Brokers, how do you justify this?

To be fair, i feel the same way when brokers or customers call my drivers. Usually, they never pick up because i tell them not to, but some brokers get persistent and then cry when my driver blocks their number.

Questions are what my dispatcher is for, not my driver. The driver's job is to do what dispatch directs him to do, not the broker and not the customer.

[-]

Existing_Inside5200@reddit

Last week I was finishing up my run and heading home. But apparently my boss "forgot" that I go home after each run and he booked a VIP load. I absolutely couldn't , I had appts on my home time. He had to immediately cancel it and he had the broker call me directly and bitch me out. She was incredibly pushy and rude and I'm like lady I'm not the one who booked then cancelled the load!! Not my damn job or problem. I'm just the damn driver...

[-]

Elderado12443@reddit

Wild assessment

[-]

TurtleKing2024@reddit

Backdoor conversation??? Ive never heard it called that, ill call the customer directly when they have a large facility or are in a large complex, especially to double check the address is correct so that I can make the delivery, I've havld a couple different recievers who have 1 posted adress and a different freight adress across town before

[-]

periphery72271@reddit

I always have a POC in shipping/receiving that exists for the driver to call. And I fully expect drivers to have conversations with shippers and receivers.

That is not the primary contact I talk to at the mothership when it comes to contracting work. The person I make the deal with should never be talking directly to the person I hire. That's my job. It protects the customer from driver frustration and vice versa.

No you don't get to cuss out my customer or endanger my deal, and no my customer doesn't get to harass my carrier about where they are or what they're doing. That's how Karen wakes up a driver at 3AM because they're obsessed about the freight arriving, or my customer rep calls me after hours pissed because a driver is bitching about tarping during their dinner hour.

It's part of my job to take all shit from both sides and keep information limited to what each side needs to do for their jobs. Keep the boundaries solid, and these issues don't happen.

[-]

DamnedHeathen_@reddit

If you think for one moment that we don't have conversations with the same people, you're deluding yourself. If you do your job well, I don't mind working with you. If you are garbage, I don't mind letting your customer know that you are performing a disservice. A lot of the smaller facilities don't know that Brokers aren't always trash. Brokers are a byword to drivers and shipping and receiving because everything is always wrong.

Aside from that, It's your job to vet carriers, get those carriers information so that they can perform their side of the job, and keep things running smoothly. Taking shit is only your job if you are shit. That should never be part of your job. You're doing it wrong. A broker is a glorified temp service, not a customer service rep.

Incidentally, Karen doesn't call me at 3:00 a.m. That's what tracking is for. Do you even know what a broker does or how anything in this industry works?

[-]

AutumnBrooks2021@reddit

I have to disagree with you on talking to the customer directly. Bad addresses or something simple like that can be solved very easily by talking to the customer directly. I call every customer once I’m loaded and then I tell them I’ll call when I’m 1-2 hours out. Any other problems that arise, I let my dispatcher or the broker deal with it with the customer. If a customer gets rude with me, I let my company deal with it. As far as the extra 12 miles, not that big of a deal, I would drive it and make the delivery. Now if you’re talking an extra hour, someone is going to pay to cover that extra time and fuel.

[-]

Deodorized@reddit

According to your post history, you're a broker.

Why does a driver talking to a customer upset you so much?

Does it remind you how incredibly replaceable you are, and how little of a role you actually play in the industry?

[-]

Allie_Lane@reddit

Yep, 100%. Brokers and other middlemen jobs like car dealers are leaches on the back of a productive society. They scrape capital from the people generating it and give nothing meaningful in return. They spend no money, create nothing, take no risks (like buying and maintaining a truck), and yet take a large portion of the profit.

Their only value is connecting customers to truckers, but that could very easily be done through a marketplace (several already exist), or just as needed. "Oh, you need a flatbed company? Let me contact a couple with your offer and see if I can't facilitate a contract for an upfront, fixed fee." Boom, useful.

[-]

Sir-Nicholas@reddit

I assumed he meant the back door conversation between the broker and customer trying to extort another $200

[-]

Shasty-McNasty@reddit

If that’s the case, don’t take freight from a broker again 🤷‍♂️

[-]

Deodorized@reddit

I already don't 👍

[-]

periphery72271@reddit

No, it reminds me that people will go behind my back and undermine the contract and agreement we made to do business.

As to last part? I been in this seat for years. If I wasn't necessary the customers and carriers wouldn't call or do business with me.

Yet they do. And the millions of freight I touch a year make me feel like me and people like me are doing our part in the logistics arena.

So no, that isn't the reason I have an issue with it. And if you don't like us, A) you should be somewhere else clucking with your fellow hens; and B) Don't do business with us. Go find your own customers and go direct.

[-]

Deodorized@reddit

Hahahahahaha

[-]

lake_june@reddit (OP)

He said the customer called him directly.

[-]

Jeep2king@reddit

200$?? Fuck. Ok id be upset about the wrong address. Because thats easily potential for a bad situation.

