The Broker Transparency Debate: My Full Thought Process (Mini Vent, sorry)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- Should broker transparency be implemented? I will have to vent here, and be a little bit vulnerable while I share my full thought process which goes through arguments FOR and AGAINST broker transparency. I would love to hear your thoughts.
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It is not broker transparency problem we are facing. It is broker responsibility. How many times have a carrier heard " oh the customer did not approve detention " it is the broker we work for, not the customer. Hence responsibility has to be enforced
They have a separate agreement with the shipper. There is no responsibility to be had when the shipper has only given them limited options if any at all.
Lets shorten the process. Trucking companies need to learn how to go direct to shippers. PERIOD.
@@NormVW2013 Never happening if you own only one truck with one trailer. Been there - TRIED that.
Two shippers offered me way less money that the broker was paying me to haul those same shippers' loads.
Stock brokers and real estate brokers both have caps and transparency requirements. What if they were allowed to operate like freight brokers as it is said in the name of a free market? The fact of the matter is that a capitalistic free market has regulation and oversight to prevent agreigous abuse that can cause catastrophic disruption to the system. Even carriers submit to regulation and oversight,freight brokers should not be an exception. Scarcity(supply & demand) is permitted in a free market system but not collusion or monopoly(Brokers banding together to manipulate prices).
Freight brokers are essentially a carriers sales department, and sales always gets paid more with less overhead costs, and every business is supposed to have a sales department. If you’re not selling your services direct to the shipper as much as these freight brokers do day in and day out. Then they have the right to name their price.
Capitalism's end goal isn't a free market, it's a market in which it's controlled for the maximum profit of a corporation. In this scenario, who is the beneficiary of that control? Brokers only have ~20% of the freight in the market, leaving 80% being handled by other means. Massive trucking companies control much of the contract and LTL market. Smaller outfits and owner/ops have very limited power in comparison. So you could cap brokers at some arbitrary percentage profit, but you're only impacting a small portion of the industry. If the percentage of profit is too small for most brokers to survive then all that will happen is the freight will consolidate into a smaller percentage of brokers/big carriers, driving rates down further. If the percentage is high enough for brokers to survive then you've likely just maintained status quo in the limited market that you're dealing with.
It's not your small brokers or trucking companies that have "banded together" to control the pricing, you need to look higher up than that.
@@dangranot5703 You got it.
Many brokers and the trucking companies who use them will never see the big contracts and big revenue that the largest companies get.
I'm a LTL team driver.
First trip of the week, Atlanta to Salt Lake.
1900 miles
Lead trailer 15k pounds
$8300 revenue
Rear 10k pounds
$4300 revenue
Our dock supervisors have a $5 per mile revenue goal per freight lane.
This is the only correct response.
Collusion is a crime and it's happening right under our noses.
I’ll say it again. Cap them at 15%!!!! With the current prices of things the rates shouldn’t be so low!!! Someone is making a lot of money!! $4 a gallon diesel and under $2 a mile rates ?? Pure insanity!
Pretty dangerous road to go down asking for the government to cap how much one business can make because I’m sure you wouldn’t want that to happen to you.
@@bradj7900 you’ve got a great point.. Realtors have a cap on their commission. Sure a lot of other businesses have caps too. Never seen this industry in this shape before. In the past when fuel went up so did the rates..
putting a cap on brokers of 15% would be a good experiment for a couple years. See what happens
@@bradj7900agreed. I’m scared to reach to the government for anything. They’ll probably fuck it up, and charge us for it. That being said, we’re already getting screwed by the government and the least they can do is regulate the side of trucking that isn’t regulated that works against the actual workers.
@@B0RN2RACE100 It would be easier to do away with factoring and quick pay than to try and regulate brokers. It would raise the bar for entry if everyone had to have 45 days of money to run on while they wait for their money to start coming in. You wouldn’t have near as many people buying trucks and getting authority when times are good if the investment was a lot more than it currently needs to be.
Brokers are already required to show carriers what a load pays, but only if the carrier requests such info. If you ask the government to cap the profit of one entity in an industry, you are opening the door to cap the profit of the rest of the industry. As a carrier, I don't want the government dictating how much I can profit on any load.
I don't care what the brokers are making, my bottom line matters, don't haul cheap freight
You hauled a $2k load. The broker sold the load to the shipper for $4500.
@@marqueswilsonn does 2k pay the bills with a profit????
@@snappingfingers8786 you have a slave mindset.
I’d be curious what percentage of people crying about transparency had a truck and authority prior to 2021/2022? I wonder how many went out and overpaid for equipment in 2021 or 2022 to jump into the owner operator game? I wonder how many were even trucking back in 2008 when everything crashed? The people who’ve been through all this a time or two before aren’t whining and wanting the government to help them negotiate better.
Simple. Ain’t it?
15 years on the spot marked so far (1 truck - 1 reefer, OTR) here.....my thought process is quite compatible with yours.
