Musicman |
05-09-2013 03:40 AM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by firebird_1252
(Post 525426)
personally i think with an internet air card, laptop and a smart phone, i say do it yourself. when they say they're getting you the "Best rate" how do you know? just the way i look at it anyway.
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I agree, firebird, but luckily I haven't been in that situation yet. I trained my wife to dispatch two years ago and she has probably gotten better at negotiating rates than I am. I'm better at planning when and where to run and predicting what rates we should be able get in a particular area, but I believe day in and day out she is able to talk a broker into coming up on a rate far more often and for a greater amount than I am. That being said, I know I could (and occasionally do) find loads from the cab of my truck; but what I can't do (safely) is watch the load boards all day while driving down the road. I COULD do it, but we set our standards so high that we often have to call on as many as fifty loads to get the rate we require. I just can't see driving down I-81 in VA and trying to call on load after load. Or worse yet, be somewhere out west where the cell signal is suspect at best and be in a situation where I REALLY needed to book a load to keep me moving over the weekend.
There may be a valid argument for a dispatching service in some situations, but like GMAN said, I'd have to have a huge amount of trust in the dispatcher. Not just trust that the dispatcher is getting me an overall better deal than I could on my own, but also that the dispatcher is representing me to brokers in a manner that I approve of. Over the years, in all areas of trucking, I've found that more people than not are incompetent in their jobs. Right now, the 100+ brokers we work with, without exception, all find every aspect of our operations to be professional and of uncompromised integrity. All it would take to ruin that hard earned reputation is have some idiot calling brokers on my behalf who can't communicate in a professional manner, or who makes promises I can't deliver on. I hope I never have to rely on someone other than my wife to dispatch me. Hopefully if that day ever does come, I'll be in a position where I no longer need to turn the miles I currently do, and I will be still be able to handle everything myself.
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