July 29, 2025 • 19 mins
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
💰 Walmart Bid: New broker asks if bidding 94.75% of Walmart’s RPM is a smart strategy.
🤬 Broker Backlash: Trucker calls brokers “legal scammers” and slams their role in the industry.
🎁 Gifts & Content: Best/worst customer gifts and best/worst social media posts for leads
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome back.
It's another edition of theFinal Mile where we answer your
questions.
We've got some good ones and alittle controversy today that
we'll touch on.
But, if you're new, make sure tocheck out all the other content
, including the Freight BrokerBasics course, on our website
and share us with your friendsall that good stuff.
Check out the sponsors downbelow in the description box to
(00:23):
support the Freight360 channel.
Ben, let's get right into it.
First question I'm a new 3PLbroker and I work for a big
company.
I have this Walmart bid that'sdue tomorrow by midnight.
Sorry, we're just reading thison air after the fact, but we
wanted to at least touch back onit.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I tried to answer this.
By the way, I sent him a fewresponses.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I have a Walmart bid that's due tomorrow by midnight
roughly 320 lanes to bid on.
For example, walmart's rate permile is $2.97.
My rate per mile I'm bidding is94.75% of that, so my bid would
be $2.81.
Do you think it's a goodstrategy?
Oh, I have a lot of questionsand I know your comments on
(01:04):
YouTube were like we need a lotmore information.
What's your initial take onthis?
Because I'm not sure what hemeans by the 297.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Here's.
That was the first thing Iasked, but I'm going to assume
that what he found somewhere orcame up with was this is what we
think the average rate per mileis what Walmart's paying is
like.
It's kind of like where I thinkyou have to start and I'm like
okay pretty high regardless yeah, and it also kind of makes
(01:34):
sense the rest of it, if youmake that assumption in the
sense that, like he then says,um, I'm gonna do like 97 percent
of it's, like, oh, so if heexpects them to pay, whatever
that number is he figured, hey,I'll knock 3% below that.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
He went like 5% below .
He has 94.75% of it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, so he wanted to .
You know, underbid, if that'swhat he thinks they're paying
across the average, then he wasgoing to try to.
I guess that was thecompetitive edge.
But the questions, I think myfirst thoughts are he said he
worked at a large brokerage, Ithink, and I'm like okay, so
somewhere in their internal data, I guess they feel like or he
(02:15):
came up with, or whoever'steaching him how to do this said
like this is where I think westart.
But your first point was myfirst thought of like that is a
lot of money across that manylanes for a company of that size
.
Like I don't, I would notexpect Walmart to be paying an
average of just below $3 a mileacross 300 some lanes.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, here's.
Here's what I would say Likefor any bid in general if you're
going to.
First of all, if you're a newbroker, he's a new broker at a
big company, um, like thisWalmart specifically.
It's kind of a sucker's game.
Literally it's a race to thebottom.
They're a slow-paying,low-margin customer on average.
But anyway, all that aside,when it comes to a bid, the
(03:00):
actual mechanics of how you wantto do it is you want to figure
out what is the projected coston average throughout the period
of that bid.
So if it's a 12-month bid, lookat the 12-month forecast, maybe
weigh in the previous 12-month,maybe weigh in your company's
previous data for those lanes,Get an average, that's your
expected cost, you add a marginto it and that's your bid.
(03:23):
That's the one-on-one levelmechanics of it.
So let's say you figure out.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I want to repeat that for everybody, right, because
that's really important you needthe timeframe of when the bid
is right.
Is it a six-month bid or a12-month bid?
Why does that matter?
Because if it's six months andlet's say it's the second two
quarters of the year, you knowfrom basically half of summer
through, you know December,right, q3 and Q4, those two
(03:49):
seasons are going to havedifferent rates up or down from
the first two quarters, right,especially across that many.
So you need that time period asyour starting point.
And then I think what you saidnext is if you've got a lot of
history in your brokeragemeaning like you can see
historically what you've paidall last year, compare it to
(04:11):
that timeframe, because youdon't want to compare Q1 and Q2
for a bid that is going to golive Q3 and Q4, right, because
different seasons, differentthings happen on different lanes
.
