Ummmm.......


I deal with agents (brokers) on a daily basis. :roll:

I'd weigh the extra hassle and cost vs. the extra revenue.

All that information is available to me. Lease onto a percentage based carrier, and it will be available to you too. :wink:

Yes and no. I am perfectly aware that as long as I deal with Landstar, I am going to have to play by their rules. If I don't like their rules, then I need to leave Landstar. As long as my bottom line is profitable for me, then it works for me and I have no reason to leave.

If, however, an opportunity presented itself that would allow me to greatly increase my bottom line, I'd be a fool not to pursue it. It has nothing to do with the percentage that they are taking. It has everything to do with the bottom line, and the fact that I am in business to make as much money as possible. Please notice I said I would leave them, not complain about the percentage they are charging.

Let me put the entire thing into a scenario that you may understand: If I were leased to, say, CR England, and I began complaining about the rates that they were paying me, what would you tell me to do? I'm sure you'd tell me to leave them immediately and find someone else to pull for (and rightfully so). I seriously doubt you'd tell me to go to my Congressman, and try to get him to put regulations in effect that would force CR England to pay me more. Why would your plight with brokers be any different?

 

That infers that a Landstar BCO dealing with a Landstar agent is the same as an Indepemdent dealing with a broker. It's simply not true. You don't know what you don't know.

 

Please enlighten me as to how it is different.

 

1. You know the gross amount and your % upfront.

2. You don't negotiate and sign contracts based on unique situations with every agent you deal with.

3. You don't have to maintian credit records on every agent, and adjust payment terms as needed.

More to follow...

 

Yes. This is one of the benefits of dealing with a non-brokerage system. If you don't like having to deal with that, then don't use brokers.

I certainly can and do negotiate with agents. If it isn't in writing, it doesn't exitst.

I definately have to maintain records on agents, and where you adjust payment terms, I choose not to deal with them.

I can't wait. :lol:

It still seems to me that your biggest complaint is you want all of the privelages of being leased, without actually having to do it.

 

The additional burden of being an independent is a choice that I made. I have never complained about having my cake and eating it, too. Doesn't mean I shouldn't support and advocate change where change is needed.

 

Once again, kindly point out where I have once complained about the rates I get or the percentage that the brokers keep. But I'll say it again, I don't measure the health and efficiency of the industry based solely on my own experience. And I'd be a fool not to have an interest in those things considering they ultimately have an effect on me.

I understand exactly what you're saying. All I'm saying is look beyond the tip of your own nose. You have information readily available that allows you to make informed decisions. You acknowledge that that information is valuable to you in assessing your operations. I still fail to see what objection you could have to that type of information being readily accessible to all. You want a free market to dictate who makes it and who doesn't based on business acumen? Part of a free market is open information. By the way, that information is not the sole benefit of those leased to a percentage carrier. The government long ago acknowledged the importance of that information in the industry. Anyone that hauls for a broker can find out what the shipper paid. But those regulations are outdated. There's a big difference between information's being available and readily available. It defies all logic to mandate that information be available and then not insure that it's available in a form that actually makes it useful.

It has EVERYTHING to do with the percentage they are taking. Say, by getting your authority, you could easily cut them out and take their percentage on a $3 load. That's what...$1.05? You'd do it in a heartbeat. What if they were only taking 5%? It would hardly be worth $.15/mile for the added hassle.

 

Let me run this scenario by you: Let's say you are in your local grocery store. You want to buy some tomatoes. Your local grocer has tomatoes for $1.39 per pound. Do you really care how much they paid for those tomatoes, or are you more concerned about what they want to charge you for them? Would it affect your decision in purchasing those tomatoes if you knew that the grocer only paid $0.80 per lb, as opposed to having paid $1.00 per lb? According to what is being advocated in this thread, you should know how much those tomatoes are costing, and the government should limit the amount of markup the grocer can put on those tomatoes.

Now, if you could get those tomatoes directly from the grower for $0.80 per lb, then by all means you should do it. BUT, the chances of that happening are unlikely, as the grower doesn't deal directly with single buyers - they deal with middlemen who buy up all their tomatoes at once, and mark them up along the way, each taking their cut. In a free market society, each of those people marking up the tomatoes is doing so because the consumer has decided that they are willing to pay the marked up price for the tomatoes. If the final consumer of the tomatoes doesn't like the price that is being charged, then they can show their dissatisfaction by not buying them anymore. The middlemen will be forced to rethink the way they mark up the tomatoes, or will go out of business. If your fellow consumers continue to buy tomatoes at that marked up price, then obviously the free market has dictated that the price is not too high. In that case, your issue would be with your fellow consumers who are still paying the marked up price for tomatoes, not with the middleman who is marking up the price.

 

Say no to cheap tomatos.

 

ROFLMAO :lol: :lol: :lol: