Brokers, carriers and shippers have discovered that they can drive down the cpm for the driver by simply saying, "would you do it for .70 cpm? Or would you do it for .60 cpm? The brokers are largely maintaining their rate while increasing the amount they keep from the driver. Lets say a brokers bids the load at 1.00 per mile. They used to then give the driver .80 per mile. Now they are saying to the driver, "Hey, can you do it for .70 or less? So instead of keeping .20 per mile, they are keeping .30, or more. As drivers, we tend to trust our carriers or brokers and count on them. All of them are not doing this, but a high enough proportion of them are to have a large negative impact. Many brokers and carriers know that rates that are too low will drive the driver out of business and so avoid the "short changing" the driver. If you put drivers out of business, who is going to keep brokers and carriers in business? Many, however, just don't think about that. Its about getting that extra for the moment. Idiots. Driving a van for less than .75 cpm as an owner operator, at current fuel prices, will not keep you in business in the long term, even if your van is paid for. Vans don't have eternal life. Savings have to be built. Insurance, maintenance, etc. Lets say a broker has a load and they have 2 vans in the area, they will call one driver and ask how much they will do it for. If that driver says .80 cpm and has been sitting for 3 days, they will call the other driver that has been there for 1 day and ask them if they would do it for .70 cpm. Guess who gets the load? This did not use to happen at the scale it is happening now. If drivers simply stopped running at these rates it would stop. You will not be running for long anyway. Wake up.