So, like that is, I think, yourstarting point, look backwards
at your own company data.
If you don't have rateprojecting data, like RFP tools
and DAT, which is, I think, yourbest tool for this, then look
(04:34):
at historically what thataverage was on that lane in DAT
over the previous that timeperiod, whatever that season is
right If it's a month, if it'ssix months or a quarter.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yep.
And to wrap up on the bid thing, where you make your money on
bids is carrier relationshipsand doing the work to source
carriers, because at the end ofthe day, everyone's just trying
to get the price at the rightpoint to win a certain lane.
You really make your money whenyou can find the carriers that
will do it for below marketaverage Back hauls, preferred
(05:07):
lanes, round trips, lanes,things of that nature.
So keep that in mind.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
um, all right well, I have a little bit more on that
before you pass that one becausethis came up on a larger bid I
did recently is most peoplethink, okay, let's take a
multi-round bid situation.
This is the situation I was inonce.
We're a big company and it waslike it was probably the largest
bid I've worked on in recentmemory, like it was like 12 000
(05:32):
lanes, um, and it was for awhole year.
And what made it even morecomplicated is some of their
commodities were like high value, meaning like they were upwards
of $300,000.
Some were less, but theywouldn't tell you which lanes
were going to be that much ornot.
So then you have this variableon the insurance piece of like
what, when am I going to have topay for additional insurance
(05:53):
and when am I not?
We don't know and they won'ttell you.
But then, even with all thosethings, what I did is like I
modeled this out with the RFP toone DAT, like every single lane
, and then I modeled everysingle month and then I found
the median rate, and the medianis not the average, it's what
most of the year you're mostlikely to pay.
(06:14):
Think of, okay.
And then I figured out thosenumbers and then I figured in
the worst case.
So when the market is the mostexpensive, there's another
column.
And when is it the cheapestthroughout the year?
That one's red, that one'sgreen.
So I have yellow for median andthen I have in the worst case,
what am I going to be at basedon the number in my bid and what
(06:34):
am I going to be at the besttime of the year?
Right, so then I can sort allmy lanes and move those in Excel
to go, okay, like my medianrate.
I want it to be around likenine, 10%.
But some lanes change a lotthroughout the year.
So then I look and I sort bythe biggest losses at the most
expensive time per year.
(06:55):
So then you sort by the highprice and some of them I'm like,
oh great, like I am not OKlosing a thousand dollars even
if we're making 250 most of theyear for like a whole quarter.
So like I got to adjust thatone up and you can kind of play
with those until you get prettycomfortable with what you think
is going to happen, until youget pretty comfortable with what
you think is going to happen.
(07:15):
And then this is what bit me inthe ass and this is why I'm
telling this story is that wewere best in class on like 25 or
40 lanes somewhere around thatright, like 40 or 50 lanes which
we figured like, hey, likethat's enough for them to bring
us in Cause.
We've never worked with thiscompany, we aren't an incumbent,
we're a new broker partner.
So we're like, okay, if we'recheapest on 50 lanes, like
they're going to want to workwith us, right.
(07:36):
So it was three or four rounds.
In the final round, since wewere still best in class and say
50 lanes, I didn't touch any ofthose.
But what I did do is I'm like,well, if I'm not the cheapest on
the rest of these, I want to bea little more expensive.
Because if no one else can get atruck on that lane and it falls
down to me in the spot boardand that's usually what happens
(07:58):
is like, hey, the cheapest guy,get that load first.
But say the market moves and itgets really expensive.
Unpredictably, everyone else'sbid is too low to go cover that
load anyway.
So I'm like, okay, my strategyis I'm going to make all of the
rest of these lanes another fiveor 10% higher so like I can
actually get them capacity ifand when they need it, and my
service percentage is going tobe great.
(08:19):
And then here's where it killedme we didn't get onboarded.
And they said the other thingthey do and this is common with
really big companies is theytake all of your rates on all of
the lanes and compare it toeveryone else's rates.
And they said well, you werecheapest on 50 lanes, but you
were, I think, like 40% moreexpensive than everyone else on
(08:42):
the rest.
