agreed it was poorly planned and poorly executed. I'm interested to hear your idea of how to better our industry. unless you're content with the fact that brokers make more money for the amount of work they put in compared to drivers.
listening to drivers complain......
- Thread starter Everything Apax
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what do you suggest, Turtle? you have no answer, you only know how to tear down not build up. that's my point is that we as drivers only have each other to help us, no union of significance and the brokers dint care about us only the cheapest way to get freight from A to B. Let me guess, Turtle, yourea millionaire that has zero complaints!Thank you for your support and very well thought out opinion.
well, Paul, I'm willing to bet you're looking at what the third party broker made instead of what the company that gave them that load made. Again, I am posting in hopes of enlightening drivers to what is being done to us. My point is being completly missed because most of you are wanting to attack my opinion rather than digesting my opinion then replying.
wow, you're comparing cupcake manufacturing to the industry that puts our goods(including those cupcskes) on the shelves. An industry that if it were to go on strike would cripple many companies. we transport goods, machinery, supplies,etc. and you compare it to cupcakes!? You dont even realize how valuable you are.
zorry
Veteran Expediter
How valuable are you ? Go on strike. You'd be lucky if your carrier notices.
On a serious note, I understand your frustration.
You want to charge as much as you can to be as profitable as you can,
You don't want a broker to have the same option ?
That's the American way, to run your business at as high of a profit level as the market will bear.
If you want higher profits, provide a better service.
Specialized service, Better service. You won't rise to the top being one of the 75 vans sitting on the Detroit board.
You may do pretty good if you're the one refrigerated van sitting on the Detroit board.
On a serious note, I understand your frustration.
You want to charge as much as you can to be as profitable as you can,
You don't want a broker to have the same option ?
That's the American way, to run your business at as high of a profit level as the market will bear.
If you want higher profits, provide a better service.
Specialized service, Better service. You won't rise to the top being one of the 75 vans sitting on the Detroit board.
You may do pretty good if you're the one refrigerated van sitting on the Detroit board.
pandora2112
Seasoned Expediter
So what more regulations capping what brokers can or can't make? I work for small company we aren't only surviving we are thriving...if it wasn't profitable then our company owner wouldn't be in this business nor expanding his operation. It's not always sunshine and roses but by giving our customers quality service we are not getting bottom barrel rates. Sometimes it's about quality sometimes it's about quantity...if people are taking cheap freight and making money well that's capitalism. If they are providing subpar service or going broke eventually they are weeded out.
)O( ~ Namaste ~ )O(
)O( ~ Namaste ~ )O(
Wrong again, apex. I've seen lots of cheap offers and the way I deal with it is simple: I turn it down!
I also have never wasted my time hanging around drivers, or anyone for that matter, that has time to sit around and complain to one another. I learned early in my expediting career to sit as far away from the "Professional Drivers" grouped together in the truckstop eateries as I could. The negativity that bubbles out of those little pity parties is worse than the food.
I was merely pointing out to you the fact if you made yourself (and possibly your truck) a more valuable commodity, it's possible you could distance yourself from the herd.
Turtle was correct - trying to organize independent thinking business people (which you have to be to be successful out here) is kind of like herding cats. It don't work. If you need to be protected you need to be working for someone else. Simple as that.
paullud
Veteran Expediter
I understand your point, you don't think we are being paid or treated fairly. I think the issue is truck drivers and not brokers so education is more important than a strike. A strike which will never take place in any numbers that matter would bring negative attention because we allowed our industry to be dragged through the mud.
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zorry
Veteran Expediter
Apax, you said you expected negativity.
You're not getting negativity. You're getting the truth.
Don't take it personally.
In a few weeks someone will post basically the same thoughts.
He'll get the same answer. As will the driver a few weeks after him. And on and on and on.
And Wolverine is right, avoid the pity parties. It'll just pull you down.
You're not getting negativity. You're getting the truth.
Don't take it personally.
In a few weeks someone will post basically the same thoughts.
He'll get the same answer. As will the driver a few weeks after him. And on and on and on.
And Wolverine is right, avoid the pity parties. It'll just pull you down.
It's generally a dead giveaway that I'm posting from my phone instead of the laptop.
It's generally a dead giveaway that I'm posting from my phone instead of the laptop.
You can post from a PHONE?!? I guess I've been avoiding "Professional Drivers" for too long. Lots of stuff to learn, huh.