Navigated/negotiated the industry for 13 years through ups and downs quite successfully making decent living and beyond, but these last 2 years...WTF! Sorry, but I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel for "a little guy" any more. It's not just brokers...it's kinda everything. The whole rigged system...playground constantly being tilted more and more against us.
Went through 2 complete overhauls, new transmission, brand new reefer trailer, accidents damage repairs, long down times, maintenance, you name it...never a problem of financial nature. And now for the first time trying to figure out how to afford 18 new quality tires...are you kidding me!?
Time to retire I guess.
Hang in there bro
In the same boat, My Pete is breaking my balls, then my brake hub on my trailer brakes and my brakes fell out, let me say that again my brakes fell out, lucky a passer bye flagged me down and it saved a rim and tire
@@snappingfingers8786 Sorry to hear. What you described, looks to ma as poor preventive maintenance...it is worth (wisely) spending the money on it, trust me. It will save you money on the long run in so many ways and keep you in business. Imagine the trouble you would have been in if two wheels fell off and killed someone? You definitely don't want that in your life. If you can't afford keeping your equipment in some at least close to top condition (the vital stuff), then this business is not right for you.
You can't successfully run a warehouse business with a leaking roof that you can't afford to fix, right?
@@truckingwithnose Thanks. Not sure if it's worth it though.
Sooner or later we'll have to accept same fate as dinosaurs. Times change, technology, everything changes, AI...most of us 'little guys' will be gone regardless of the industry. Been optimist whole my life, yet, in a strange way I'm glad I won't live much longer to watch a handful of rich people owning the world. Free market (without some serious regulations that don't exist at this time) doesn't work...works only for the ultra rich while the rest of us are joining the hunger games in ever growing numbers.
Good luck to the new generations.
@@verko5292 I just had a PM and today out of nowhere the wheel seal started leaking, trust me I have done everything and just went backward
Lately i got interested in financial market but have no idea on how to go about it. How does it work please..
seek professionals support not some very cool and semi-knowledgeable guy on TH-cam. Personally, I gather information on TH-cam but verify with Stacey Macken . If it doesn't align with her report, I avoid getting involved. This way i've been able to save a lot of money while making a lot of money
Getting advice from financial advisors, like Stacey Macken , can be a smart move to reshape your portfolio. She has the expertise to help you make informed decisions.
Her technical analysis is excellent and hid interpretation/projections of the market is so accurate I sometimes ask myself if she is human haha. Point is, Stacey is the perfect trader to follow for advise and daily signals.
I am surprised that this name is being mentioned here, I stumbled upon some of her clients testimonies on CNBC news last week..
Sincerely speaking. I will continue to trade and stick to Stacey Macken daily signals and guides as long as it works well for me.
As a shipper, I have the ability to deal directly with the carriers and it's saved our company tens of thousands of dollars.
If only more shoppers and buyers had this same thought process, trucking would be great again 🤠
Would it be possible to create a volunteer trucker-run brokerage organization, and compete head to head with the brokers? By setting lower, fixed percentages, and basically being a non-profit (fees pay salaries and expenses to run it), could you undercut the brokers while still keeping more profits for the drivers?
It would take a lot of work and energy to do, but just possibly it could fight the tide of ever-lower prices, and you could charge a small subscription fee, with any extra profits going back to the truckers.
If so, I would recommend Amanda as the founding president!
I just watched your latest video about all that happened to you. You are a diamond in the rough, so I know you'll continue to keep your spirits up in spite of everything. Just wanted you to know we care and appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us. 🙏🙏
I like the way you think. I’m definitely subscribing
I know a broker that sits on a yacht in the Gulf of Mexico, fishes every day, while raking in the cash. If his truckers only knew.
Hellooo Miranda, I hope you're wrong! 😄 I have struggled through 2023 driving other people's trucks, including dump-truck. So here in 2024 I have decided to put my truck back on the road after 15 month shut down. I leased back onto my previous carrier (who I still really like). The difference for me is my truck payment is fairly small, and I Haul primarily HazMat. I do appreciate your perspectives and I wish well for your business in this year. Chin-up, summer is coming. Hat-down serious, winter will come again. Take care! John O.
I've talked with brokers about this before, and they literally flatly saved some people are able to haul it cheaper. The reality is that some of these carriers are not negotiating the rate at all. They don't hire anybody to negotiate it for them, they don't negotiate it themselves they just accept what's there. And it has the knock-on effect of driving down rates for everyone else
Interesting subject Miranda!
In any other industry, if another company has a lower bottom line than you do we say you got out competed. I don't understand why this is any different. There are some outlier issues like detention. Legal authorities need to come down hard on brokers who never pay the driver or double broker. Might be a good idea to limit the number of boards a load can be placed on to. Chargev the brokers if they send a truck to a shipper who's already sold that load.
As far as i know, none of that falls under the transparency argument. I think truckers are fighting for the wrong things here.
Every market works best with transparency. This industry needs this in order to have accurate price discovery. The price is what matters per load. Hidden pricing by the broker needs to have light shed on it.
Ms. Info once again I think you!!