So, looking at your consistency,Correct and I basically pushed
myself out of it and I told andI talked to the person about it,
I'm like this is why I'm doingthis.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's the same strategy as you before, like
that's a common practice.
Like my, my mentality is likeon these other lanes might as
well go high on them like worstcase scenario you just don't get
awarded them.
Best case scenario if you getone here and there, you make
some good money on it.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
So that's, that's interesting and it's a good
question to ask that's why I putout there is like these are,
why, like, I try to ask lots ofquestions when you're going
through a bid process,especially if it's one you
really want to be awarded,because, like, I asked them this
and they either misled me ordidn't tell me.
Because I'm like, okay, well,like, how are these weighted
against everyone else?
How do these percentages matter?
(09:28):
They're like, oh, it reallydoesn't matter, it really
doesn't matter.
Just, I'm like, cause I want tomake sure I can service it, but
I'm competitive.
And they're like yeah, well, ifyou think you need a little bit
more to service it, we'd ratherhave you service it well than
give you a load you can't cover.
And I said in my head okay,well, then I'll up them a little
bit.
And I spent probably, like alltold, like 30, 40 hours on that
bid over like three months overevery round.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Wild.
All right, our next one.
This is, uh, not really aquestion, but someone was just
basically bitching about us onyoutube, so you know, wanted to
give them a little, uh littlespotlight time here and address
their controversial statement.
They said freight brokersanother legal scam profession.
It's made the truck industrycomplicated.
Remember, folks, these bozoshave never or have never or will
(10:15):
ever haul a load or have nevershipped a product, will never
ship a product, but they are theexperts.
Remember, folks, this industryis the backbone and most
important job in the country,because every single thing on
god's green earth has goes on atruck.
Even the oxygen you breathe andcan't see is hauled every
single day.
This is what people that don'twork for a living but say't work
for a living, but say they workfor a living.
We don't need these clowns.
(10:36):
All right, I want to.
Whoever this guy is, or girl, Idon't know there's pretty much
an AI tool built into everycomputer now that'll check your
grammar for you.
So that's my first tip.
But secondly, here's what'sfunny is you know, my brokerage
has a trucking companyassociated with it.
Right, you've done, you'veworked for companies that are
(10:57):
the same thing, so it's like,we're brokers, but we're also a
carrier.
Like I think a lot, a lot ofpeople don't understand that,
like it's two different facetsof the industry.
There are some brokers thatdon't have a trucking side, but
a lot of people that get intobrokerage have driven a truck,
have been a dispatcher, haveworked on that side of the
industry and I would encourageyou to go check out any of our
(11:19):
other content that addresseswhere brokers come into play.
But the reality is I'm going toassume, based on the lack of
business acumen and intelligenceand grammar, that this person
is probably an owner operator ora leased on driver or whatever.
Okay, um, it's because ofbrokers that you have business.
It's because of brokers thatyou have freight to put on your
(11:40):
truck.
Uh, every single time you wantto drive.
It's because of brokers thatyou can find rates paying as
well as they do in certain lanes.
Um, because we are in a salesforce for the small to medium
sizedsized carrier, we are thebusiness development for the 90%
of fleets that have 20 or lesstrucks.
(12:00):
So I've worked for a shipper,I've worked for a carrier and
now on the brokerage side.
So I've done all three and alot of brokers have done both
sides of the industry andcontinue to do so.
What do you got?
What's your hot take here, ben?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I'm not going to give this guy too much attention,
but I'm going to answer it fromthe other way, in a sense to
explain what you said.
Here's why.
Let's just say you're atrucking company of less than 10
trucks or less than five, orone or less than 20.
And company of less than 10trucks or less than five, or one
or less than 20.
If you've ever hauled a loadlet's say for a company like
(12:39):
Walmart, for a company likeCargill or any of these large
shippers right that most ofthese small carriers have pulled
loads for right Without abroker, here's why you would
have never been awarded thatlane and never been able to
access that shipment or to beable to move that load for that
company.
Because those large shippers onedo not have the procurement
(13:02):
department to work with thatmany trucking companies, meaning
like they are not going to payand set up a hundred thousand or
two hundred thousand truckcompanies.
Yeah, the second thing is oneit would be incredibly difficult
for them to make sure they'repaying all these companies
correctly, on time and for theright things.
