wrong miles. I literally had a 5min argument with him, and then we went to multiple online sites, and we got MY mileage, and he hung up. Guess who it was Cheap & Heavy

 

I accepted a load that I canceled. Qouted loaded 557 - empty 55. Promiles710\120.

Thatwas so far off I thought they had been looking at different load. When I reached them was told I was mistaken. Asked what they used to calculate mileage. He told me"his computer". No $h!t, what program. "We don't give out that information, trade secrets."

Told him cheating and lies are not a trade secret, people do it all day long. Take me off the load.

Call 15mins later from boss. "What would you need to hal this load?"

A different broker, don't call me again.

 

Unless I know the mileage already I will check before I call. How can you negotiate a rate without a pretty accurate idea of how many miles it is? Brokers are gonna paint the rosiest picture they can and get you to haul for the lowest rate and this includes running HHG mileage rather than real world miles. They probably have the load to offer you in the first place because they bid the lowest rate to their customer.

 

Never had to deal with pallet exchange before - what's the deal with that?