When the market was high, no broker was losing money because they were forwarding the cost to end consumer. But, now the market is down they are still making more money by holding more profits from truckers.
I agree with you.
I agree with you young lady
When you haul for landstar, their rate is 30%. You know it, they know it, the shipper knows it, it’s transparent. If you don’t like the rate, get some direct shipper clients. Brokers hide their rates because they take 50%, it’s dirty, it’s crooked.
Landstar has pricing power! They are a billion dollar company, you cannot compare a small carrier pricing power to theirs.
Our beloved leader told us that the system was is rig but do we liste😮n no we want to throw him in jail just for telling us the truth .
Trucking is poker bid to multiple brokers and take the highest cancel the lowest. If I want to know what the shipper is paying the brokers I just ask the shipping manager who's in charge of working with the brokers. Unless the government gives money out again, the rates are the rates.
In a perfect scenerio, if we could get rid of the TIT FOR TAT & help each other out in our down markets,meaning if Rates are good,work with the broker,when rates are bad,they should return the favor. That's how it works with the people I deal with. Then everyone wins & there are no issues. But first you must find fair players in the game,but we know those chances are very slim. So the saga will continue.....
HEY thanks!!!!! LEEEETTSSSSS GOOOOO!!!!!🎉🎉🎉
We don’t demand the butcher tell us what he paid for the steer when we buy the steak.
Let's hear your vent process! You make me laugh!!; ..👍
You're really smart. Had to google this, 😀 Totally agree with your assessment. Broker caps are needed. INSANE brokers making 40,50, even 25% from taking NO.RISK.AT.ALL!
"Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one's thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one's understanding and performance."
Broker transparency is like playing poker except the broker’s cards are face up and yours are face down. It’s a lot easier to bet knowing what’s in the other’s hand. What if you were required to show the broker all your true costs?
They don't care. We are not in this industry to gamble. We are in it to make a profit and not have to work in an office or warehouse with people breathing over our shoulders.
@@coreysmith2196Brokers are in the market to make a profit, too. You want to negotiate with them for rate but make them show everything while you do not.
A broker is equivalent to a sports agent the sports agent is transparent with the athlete when securing a contract and they are capped at %5 of the contract negotiated my thing is if there is no deception what is there to hide? Realistically if everyone is being honest the price the customer pays to move the load shouldn’t be a secret.Brokering is strictly profit driven it wasn’t designed to help truckers.They have regulations on certain fish and types to prevent overfishing then tell me why isn’t there regulations on the profits a broker can take off a load it’s basically the same thing but one is regulated and one not make it make sense brokers are driven by greed and with no regulations in place it’s a steal all you mean they care more about fish rather than 1000’s of truckers losing money to deceptive brokers it’s obvious the fmcsa is bs and they are against us regardless if we know our costs per mile who wants to leave money on the table
Just because you know what the broker makes doesn't change anything. I'm not a broker, but I know theirs more to it than sitting in a chair. They had to solicit and compete for that freight. They have risk and price it high to minimise the risk. Your thot process is correct otherwise. The unfair feeling is just competition and business.
I’m hauling flatbed conestoga. I’m leased on to a carrier, self dispatched, spot market only. Last month I’ve worked for 27 days. I’ve grossed $31228, I’ve net $21243.47 after all my expenses. I’ve drove little bit over 12000 miles according to my odometer. Probably about a thousand miles out of 12k were not associated with hauling loads.
Did I make a killing? Not really, but I’ve made decent money. All RCs and expenses are available upon request.
Do you specialize? Are you regionally focused?
@@blairm9000 I usually don't go west of i35, no NYC and surrounding nj, de, pa, ct, MD, va, ri, and no Boston.
If what the rate pays it what i need, i dont care what the rate to broker is. Id never ask a company what they make, and i better never have anyone ask what i make. Kevin rutherford is 100% right on this.
lots of ❤❤❤ Angel Miranda
The idea of Concerning oneself with how much another business makes is a waste of time! Plus it’s just outright anti business, and in my opinion anti what American stands for. Really everyone asking for transparency just can’t compete out in the free market and is begging the government to fix their poorly ran business.
Please address the idea that broker transparency will lead a race to the bottom. If everybody knows what the shipper is paying for the load then the load will be undercut to lowest possible price by megas and companies that break the law.
The gross won't change, IMHO, but would force a more market driven sharing of each load revenue.
@blairm9000 how did you come to the opinion that gross wouldn't change in a cutthroat business like trucking?
@truckercarlson9081 - the shipper shrugs off the broker share, so the seller won't care if the broker shares .ore with trucking. The buyer will also pay the same either way. So the buyer and seller are agnostic on the broker vs trucker split. To buyer and seller it's all lumped into the same transportation cost.
@blairm9000 the current broker will get outbid when the contracts up and lower the price of the load. The shipper doesn't care who hauls the freight (most of the time) and will sign with the cheapest broker. No need to jump through all those hoops to get to the bottom line. Also, your assumption that the shipper shrugs off the brokers share is way off base because they don't want to pay a huge surcharge to the broker when they know the load can be moved for so much less.
