There is no question that CH Robinson has some loads that are cheap. I usually manage to get decent rates when I haul one of their loads. If I don't then I do not take the load. If you want good rates from them or any other broker, you need to learn how to negotiate. There are some of their offices that rarely call me because they know their rates are too cheap. There are a couple who only call me with good paying loads. I spoke with one of them the other day and he was checking his load board and came across a load that was cheap. Before he told me the rate he said that he knew that I would not take it and he was embarrassed to quote the rate to me. It wasn't one of his loads, but another office had it. I have hauled loads for him before and he usually comes up with a good rate for me. He knows that unless it is a good rate, I won't take it so he won't waste his time or mine.

I don't begrudge any company or broker from making money. Unless they make a decent profit they cannot look for the good loads. They may make less on me than some others, but I still don't mind them making a commission off of me. I doubt that they will make 18% off of most of what I haul for them, but if they do and I get my rate then good for them. There are some brokers who regularly take 1/3 of the rate. I know a couple of them and don't do business with them. Their rates are always too cheap. I don't worry too much about what most brokers make as long as the rate is fair. If it is too cheap, then the broker is likely taking too big of a cut. Either that, or he cannot sell.

I understand what you are saying about posting rates on a load board, merrick. On the other hand, a carrier is going to take the better paying load before he will take the cheap load. If you are the first to move the shippers load then he will want to use you before the other broker. The guy who moves the load first gets the commission.

 

No, they really don't. They address but one aspect of the issue and if you can't grasp that, well... :roll:

Some of us could care less how much a broker makes on a load. However, those with an overly simplistic view of the industry fail to realize the ramifications when the two primary parties to a transaction are poorly informed. Education, or knowledge of the market, is fundamental to achieving economic efficiency. The more inefficient the market, the more economic waste is created. The middleman thrives in this environment and does whatever he can to perpetuate it.

Rev, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you give Steve a hard time when he took his $3.40 load for $1.80? That would seem to imply that he should have had more knowledge of what the shipper was willing to pay instead of simply taking a rate acceptable to him.

Personally, I think any carrier has a vested interest in trying to learn as much as possible about both the bid and ask rates.

As for disclosing operating costs, I am willing and have. Every carrier should be prepared to justify a rate if requested. Justification may be as simple as, "I'm the only truck in the area" but in a competitive situation you'd better be able to come up with something more compelling than that.

That's not true, federal regulations include just such a provision. You want to know how much a broker got paid, you can get that information.

Nobody seems to be able to get past the whole rate issue. I agree with GMAN, Rev, and the rest who say that how much the broker makes shouldn't matter. However, we all have a vested interest in seeing an efficient market. That is the role that brokers in all industries were meant to fill. That role has been almost completely abandoned in the freight industry.

 

When I had my own authority I pulled loads for CHR from time to time, but eventually I just stopped wasting my time with them. The only bad debt I had in the two years I was independent was CHR! There were a few good brokers that paid well and I tried to stick with them as much as I could while trying to develop my own shipper customers.

Good negotiation skills help, but more important is knowledge of the market. I used to get ocassional loads to Tulsa. If I was in Tulsa on a Friday, I eventually learned that I could demand $2.50 per mile or more because there were more loads than independent truckers available EVERY FRIDAY. It was great. The last time I was in Tulsa on a Friday I posted my truck on Get Loaded, then when each Broker called me I told them whoever offered me the most by 12:00 would get me to haul their load. I got $2.80 per mile on a load with a delivery in Birmingham and a delivery in Macon, GA. I really enjoyed that one. This was in the summer of 2006 when my average rate was about $1.50 per mile.

 

It must not be too bad or the MARKETPLACE would offer a solution that everyone would jump on in a heartbeat.

 

Really it amazes me how some people defend this system and I don't mean that in a negative way, but it truly does just make one wonder.

I kept out of the strike debate as this is an internet message board and people take this too serious sometimes but I picture some of the people that defend the current state of affairs (and I don't mean this towards anyone in particular) that if they were Native Americans back in the day being pushed of their land that they would be telling those that were complaining about losing their land that if they can't hunt more efficiently on the smaller land then they should die of starvation. (Long sentence I know )

The same oil companies making billions of dollars in profit (and I don't really care how much they or anyone else makes ) still have tax subsidies or breaks or whatever it was they were complaining about losing the other day. Farmers making a lot also have them.

Yes people should manage their money and affairs better and maybe they wouldn't have to worry about striking or complaining about brokers but don't deny that the deck is stacked against us. If most of us really knew what was truly going on at the higher levels of society... well let's just say we don't and that includes me.

In the end Doghouse I say go for it. Whether things change or not I still feel I'll make it but I wouldn't complain if someone makes it easier for me.

 

By all means, do proceed to educate me on how the free market works and the role of a broker in said market.

 

If their business activities impend the flow of commerce and work against the public interest they need to be "well regulated middlemen." Congress decided eighty years ago that trucking intermedairies fall into that catergory.

Here's a link to a legal article that explains it pretty well. In my opinion, trucking is in the same state that it was just prior to 1925, as covered in the "history" chapter:

http://law.du.edu/lawReviews/transpo...no3_edrich.pdf.

 

Let me state for the record as well that my posts and replies are not directed at ANYONE. Just my take on the way things work in the business world. I've been in small business from '87 and know full well how bad it hurts to lose a job that you really need to someone that got it and lost money on it.

 

Ridge Runner,

My background is in economics and I worked in commercial banking for over 20 years. I know of no reputable economist alive today that supports laissez-faire economics in the most extreme form you seem to be espousing. Market anarchists do take laissez-faire to its logical extreme but no one takes them seriously. Even Laffer and Friedman, the most notable pure capitalists of our era, acknowldge the indespensible role of regulation to a successful free market.

Perhaps this analogy will help you. If you want to buy diesel for your truck, you compare prices and convenience and can make an informed choice as to where to buy fuel. But what if government did not regulate the exact amount of a gallon? If a gallon at Pilot was different than a gallon at TA, how could you be an informed purchaser? And what if diesel was not regulated as to a precise chemical formula? What if Love's diesel had only half the energy content of Pilot diesel, BUT YOU DID NOT KNOW IT? In the complex and technically advanced society we live in today, the role of government as arbiter is not "interference" it is mandatory to the creation of a functioning exchange of goods and services that benefits buyers, sellers and the community.

 

Guys look at thing this way right now broker that has been in business for years could decide that I am going to retire and take all the drivers money I can right now. So he stops paying drivers and keeps their payments and ends up with say 500K-750K would not take long if he did alot of loads correct. Closes his doors and all anyone can collect on is that ridiculos 10K in bond money that was put up. It has happened in the past and will happen in the future. The DOT needs to regulate these people better and they are not CHR is one of the worst hell they were bad in the 90's giving 75 cents to the truck out of CA on dry van stuff yet I know that it was paying them 1.40 a mile if not more.