(13:23):
The next thing that they don'thave the ability to do and don't
want to do is they don't havethe sophistication to be able to
reconcile, vet and confirm thatthe trucking companies that are
picking up their loads eitherhave updated insurance, are the
company that they say they are,are not a fraudulent person
(13:44):
impersonating a trucking company.
They don't have any of thosetools, that understanding or the
setup to do any of those things.
And then, finally, right, likeall of the loads that are ever
available, to just make a phonecall and pick up to your point,
only exist.
The entire spot market existsbecause freight brokers exist.
If you take out all of thefreight brokers, the only thing
(14:06):
that is happening is you'regoing to have small trucking
companies working with a coupleshippers and then you're going
to drive back to where youstarted, empty, unless you could
knock on enough doors or makephone calls to the companies
that are there.
When you arrive and somehow getthem to trust you.
Onboard, you verify yourinsurance, set you up as a
vendor and the next day beforeyou can pick up a load to go
(14:29):
back to where you came from.
And that's not feasible.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, the last thing I'll say on that note too if you
don't like freight brokers,don't, don't use one you don't
have to work with them.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Go get your own freight truck.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Nobody's requiring anybody to yeah, yeah, just just
go go get business direct.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, there's no requirement to use a broker
(15:18):
no-transcript day and somehowthe flower company one 800
flowers or whatever I used gaveme, like for free, a second you
know order to send to somebody.
So like I literally had flowersthat I could send for nothing
and I'm like, ooh, I don't haveanyone to send them to.
So, um, I had a customer whowas a trucking company and a
(15:39):
broker and there was a womanthat worked there that like I
worked with a lot, talked toevery day and was friends with,
and like she was like married oranything, so it was anything
but professional.
You know what I mean.
But I'm like, oh, like thiswould just be nice, like, hey,
appreciate the business, niceworking with you.
And you know, like, whateverkind of desk set up you send to
an office, right delivered froma broker at a brokerage, and
(16:04):
felt as if, like I was eitherbribing them or that she was
giving me favorable treatment,and I got no business from that
person ever again.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Okay, that's a first.
Well, let's go to good gifts.
I think it's the small gesturesthat say a lot.
So literally, a gift can belike a handwritten note at the
end of the year, like, hey,happy holidays, happy New Year,
merry Christmas.
Like just really appreciate thethought that is the real value,
(16:45):
common ones, like calendars,like stuff that like sits on
someone's desk or in theiroffice that they're going to see
and associate with you.
Like calendars, little truck,like wooden trucks, stuff like
that, whatever they're going tosee and associate with you.
Like calendars, little truck,like wooden trucks, stuff like
that.
Um, whatever they're into, youknow what I mean.
Like I've had people send megifts.
Like literally one of the guysthat we coached a few years ago
sent me this giant buffalo billslike computer desk mat.
(17:07):
It's like a mouse pad but it'sthe size of my desk and I have
it to this day.
Like I've moved houses and itmoved with me because it's
amazing and it's the bills.
I love the bills.
So I think it depends.
What I wouldn't do is don'tapproach the bribery you know
level where you're like you knowpay to play because that'll get
(17:28):
you in trouble.
The second part of the questionis the posts on LinkedIn, et
cetera.
Spammy is bad.
What I would say that whatworks on social media is
consistency and adding value.
Like to keep it as general aspossible Writing articles,
sharing your opinion, engaging,just becoming a relevant member
(17:50):
of the social media community.
I think it will add value, willit get you customers?
I don't know.
Marketing's that one thing thateveryone says like 50% works,
50% doesn't.
The hard part is knowing whichpart is which?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
50% is which?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
But I would say consistency and adding value is
where I think people can do goodon social media.
You got any take on it?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Question number one, I think is a good, easy gift is
find out whatever your customerlikes to eat and like.
On a Friday once a quarter,like you can just send Uber Eats
, which is a really appreciatedone.
It's super easy.
It's like 20 to 40 bucksdepending on what you're sending
.
You send a pizza, sandwiches,chinese food, whatever.
Like.
That one, I think, is a onethat goes a long way, everybody
(18:33):
enjoys, never gets wasted and issuper easy and it's real time.