I don't like broker transparency because once we know their profits and then possibly capping their profits, who says they don't do this to us trucking companies. What comes around goes around. Plus, it's just un-American. We don't need government stepping in and fixing rates either. They are incompetent to do the job.
I have to agree that the responsibility falls on the carrier. As carriers, we just have to start asking for more compensation for loads based on our CPM. The brokers will adapt to the higher CPM. The shipper then has to remain strong on their cost to ship. The brokers will feel the pinch. As they feel the pinch between the shipper and the carriers, they will have to take less of a percentage. Just my 2cents.
The same people wanting Broker transparency are the same people buying an iPhone that cost $300 to make and they’re paying $1000 for it. Why don’t they cry about that?
It's hard not to overthink some things. I think sometimes you just can't find all the answers. I think a lot of the loads vary the products vary the weights vary so therefore the price may very. And then you get a bad broker on top of that
Everyone has to be accountable for their own business decisions. Truckers can't expect brokers to pay 3 and 4 dollars per mile if we keep hauling it for 1.50.
What's preventing you from cutting the broker out of the deal altogether and negotiating your rates directly with the shipper?
While I work with shippers directly, it's always by accident. There are several reasons I stick to the spot market- first it gives me a chance to keep the finger on the pulse of what is happening in the market. Second, I have been pretty lucky with the loads, although that requires triple the work, but what can you do. And finally, it's time. In order to properly start looking for shippers, I need to give something up to free up time. The only thing I can give up right now that will not affect my company or family is this channel, but I am not going to do that. And I am BAAAAAAD at delegating...unfortunately.
@@TruckingMadeSuccessfulthe market is horrendous. We've found less than 3-5 trucks and you will have a hard time keeping up with a shipper and the rates we've come across haven't been worth it.
No I asked me but here’s my thoughts. Do we go into a store and ask what’s your mark up, before I buy this… no we don’t. However it should be a cap on the percentage that they can keep.
Broker transparency is needed because we dont have any bar to let people in that open trucking companies. Having said that it would help the noobs figure out a fair price & help us that understand what lanes should pay to be profitable, because the noobs wouldn’t move a load for $1,800 knowing the broker is getting $4,000,thus setting PRECEDENT(Which is what the noobs do,listen to key words when you talk to brokers,you name a price & they say "Yeah i got it done for less than that" "The highest i have paid is")note they are not saying that they dont have the money,its just that they found a couple suckers that didn't know better & they took those loads for cheap,so they arent going to pay you fairly because they will roll the dice that another noob will come along not understanding what the numbers should be. So she said we still have 35% new carriers out here,plus we have alot of desperate and stubborn people out here. The only thing that could shift the price is to KNOW you are being screwed. Thats why broker transparency is needed. People will lock a number in their head that a broker deserves 10%-15% of a load for answering the phone & make better decisions.
I’m not for broker transparency. What if they pass law’s saying you have to show your books? How would you feel about them all in your business? I call on a load ask for what I want. Sometimes I get it sometimes I don’t. Sometimes we agree on something a little under my number that im still making money. If it’s not profitable to me I don’t take it. Most times the number I ask for is way more then I really need to be profitable. So No I don’t want to see their books.
knowing your cost per mile is your starting point. cost per mile( everything you pay for your trucks. lot, buildings, phone, internet, fuel truck maintenance, repairs, cost for office and personal, driver pay, insurance, .etc. Until you figure that out you can't know how much you need to make a profit. now you know what you need for a load and whether or not to accept that rate.
Weekends are for family and fun..
Appreciate ya though.
I don't think the analogy with the supermarket margins works because the customer of the carrier is the shipper, not the broker. We need to know the broker margins since truckers don't know what the shipper price is and thus don't know what their top line should be. The broker is just a middle man that doesn't need to be there.
As usual, I agree with everything that you said. When you look at the risk involved and labor required, brokers earning more than 10 or 15% seems disproportionate to the effort involved.
I also wonder in the end if brokers are really necessary ? Before the Internet came along, 30 years ago if you wanted to book a vacation you would do it typically through a travel agent. This person would coordinate all the aspects of your travel and collect a fee for putting that plan together. Well with the Internet, you don't really need travel agents anymore although they still exist in smaller numbers. With technology being what it is, do we really need brokers? Could carriers not communicate directly with shippers on an Internet platform to complete business?
If it were as easy as you say, every MC would have customers for their freight needs, and the brokers would disappear. But it isn't that easy, and your not taking in to consideration the work done on the broker side, which is also apparent in the first 2 sentences above. You can't mandate a percentage when operating costs are not fixed across brokerages. Just like you can't cap a truck's earnings to $1.80/mile when some outfits would not break even at that mileage. For context see below to better understand the brokerage's responsibilities in a load.
