One thing Ive noticed, is since I am new and unestablished, some of the brokers are telling me that great load I was calling about was just snatched......hmmmm magic?
What a guy had recommended on another board was this place called safe trucker, apparently he is an ex-landstar broker, n for 500 a month he says he can get me loads and keep me running (he seems to know a lot about the trucking buiz)
You guys ever heard anything like this, like hiring my own dispatching service eh? For a new carrier struggling to get work think this might possibly be worth it?

I never thought about it before, but do brokers use the old "bait and switch" to get more business?

Most shippers work with multiple brokers. You can see it on the load boards when there's like 5 or more loads going from the same place to the same destination. The first broker to get a driver gets the load. But, then you have the next broker 5 minutes later with a driver that will do it for less and all of a sudden you get a call back and they say the load was canceled or the customer is not ready to accept the load.

Wouldn't it better to do this on a percentage basis?
What if freight slows down and he can't get you loads for a couple weeks are you still gonna have to pay the $500?

I would do this for a percentage fee only.

$4,000 a week at 3% would be $120,or maybe a flat per load fee $50-$75?

The fact that you knew it was a great load means that lots of other guys did too. Odds are you just weren't quick enough on the dial, will happen all the time. I don't see much advantage to a broker pulling a bait-and-switch. The rate's either good enough to take or it's not.

I didn't mean to imply they were doing it ( bait and switch ) because I know NOTHING about how it all works. It was when he said that the broker said that the load was just taken he has a chance to "sell" you on another, lesser load. Just a thought.

I doubt that the broker was using "bait and switch." Most brokers are not going to waste the time on a load that doesn't exist. Most brokers are only going to list loads that they have at the moment. That doesn't mean that others don't have the same load. Even some of the smaller brokers have more than one person in the office. I am not saying that it doesn't happen, but I see no benefit to a broker doing it.

...and sometimes you don;t get a call at all. :shock: :twisted: :sad:

I got a load this morning back out to Wyoming. My phone has been ringing non stop today. Some of the brokers hang up on me when I tell them I already have a load. Good thing for caller ID. I give them crap when I call them back!!!