But id never work with the broker again and tell the customer youd prefer to handle those loads directly. Congrats. You cut the middle. And made a bussiness network node for future loads and now 100% goes to you.

[-]

PanicRock548417@reddit

Best strategy for Speed running a back solicitation freight guard lmao

[-]

Jeep2king@reddit

I dont mean to be an ass. But can you elaborate? I never heard of that so i am just asking for a bit more genuine understanding and education?

[-]

Elderado12443@reddit

Brokers - child molesters - thieves are all in the same category.

[-]

elgringocolombiano@reddit

Didn't you vote for one?

[-]

Elderado12443@reddit

Obama and Biden. Yes I did 🖕🏼

[-]

elgringocolombiano@reddit

Likening freight brokers to child molesters isn't a good look for you, ❄️

[-]

Elderado12443@reddit

I’m no snowflake my email is imeltsnowflakes.

[-]

glambo300@reddit

Im a broker and that's just shitty. I typically will just eat the cost and give it to the truck driver unless they want more than $100.

Hate a nickel and dining broker or truck driver.

[-]

Impressive-Web-2646@reddit

Dispatcher here; if the address on the rate con was wrong, that’s on the broker. Any extra miles or changes should be cleared with the carrier first, not taken to the customer behind the scenes. That’s bad coordination, plain and simple.

[-]

damackisback@reddit

No justification is needed. The broker can charge their customer whatever they want. That's really none of your business. Your business was to charge the broker for the extra stop. The broker chose to bill their customer and you chose not to bill yours. Learn from this experience.

[-]

DamnedHeathen_@reddit

It wasn't our business before 2022. When rates tanked, and pink cheetah or whatever it was sued for transparency with tql, and found that tql was keeping 60% of the rate agreement, it became our business. For years we've heard too much capacity has tanked rates, and that Brokers weren't making any money which is why we weren't making money. Across the industry. Turns out a good portion of that was a lie, so yes it is our business. We are the ones that you are running under, and we are the ones with all the risk and expenses. We are also the ones with all the regulations. That's why transparency matters. Truckers aren't trying to steal customers, we're trying to see why brokers signing a contract with shippers to pay us X amount, then turning around and paying half that. We're trying to put the garbage out of business, like Brokers have put all the reputable carriers out of business over the past 4 years.

[-]

damackisback@reddit

I said what I said. If you're pricing lanes correctly, you won't care about transparency. You'd already know you're not leaving anything on the table. You want to see the broker's records? Okay, cool. Lets say they made a whole bunch of money on the load. What now? You're not getting any more money from them and you've also just been blacklisted. You've lost. Twice now. Unless there's a rule capping the total margin a broker can earn on a shipment, the transparency rule is completely useless. IDGAFF how much money these guys are making as long as I'm getting mine. I'm also a carrier.

[-]

DamnedHeathen_@reddit

If you are a carrier, and this is your opinion on the matter, then you haven't been in the game more than 5 years. Those of us who have know where rates should be right now. They're not even close. Meanwhile if you run a 600 mile load for $2,200, then find out the broker got paid $5,000 for that load, you're perfectly happy because you got what you thought you were worth. You left at least $1,300 on the table, that you didn't even know about. I didn't start my truck for less than $2 per mile running dry van in 2016, and I never sat still. I still have rate confirmations in my email showing a bit over $3 per mile hauling from Atlanta to Chicago. No way in hell rates have decreased 10 years later after inflation. Right now I'm running for between $4 and $6 per mile, so I'm not worried about it for my business. I'm watching everyone else being put out of business by these brokers because they don't know what they should be getting.

[-]

xoutlawtrucker@reddit

I am rarely on the brokers side, but sometimes the broker will ask the customer for more $ if there are surprises and pay you all of it. I made a extra $550 on 2 occasions last week that were paid by the customer. I got $350 for making 5 extra stops in the same facility and being delayed by that customer for 7 hours (for all those stops) and a extra $200 for climbing into the trailer and pallet jacking 22 skids to the tail because they didn't have a loading dock. A honest broker will pay you 100% of that extra money. A scumbag will keep it all, or only send you $50 of it

[-]

Auquaholic@reddit

I say the broker is risking the loss of that customer. 200 is steep for 12 miles. I have 2 specific customers that have locations all over the country and sometimes when I show up, they need the items to go to the site instead of the storage or vice versa. It's usually a 10 mile thing. I just do it, without even complaining. Now, a majority of my work comes from those 2 customers. If it was a broker that was decent, I'd have done it for them.

[-]

rvlifestyle74@reddit

The regulars get taken care of. A quick phone call before getting close and asking where they want it saves time too.

[-]

TheHotSake@reddit

Are we really gonna act like any carrier wouldn’t ask for a stop off of at least $75?

If the customer gave the wrong address then they deserve to pay more. Probably isn’t the brokers first rodeo and they know they’ll be asked for more money from the carrier 🤷‍♂️

[-]

FWD_to_twin_turbo@reddit

I'm a carrier. I'd charge a minimum of $100 for this because it counts as an extra stop.

Broker and customer can suck it, get the details on the rate confirmation right the first time.

[-]