Brokers work the financial transaction, as well as sell themselves to customers, and all the work involved in the operational side of working a load. So let's give the broker 5% for each of the parts of a load they work-> 1)Signing up a customer to receive loads from and coordinate schedules for freight, 2) Provide market analysis and quotes to the customer to ensure market competitiveness, 3) verify and maintain a network of carrier's meeting set standards to ensure safe transit of freight, book a truck with agreed rate and coordinate details from Pick to drop, 4) finance the load payment from the customer to the truck with variances between payment timelines, and finally 5)they maintain a customer and their success against constant competition soliciting your customer. All of those tasks could be delegated out to different companies who could all take a 5% cut- totaling 25% taken for "service fees". The fact that all these separate but equally crucial parts are done by one company does not mean that the services provided are not done to a high degree and deserving of their cut.
@@dustinsimpson3684 thank you for taking the time to explain all of that. I truly appreciate it. That said, I am still not sure why their role is so vital. It is an added layer of bureaucracy that ultimately raises costs to the shippers, which trickles down to higher prices for the consumer.
@@dandavenport4565 let's use that same logic on the carrier side.. I'm not sure why a carrier needs to hire an outside dispatch service when they could just hire someone within. I don't understand why carriers use factoring companies when they could just hire somebody from within. I just have both of those. Things are more efficient in some situations when outsourced as opposed to in-house
Brokering, Co Brokering....... is a part. BUT ALSO ALWAYS SOMEONE HAULS EXTREME LOW RATES..... BE FAIR and share.... all want the $$$$$ And your choice what you accept. YOU Need to keep yours up. Don't live over your income adjust as need. BE SAFE🍀
Ok, lets try the middke ground approach; so if we had 100 percent transparency across thr board - ie shippers, brokers, receivers, etc- and a good relationship with our brokers that we truckers cultivated we could tell our broker "don't give me any freight from acme corp bc their rates are too low" . How exactly is that a bad thing? More information is more power to make better decisions. Im all for 100% transparency.
So brokers and shipper will then push for a law of transparency of real carrier cost? Hence forcing the real race to the bottom.
@@MrNoSolo Isn't that the exact argument you're using against brokers right now? So now it becomes nobody should know carriers real costs because then they wouldn't be able to make additional profit on some loads? Weird how that works.
I agree with you why should a company make as much money as another company when they do not take any rest I was on a load board the other day there’s a load they posted it for $2500 going from Calgary Alberta to Allentown Pennsylvania your fuel cost were about 1730 that left you roughly 770 if you had to hire a driver paid him $.50 a mile you owe him 1162 I do believe which means you would have to take just under $400 out of your own pocket to deliver that load. I’d be pissed off if I knew about it if I was the one that was pay the broker to have it shipped and the broker was making 2500 to
Direct shippers bypass the scumbags
If the market is free, all parties are entitled to make whatever they are able to. It is up to carriers to do business with brokers that don't pay well.
Miranda ❤️
Using the store analogy is a moot point because most if not all states have laws on a minimum and maximum allowance of mark up percentage on groceries and if they fail to fall in that window, they can get fines from the state and sued by customers. That means there's regulations protecting customers from being ripped off. There is No regulation on brokers because we are not paying customers for these loads.
The ONLY party that truly has the power to push for broker transparency is the customer that is paying for the shipment that is getting ripped off by these brokers.
The carriers have no power to it aside from banding together and raising the cost of transportation in unison
It's all the driver fault, has nothing to do with brokers or shippers.
As long as there are dumb drivers willing to haul for pennies, then brokers will not pay more.
The keep taking rates below cost to operate is getting out of control at this point.
Only way to beat the broker is to cross over to the other side and start a brokerage
If running a brokerage was so easy, why isn't every MC# double authorized as a carrier and brokerage? It's because there is a level of difficult work that has to be done in order to achieve success in a brokerage, that most truck side individuals do not understand, and do not have a readily available way of acquiring that knowledge. So not only are brokerages run and their competitive edge against carriers and other brokerages, they are also competitively advantaged in their overall knowledge of freight on both sides (truck and customer sides) and they leverage that to gain a profit.
@@dustinsimpson3684 never said it was easy at all. I’m saying if the carrier are so concerned with competing against Brokers they’ll have to have their own brokerage and see the perceived advantages for themselves
I think with transparency we can negotiate better and realistic rates I don't think is fair that they make most of the money when we takes all the risks and work for penny's
I believe broker transparency is necessary, but not on its own. It should be capped at a 20% profit cap on each load booked by the broker. This will an incentive to the broker to negotiate a rate that is profitable for them cost effective for the customer and the carrier can have profitable rates all at the same time.
Hello! I hope you are doing well. I wanted to tell you that I am a follower of your channel and I really appreciate the content you share; it has been very enriching and has helped us better understand the business. I would like to tell you that my husband and I are starting our own business. However, we are encountering difficulties with the requirements of one of the brokers I had previously worked with as an assistant in another company. This particular broker is excellent and specializes in teams, but requires us to have 60 days of active authority. The problem is that to activate our DOT and MC, our truck must be insured. As you know, to insure the truck we need an initial payment of $5000 and a monthly fee of $2000. In summary, to meet the 60 days that this company requires of us, we would need to have $9000 available. Therefore, I wanted to ask for your advice on what to do in this situation to prevent our business from facing financial difficulties before we even start. Do you know of other companies that work with teams and have more flexible requirements or what do you recommend to do ? I greatly appreciate your help. Thank you!
