A message to brokers and carriers.

bfields115 · Apr 26, 2016

TSexpediter said:
Supply relative to the demand . As Turtle said. It is so simple, I don't know why you involve here
dispatchers ,brokers or carriers. Why not the drivers who are running cheep?You say brokers or carriers does not care about you . Are you caring about you?Yes ,you right, rates are cheep, but you can always sell your van and change career . Or go and become a dispatcher ( who ''
go home everyday, shower, eat typically better'').One more time, not the brokers or the carriers ruining this business down. . Why not the hundreds of unqualified drivers who thought that buying a van they will own a business ??Why not those small carriers who are running without proper insurance? It is no way to pay right insurance and running that low. Here is the problem. Brokers a lot of time look away just to get a cheeper rate....[/QUOTE

bfields115 · Apr 26, 2016

You are right. I didn't want to rant too long with that angle as well in the same paragraph at the beginning of the thread. Drivers have the last call with taking it or not. This business is to easy to get into unfortunately.

Opel2010 · Apr 26, 2016

TSexpediter said:
Why not those small carriers who are running without proper insurance? It is no way to pay right insurance and running that low. Here is the problem. Brokers a lot of time look away just to get a cheeper rate....

One more thing: If every carrier would require a CDL, lots of expediters will either get it, or leave the industry...

Opel2010 · Apr 26, 2016

bfields115 said:
Drivers have the last call with taking it or not. This business is to easy to get into unfortunately.

Some are giving up within a week... I had a driver, even if grossed $900 in three days, he wasn't happy and moved back to his old job, whatever that was...

jelliott · Apr 27, 2016

Brokers do what they have always done. They sell the customer on "best price" based on searching the market for capacity vs having assets. Carriers need to sell customers on having the real assets and capacity. In a soft market the broker approach works. In a hard market the carrier approach works better. A lot depends on the customer. Being as we do both sides of the equation I don't see brokers as some great evil. The margins move but generally no more than a 2 percent gross difference. Brokers have evolved on the expedite industry in part with the explosion of small carriers. These small carriers generally have little or no sales staff. So where do they look too for business....brokers or broker/carriers that bear the expense of a sales staff or bid boards. The explosion of carriers and the birth of the multi carrier created far more supply/demand pressures in the market. We love to blame others for what in large part was industry created. Supply and demand is still the greatest market force.

davekc · Apr 27, 2016

jelliott said:
Brokers do what they have always done. They sell the customer on "best price" based on searching the market for capacity vs having assets. Carriers need to sell customers on having the real assets and capacity. In a soft market the broker approach works. In a hard market the carrier approach works better. A lot depends on the customer. Being as we do both sides of the equation I don't see brokers as some great evil. The margins move but generally no more than a 2 percent gross difference. Brokers have evolved on the expedite industry in part with the explosion of small carriers. These small carriers generally have little or no sales staff. So where do they look too for business....brokers or broker/carriers that bear the expense of a sales staff or bid boards. The explosion of carriers and the birth of the multi carrier created far more supply/demand pressures in the market. We love to blame others for what in large part was industry created. Supply and demand is still the greatest market force.

Been preaching this for years. "sins of the past" are here. Most of the industry pain has been self inflicted. Too much greed and game playing has a way of doing that. Along of course with a steady diet of mostly foolish government regulations.

MikeDamone · Apr 27, 2016

Ok I have a question about the small carriers running without the proper insurance and the yellow truck guys driving without the proper insurance. Does DOT not keep an eye on this kind of thing? Does the same thing happen in the regular trucking industry?

brokcanadian · Apr 27, 2016

I don't know about the US but if I stay under 10000 in Canada I could hang a sign and put a hundred vans on the road tomorrow...

jelliott · Apr 27, 2016

MikeDamone said:
Ok I have a question about the small carriers running without the proper insurance and the yellow truck guys driving without the proper insurance. Does DOT not keep an eye on this kind of thing? Does the same thing happen in the regular trucking industry?

For the most part....NO. They are a scourge on our industry.

MikeDamone · Apr 27, 2016

So I guess it will take someone getting killed in an accident or someone destroying half a million dollars worth of merchandise without the ability to cover it before something is done? I know the main consensus in this industry is kind of "regulation is the enemy" but it seems that this may be an area that could benefit from some regulation, no?

Opel2010 · Apr 27, 2016

MikeDamone said:
Ok I have a question about the small carriers running without the proper insurance and the yellow truck guys driving without the proper insurance. Does DOT not keep an eye on this kind of thing? Does the same thing happen in the regular trucking industry?

If they're not busy, they pull over once in a while these yellow cube vans... but certainly not as many as they're supposed to...

Slo-Ride · Apr 28, 2016

MikeDamone said:
So I guess it will take someone getting killed in an accident or someone destroying half a million dollars worth of merchandise without the ability to cover it before something is done? I know the main consensus in this industry is kind of "regulation is the enemy" but it seems that this may be an area that could benefit from some regulation, no?

Mike we have lost 2 drivers this past year alone that I know of. One was a legit van and the other was a full blown yellow cube. Drivers are getting killed everyday out here. All the regs in the world won't stop it. And you maybe right that it may take the loss of some high value freight or some extremely important/ critical freight to bring what your talking about into the limelight. The loss of a driver isn't high on the list of those that either load the freight or sell the freight or hire the driver. If some of these carriers won't police themselves it won't change without a act of Congress. Hell the DOT is barely enforcing traffic laws now let along worrying about what a cube van is hauling or his/her hours.

MikeDamone · Apr 28, 2016

Slo-Ride said:
Mike we have lost 2 drivers this past year alone that I know of. One was a legit van and the other was a full blown yellow cube. Drivers are getting killed everyday out here. All the regs in the world won't stop it. And you maybe right that it may take the loss of some high value freight or some extremely important/ critical freight to bring what your talking about into the limelight. The loss of a driver isn't high on the list of those that either load the freight or sell the freight or hire the driver. If some of these carriers won't police themselves it won't change without a act of Congress. Hell the DOT is barely enforcing traffic laws now let along worrying about what a cube van is hauling or his/her hours.

So the loss of property is more importiant than the loss of a human life to some people. That's just sad.

When you say "we" do you mean the expedite industry as a whole?