It's not like ordering it andgetting it to your customer a
month later.
I think you kind of saideverything that was relevant
related to, like social media.
It's engaging, it's being there, it's adding value over and
over again and just beingvisible, and I think consistency
is the thing that matters most.
Add value, be consistent.
(18:53):
That's going to go a long way.
I like it.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Final thoughts Ben.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
And until next time go Bills.
All right, welcome back.
It's another edition of theFinal Mile where we answer your
questions.
We've got some good ones and alittle controversy today that
we'll touch on.
But, if you're new, make sure tocheck out all the other content
, including the Freight BrokerBasics course, on our website
and share us with your friendsall that good stuff.
Check out the sponsors downbelow in the description box to
(00:23):
support the Freight360 channel.
Ben, let's get right into it.
First question I'm a new 3PLbroker and I work for a big
company.
I have this Walmart bid that'sdue tomorrow by midnight.
Sorry, we're just reading thison air after the fact, but we
wanted to at least touch back onit.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I tried to answer this.
By the way, I sent him a fewresponses.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I have a Walmart bid that's due tomorrow by midnight
roughly 320 lanes to bid on.
For example, walmart's rate permile is $2.97.
My rate per mile I'm bidding is94.75% of that, so my bid would
be $2.81.
Do you think it's a goodstrategy?
Oh, I have a lot of questionsand I know your comments on
(01:04):
YouTube were like we need a lotmore information.
What's your initial take onthis?
Because I'm not sure what hemeans by the 297.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Here's.
That was the first thing Iasked, but I'm going to assume
that what he found somewhere orcame up with was this is what we
think the average rate per mileis what Walmart's paying is
like.
It's kind of like where I thinkyou have to start and I'm like
okay pretty high regardless yeah, and it also kind of makes
(01:34):
sense the rest of it, if youmake that assumption in the
sense that, like he then says,um, I'm gonna do like 97 percent
of it's, like, oh, so if heexpects them to pay, whatever
that number is he figured, hey,I'll knock 3% below that.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
He went like 5% below .
He has 94.75% of it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, so he wanted to .
You know, underbid, if that'swhat he thinks they're paying
across the average, then he wasgoing to try to.
I guess that was thecompetitive edge.
But the questions, I think myfirst thoughts are he said he
worked at a large brokerage, Ithink, and I'm like okay, so
somewhere in their internal data, I guess they feel like or he
(02:15):
came up with, or whoever'steaching him how to do this said
like this is where I think westart.
But your first point was myfirst thought of like that is a
lot of money across that manylanes for a company of that size
.
Like I don't, I would notexpect Walmart to be paying an
average of just below $3 a mileacross 300 some lanes.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, here's.
Here's what I would say Likefor any bid in general if you're
going to.
First of all, if you're a newbroker, he's a new broker at a
big company, um, like thisWalmart specifically.
It's kind of a sucker's game.
Literally it's a race to thebottom.
They're a slow-paying,low-margin customer on average.
But anyway, all that aside,when it comes to a bid, the
(03:00):
actual mechanics of how you wantto do it is you want to figure
out what is the projected coston average throughout the period
of that bid.
So if it's a 12-month bid, lookat the 12-month forecast, maybe
weigh in the previous 12-month,maybe weigh in your company's
previous data for those lanes,Get an average, that's your
expected cost, you add a marginto it and that's your bid.
(03:23):
That's the one-on-one levelmechanics of it.
So let's say you figure out.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I want to repeat that for everybody, right, because
that's really important you needthe timeframe of when the bid
is right.
Is it a six-month bid or a12-month bid?
Why does that matter?
Because if it's six months andlet's say it's the second two
quarters of the year, you knowfrom basically half of summer
through, you know December,right, q3 and Q4, those two
(03:49):
seasons are going to havedifferent rates up or down from
the first two quarters, right,especially across that many.
So you need that time period asyour starting point.
And then I think what you saidnext is if you've got a lot of
history in your brokeragemeaning like you can see
historically what you've paidall last year, compare it to
(04:11):
that timeframe, because youdon't want to compare Q1 and Q2
for a bid that is going to golive Q3 and Q4, right, because
different seasons, differentthings happen on different lanes
.