I am 100% against broker transparency because once an excuse makes it across the line, the free market in all industries will be at risk. Play the business game the way it was meant to be played without changing the most fundamental aspects of business.
Too many carriers have no idea about broker transparency and will never ask. Cheap freight is easy to cover. Brokers don't have to work hard to book freight.
They did all the hard work up front by selling their services on behalf of carriers who don’t have sales in their operations.
Here is what I don't understand, how would you even enforce broker transparency? Self reporting? Government audits? How? I don't know how to resolve this but here is an alternative idea. Cap broker cut to predetermined percentage, you will still have an auditing issue but that is one way to stop the whining over this.
Why all industry brokers has fixed rates? In trading, real estate ect... and we still talking about that
Obviously brokers bought all in fmcsa, otherwise that would be made decades ago
So let's back door the whole system and push for hourly driver pay with OT.. good drivers would be back in the trucks, rates would definitely have to go up in order to sustain the trucking company.. just a thought
Trucking is one of four industry sectors to be grandfathered in from before the fair labor standards act( the other 3 being ranching/ agriculture, the railroads, and mining). If you don't know what FLSA is go look that up and learn something today.
@bensanders7392 I didn't learn anything I had already known. I'm well vested in the Ag side of things as well as refrigerated the industry is definitely ruined on the door swinging side
Owner Ops need to be concerned about broker transparency they control your bottom line
Brokers should be capped with a 5% max realtors have a cap and other brokers do too and truckers also have a cap in the amount of hours you can work a week a day and seems like we are over regulated the risk for the motor carrier is incomparable to the one a broker takes some people say Broker Transparency it’s a race to the bottom but we’re already at the bottom?
Nobody is asking their real estate broker to cover the transaction cost of a home for 60 days between payment and receipt of funds. Meaning the truck wants 30 day pay and customer wants 90 day. Brokers work the financial transaction, as well as sell themselves to customers, and all the work involved in the operational side of working a load. So let's give the broker 5% for each of the parts of a load they work-> 1)Signing up a customer to receive loads from and coordinate schedules for freight, 2) Provide market analysis and quotes to the customer to ensure market competitiveness, 3) verify and maintain a network of carrier's meeting set standards to ensure safe transit of freight, book a truck with agreed rate and coordinate details from Pick to drop, 4) finance the load payment from the customer to the truck with variances between payment timelines, and finally 5)they maintain a customer and their success against constant competition soliciting your customer. All of those tasks could be delegated out to different companies who could all take a 5% cut- totaling 25% taken for "service fees". The fact that all these separate but equally crucial parts are done by one company does not mean that the services provided are not done to a high degree and deserving of their cut.
Also, nobody tells a driver they can only work a set amount of hours in a day, they are only told how many they can operate the truck in transit. That driver can call companies on their non-driving time, they could build relationships with customers near their desired living area, they can email and cold call a few hundred businesses per day to get in a position to bid on contracts and future freight, they could book their own load for the next day, they could build and submit invoices for themselves, they could do preventative maintenance on their equipment, they could process their taxes for their business, they could file business documents to state, local, and federal governments, they could washout and clean their trailer and truck. All of these things above are not confined to Hours of Service, and yet many if not most of the above items are outsourced by a carrier to a different group. Maybe it's a dispatch service, a tax professional, an equipment service center, a business manager, an MC# filing company, a Truck wash and service center, Carriers may not like brokerages and the margin they make on a load, but they rarely seem interested in discussing the margin that is squeezed from them for the items listed above. If there was a SUPER LOVES that did everything listed above for a driver with one single line item for charges labeled "Service Fee" the carrier would be irate at how much was being charged to them since it all goes to one group, they would scream about how much they are being screwed over for someone who doesn't even touch or see the freight, but because standard procedure is to use multiple companies for the tasks above, a carrier may not like how much goes out the door, but they pay that price regardless because it is necessary to sustain their business model around the work they choose to put in. But when it's a broker we think they should get a flat fee and suck it up. If it were that simple, get your own brokerage authority.
Not ask stupid question but what’s the difference between using broker and dispatcher ?
Broker represents the shipper/receiver. Dispatcher represents the carrier
Dispatcher finds loads from brokers then books your truck and takes another cut off the top. They are extremely illegal in the eyes of DOT and have no insurance. Brokers usually talk to shippers and split up a massive number of loads so they don’t have to think about it. Sometimes the customer handles all that and it’s a straight transaction from broker to truck. You can’t have perfect transparency because most of these loads are put together in pieces. It would be better to make it extremely difficult for someone to become a broker so there’s no more scammers and cancellations at last minute.