The problem is you are trying to enlighten some very experienced and savvy drivers, many of whom are also currently or have been brokers themselves. We're not nearly as ignorant as you think we are. You got your surmised negativity and opposition in this thread because we've heard it before. You think you're the first person to think of such a thing? You're not. Expediting just chock-full of ex-UAW autoworkers and other unioners who have that mentality coming into the business.
Plus, you're using the term "broker" to apply to brokers, 3PLs, carriers with a broker bond, and drivers who broker their own loads. Some of the things you are saying about brokers simply don't apply to the vast majority of those with broker bonds who broker loads. Most brokers take in far less money than drivers do even after expenses. If you want to get paid all of the broker money, then get a broker bond and have at it. Brokers also take risks that most drivers do not take, such as having to pay the carrier and thus the driver if the shipper fails to pay. Brokers do far more than "just picking up the phone and/or tapping a few keys on their keyboard to post the loads."
All the drivers out here are small business owners, not company drivers. Anyone who goes on strike are going on strike against themselves, no one else. Supply and demand in the expediting industry is such that if 80% of the expediters went out on strike, traditional trucking would take up most of the slack initially, and within two or three weeks the expediting fleet will have been replaced and the rates would be right back to where the capacity allows it to be.
So, what's my suggestion? Start thinking like a business owner and not like an employee. Quit worrying about what someone else is making and concentrate on your business and how to make it profitable, because you're the only one who can make it profitable, since no one else, especially carriers, brokers, shippers or the rest of us business owners cares one wit whether you are profitable or not.
There are several people here who post almost exclusively via their phones (smartphones, not flip phones). You can surf the Web, do e-mail, watch videos, read forums, everything. There's even an EO app just for, you know, EO.
zorry
Veteran Expediter
I post from my I-phone but do not know how to be polite.
I mean be polite by editiing a quote as suggested earlier.
Any tips ? PM me if you don't want to take this too off-topic. Thanks
Opps, just realized it was in the Sleep Apnea thread we were told to be polite and edit, shorten, our quotes.
I mean be polite by editiing a quote as suggested earlier.
Any tips ? PM me if you don't want to take this too off-topic. Thanks
Opps, just realized it was in the Sleep Apnea thread we were told to be polite and edit, shorten, our quotes.
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I'm not taking this personally. My frustration is the lack of comprehension by some of you. Do you realize it's illegal for companies to make money from load when they broker it out? Yet it gets done. My point is that drivers make a sacrifice by living on the road. It takes a certain mindset to do this job. We are disposable to brokers and agents. We are more valuable than them yet not teated as such. I am proud of what I do and am posting this stuff not fir myself but for all of us. You tell me I'm getting truth as though there is no sense in trying to better our industry. I am going to contunue to try with or without your help.
Again the position I am taking is being lost. You are keying in on a misconception that I'm not making money so I'm complaining. Yes, I may be putting the wrong title to who I'm speaking of with broker. Maybe I should say agent. Regardless, I have no interest in becoming one because I enjoy my job and am proud of what I do. I shiuld also point out that I am not talking only expediters, I'm meaning the transportation industry. You refer to yourself as "experienced and savy" yet you get the same bad treatment as every other driver in this industry, which also makes goes to show that my perceved ignorance has validity. Regardless of whether or not anything changes in this industry I will continue to be profitable. I see the potential for us as drivers, why can't you!?
If I were to let it affect my business it wouldnt make sense. I'm laying here while waiting for a load posting. I've never been one to post before but I have alot of discussions with my father, who has been driving truck over 40 years, and thought"wgat can it hurt to post my opinion?" So here I am trying to make a difference no matter how significant or insignificant. And not for me but for all of us.
paullud
Veteran Expediter
What makes you more valuable than a broker? There is a reason drivers are disposable to brokers and agents, its because they don't need you. If you don't take the load 100 other guys will, which makes you very disposable. I bought into all the crap that companies put out there about how drivers are a precious commodity but it is just marketing. You may show up and deliver on time, be cleanly dressed, secure freight, and drive safely which causes you to put a premium on your skills. Well I'm sorry to inform you but the guy that shows up 30 minutes late, dresses like a slob, doesn't secure the freight well, and drives recklessly still gets the freight there at a lower rate. That means the premium you place on yourself is just pride which a lot of the time does not transfer into dollars. It certainly does take a different mindset to be a driver but it also takes a different mindset and set of skills to be a broker.
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