Big Truck TV
There's no doubt that brokers are an integral piece of this nation's trucking puzzle. Unfortunately, non-payment is not uncommon as evidenced by the move to increase the money bond brokers need to post ten-fold from $10,000 to $100,000. With 16,000 registered freight brokers, it's hard to know which ones that carriers and owner operators should, and more importantly, shouldn't do business with. Robert Voltmann, President and CEO at TIA (Transportation Intermediaries Association), believes with familiarity comes security.
What's the benefit of working with the same brokers all the time?
The benefit to a carrier that deals with a small set of brokers is that they know those brokers, they know what the broker likes - whether it's how often they like to be updated, or something else - and, conversely, the brokers get to know them. They reduce the risk; they reduce the risk that they're hauling a re-brokered load. A re-brokered load increases the likelihood they won't get paid. It's also like having your own sales person in-house, as opposed to just grabbing a load from someone you don't know.
Shippers can't count below a thousand when it comes to the size of the carriers they want to deal with. They don't count very well when you move below that number, and they can't even fathom a carrier with only 20 trucks. But that's where the broker's sweet spot is. They get to know the market, they get to know those owner operators and those small, family-owned trucking companies with 25 or 50 or 100 trucks that could otherwise never sell into a Fortune 100 company. It's only because of their relationship with the broker that they can. They don't need a sales force; they can rely on their broker(s) to be their sales force. That way, wherever their truck ends up, they can find a good load coming back.
What's the best way to go about developing a solid partnership with my brokers?
To develop this relationship, the broker and the carrier really need to talk. Trucking is still a people business. That's why there are huge truck shows and why there are broker / shipper meetings that brokers, shippers and carriers all attend. This is still a very people oriented business and it needs to continue to be that way, and so those relationships need to be built.
As a carrier, what should I look for in a broker?
When a carrier works with a broker, the best situation is working with a broker they've worked with on a regular basis. A broker has two customers in every transaction, the shipper and the carrier. Good brokers look at it that way; they look at the carrier as their customer. They try to keep doing business with a good carrier over and over again, and that's good for the carrier because it reduces the inherent risk working with someone new each time.
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