@@TruckingMadeSuccessful Oh ok I’m trucker but not been one that long my company uses brokers lot. RXO
@@markm0000 Oh ok thank you crazy yes I want be owner operator but every one I talk to says not good time.
@@giorgiotribastone7070 it’s never a good time lol. You’re working hard to just pay everyone else and left with less than a regular driver if you’re lucky. Trucking as a driver is an easy way to save up some money and have alone time to think about what you want to do with your life. Don’t haul around regular freight like reefer or dry van, do tanker or more specialized like a piggyback forklift delivery. There’s a lot of really good blue collar jobs that need a CDL because the service truck is big or you have to drive around heavy equipment. Don’t be on the open road more than you need to be if you value your life and time.
Makes me laugh. When these carriers come out with, I don't care, but when you can't even get a fair rate, you should care
Sounds like its time to get out the driver seat and become a broker
I completely disagree on the risk for each party. The Broker is the one going out and finding the customer. we are the ones doing the work. If somebody doesn’t like it, go try and find a direct customer to haul freight for and see how hard it is. He will then understand how much time energy and money goes into finding customers.
Most of the freight out there is direct loads to the carrier. The spot market is the leftover from that. So brokers are not needed in the industry. The work is actually done when the freight moves A to B not when it’s posted on the load board.
Brokers take substantial margins, if a owner operator isnt concerned about maximize his margins/profit he damn well should care what a broker margins are. Really?
The broker should take as high a rate as they can. The broker can get down to something you can’t. Get the shipper to answer the phone.
Two points. I think if we trucking companies knew what the shipper paid , it opens a line to under cut the broker. Two even though the broker doesn't assume most of the risk, they do get loads. We can get are own loads, but it's a hassle with phone calls and Payment.
Ok, transparency seems like a slippery slope to me. Are you willing to share all of your margin information with others in the same manner you would ask the brokerage? If it's so lopsided, why don't you start a brokerage and skip the risk? Why was transparency not an issue when we were making good money? What stops you from developing direct relationships with companies that need your services and under cutting the broker directly?
we fought to lift regulation in the 80's. now all these people want regulation. This is like saying the grocery store should show how much they get the products for. When i started brokering, (I now own a trucking company) I got negative paychecks from losing money on loads. It really does go both ways. I would say the avg broker makes 10 to 15% in margin. I mean think about it. if the broker is making 50% You're basically saying the shipping is stupid and most shipper are not this dumb. When i brokered, we had over 100 brokers in our office. When someone made a huge rip on the load, 50% or something crazy. It was on pressing freight and was one offs. I would say 95% of the loads had 10 to 15% margins.
Some shippers set the price.its not always the brokers ijs.
How about instead of negotiating on rate we negotiate on percentage?
A percentage of what? The total paid by the customer? What impact does a truck have on a customers agreed upon rate with a carrier. If you are the truck, and I am the broker, I would happily go 30/70 or even more to the truck if the truck made any difference on the customer rate, but they don't. A truck gets it from A->B, but the brokerage is the services added party that drives rates up. If a carrier could provide the services added part of the job better than a brokerage they would and the load would be carrier direct.
@@dustinsimpson3684 A percentage of what customer is paying. At least you know you are not getting ripped off by the brokers, but then again numbers can be forged. And how a truck doesn’t have a diff on rates? If you stop hauling cheap freight eventually brokers will have to ask customers to pay more. In the end it all comes down to how you look at it, you can say I don’t care what broker makes as long as I making profit, that’s true too but having an option of not getting ripped off by broker is not a bad thing too.
The broker has a huge risk. If a carrier fails on a load, they move to another load. If you think it’s easy to contract shippers,,just make a few phone calls?
Interesting, I am in KY. Yesterday near Louisville 11pm plenty of parking. Today near Bowling Green, it’s 11:46pm still available parking. Never before at this time here in my memory
Hears the bottom line....the people who haul the loads need to be properly compensated...there needs to be a minimum haul rate in this bussiness....fuel $4 gal...rate per mile $2 or less...truckers are being used ....its past time for it to stop..rates should match the price of fuel....and im not talkiing about a fuel surchage. Thats a gimmick....ata fmcsa and all the other so called trucking interest groups come up with these great rules and regs to make trucking better ..until the question of pay comes up.....and omg here comes all the its the market..its capacity ..its inflation....................its. GREED!!!!!!!
I am against it simply because it’s a free market.
Broker transparency is a distraction. We need to be able to cap the percentage brokers can take. Load pays $1 you and the broker knows that. But we both know the truck owner has to take the the load for 40 cents just to barely make expenses meet. What good is knowing what the load pays if the broker pays whatever they want. Owner Can’t stop working cause the bills just gets bigger for the owner. The owner starve the broker buys a new Benz. Even though it’s the truck owner that carries the weight of moving the freight. Cap the percentage brokers can make, force them to pass 100 percent of fuel surcharges. the brokers work harder to get better rates rather than make slaves out of truck owners buy taking most of the profits from the owners efforts. Let the market remain free. Balance the playing field.
Let's consider the idea of capping a truck's margin for each load for just a moment. All trucks can only make a certain profit margin, regardless of the quality of their equipment, experience, timely updates, paperwork management, operating costs, on-time percentage, or reputation. See how that makes no sense? The better you are at your job, the higher a demand you have for your services. Brokerages are no different, you just don't see the things they bring to the table, but customers do. Customers are fine with what they pay to brokerages, or else they would use another brokerage or go carrier-direct. The truck's booking freight at the current rates are also fine with their current setup, or else they wouldn't book the load. If your operating costs are too high then that's too bad, we want everyone to receive capped line hauls because that would make the truck competition fair for all carriers.
See how terrible and ignorant that sounds...
@@dustinsimpson3684 you are not responding to my post. You are a broker trying to justify the shit you are doing to hard working people. Am finished with you and your attempt at propaganda.
frustrating there’re slots of carriers that will take cheap loads I don’t know if they make any profit or not but they do I’m frustrated how long can we say that what the hell is going on?
There's is no transparency prime example J B Hunt paid me $1800 charges customer $6200 my driver talked to owner of business we delivered too. Lies after Lies me and my drivers always talk to business we deliver too same old thing.
Compensation for risk is built into the rate. Not worth a race to the bottom. Always a no when handing the gov't more market influence/control is on the table. Transparency won't save anyone
Just make TQL show what they're getting on loads
Broker transparency would mean less money for brokers, but not necessarily more money for truckers. Better for shippers and the economy.
1000% right
How said that American democracy is for everyone?
The industry is already damaged. Need to be fixed again. But the problem is always the same how much is enough. Because everyone wants to get bigger and bigger. Money hungry and getting the best loads. In other words. There is no love to real trucking. It used to be pride and now is profit. Big difference
Back to a Company driver again.
It is not going to improve for years and years, unless brks are tamed. Without any risks, their risk is computer virus or computer hack, whereas oo lose their truck, trailer and even their life.
😢
How would broker transparency change the fact that it’s way too easy to get operating authority and there would still be an over saturation of trucks trying to run the spot market freight?
You could have a load paying the broker $5000 and being offered for $4500 but if there are 100 trucks in an area with 5 loads then the truckers would still knock the rate down to get the load in their truck.
This is the owely industry that they tell you what you get.l like tell a dr. This what l will gave you
Grocery store eggs are all the same product and price. Truck loads are mostly all different with many variables known and unknown that can occur on each load. If the broker is capped at a percentage he has more incentive to negociate a higher rate for the carrier thus more money for the trucker as agreed the liability and work efforts are not relative to the truckers compensation compared to the broker.
Brokers carry the risk that there are no loads to profit from
Dear why won't aquire freight brokerage mc authority with carrier mc number and improve profit for trucks, you excellent brokerage as well dispatcher . Dear go next level logistics ladder
I am not interested in becoming a broker at the moment
I’m a believer in broker transparency simply for the fact of the broker knows every cent that is involved in that load ( what it was bid at, what the shipper is paying, what the broker is being paid, what it’s costing them to list the load, and what the carriers are being paid). There’s no reason why the carriers shouldn’t have that exact same information to use when bidding on a load in the spot market. That’s the point of transparency. Everyone involved in the load should know all of the factors involved in that load.
Carriers can have the same information if they went direct to the shipper.
@@ChampHTX yessir I agree, unfortunately some direct shippers don’t really wanna work with 1 truck operations directly because they either don’t have the constant freight, or they have a lot of freight and want to use larger carriers.
Why does it matter what a broker is making when they quote to customers, just be better at quoting to customers and beat them right? Do you ask brokerages what they book loads for that they don't send to you? The answer is no, because that does not change your operating costs or what you would like to make on the lane. How is it any different for the broker side who quotes based on the same principles you quote at? Costs plus desired margin equals total cost. If it were this easy you'd have your own customers and stop relying on broker freight.
@@dustinsimpson3684 there aren’t enough loads out there for every carrier to have direct shippers, and the lucky ones that do sometimes have to use the load boards for return loads. Every owner operator out there uses brokered loads at some point. All I’m saying is now if a broker is getting paid $2000 on a load and posts it for a $1000 nobody knows what his margin is and some brokers will flat out lie through their teeth about what they have in it and convince some new sucker to take it for that. If they’re getting paid $2000 for the load and they have to disclose that do you think anybody in their right mind is gonna take that load for $1000? Absolutely not.
And you say that brokers all they do is sit by the computer and make calls. Then why not open a brokerage and get customers for your own trucks and keep all the profits just makes logical sense to me.
Brokers shouldn’t make no more than 3% of any load. If the brokers think differently then maybe they should jump in a truck leave home friends and family for weeks or months at a time and make only a few cents on the dollar, then come and tell me why they think they’re worth anything more than 3%.
A Comment made from a person who has 0, idea of the market from beyond the wheel.
Maybe everyone needs to run some miles in ( The Truckers ) shoes ! Then they would want to join ( The Trucker ) strike - sanctions too ! 😊