So, like that is, I think, yourstarting point, look backwards
at your own company data.
If you don't have rateprojecting data, like RFP tools
and DAT, which is, I think, yourbest tool for this, then look
(04:34):
at historically what thataverage was on that lane in DAT
over the previous that timeperiod, whatever that season is
right If it's a month, if it'ssix months or a quarter.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yep.
And to wrap up on the bid thing, where you make your money on
bids is carrier relationshipsand doing the work to source
carriers, because at the end ofthe day, everyone's just trying
to get the price at the rightpoint to win a certain lane.
You really make your money whenyou can find the carriers that
will do it for below marketaverage Back hauls, preferred
(05:07):
lanes, round trips, lanes,things of that nature.
So keep that in mind.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
um, all right well, I have a little bit more on that
before you pass that one becausethis came up on a larger bid I
did recently is most peoplethink, okay, let's take a
multi-round bid situation.
This is the situation I was inonce.
We're a big company and it waslike it was probably the largest
bid I've worked on in recentmemory, like it was like 12 000
(05:32):
lanes, um, and it was for awhole year.
And what made it even morecomplicated is some of their
commodities were like high value, meaning like they were upwards
of $300,000.
Some were less, but theywouldn't tell you which lanes
were going to be that much ornot.
So then you have this variableon the insurance piece of like
what, when am I going to have topay for additional insurance
(05:53):
and when am I not?
We don't know and they won'ttell you.
But then, even with all thosethings, what I did is like I
modeled this out with the RFP toone DAT, like every single lane
, and then I modeled everysingle month and then I found
the median rate, and the medianis not the average, it's what
most of the year you're mostlikely to pay.
(06:14):
Think of, okay.
And then I figured out thosenumbers and then I figured in
the worst case.
So when the market is the mostexpensive, there's another
column.
And when is it the cheapestthroughout the year?
That one's red, that one'sgreen.
So I have yellow for median andthen I have in the worst case,
what am I going to be at basedon the number in my bid and what
(06:34):
am I going to be at the besttime of the year?
Right, so then I can sort allmy lanes and move those in Excel
to go, okay, like my medianrate.
I want it to be around likenine, 10%.
But some lanes change a lotthroughout the year.
So then I look and I sort bythe biggest losses at the most
expensive time per year.
(06:55):
So then you sort by the highprice and some of them I'm like,
oh great, like I am not OKlosing a thousand dollars even
if we're making 250 most of theyear for like a whole quarter.
So like I got to adjust thatone up and you can kind of play
with those until you get prettycomfortable with what you think
is going to happen, until youget pretty comfortable with what
you think is going to happen.
(07:15):
And then this is what bit me inthe ass and this is why I'm
telling this story is that wewere best in class on like 25 or
40 lanes somewhere around thatright, like 40 or 50 lanes which
we figured like, hey, likethat's enough for them to bring
us in Cause.
We've never worked with thiscompany, we aren't an incumbent,
we're a new broker partner.
So we're like, okay, if we'recheapest on 50 lanes, like
they're going to want to workwith us, right.
(07:36):
So it was three or four rounds.
In the final round, since wewere still best in class and say
50 lanes, I didn't touch any ofthose.
But what I did do is I'm like,well, if I'm not the cheapest on
the rest of these, I want to bea little more expensive.
Because if no one else can get atruck on that lane and it falls
down to me in the spot boardand that's usually what happens
(07:58):
is like, hey, the cheapest guy,get that load first.
But say the market moves and itgets really expensive.
Unpredictably, everyone else'sbid is too low to go cover that
load anyway.
So I'm like, okay, my strategyis I'm going to make all of the
rest of these lanes another fiveor 10% higher so like I can
actually get them capacity ifand when they need it, and my
service percentage is going tobe great.
(08:19):
And then here's where it killedme we didn't get onboarded.
And they said the other thingthey do and this is common with
really big companies is theytake all of your rates on all of
the lanes and compare it toeveryone else's rates.
And they said well, you werecheapest on 50 lanes, but you
were, I think, like 40% moreexpensive than everyone else on
(08:42):
the rest.
So, looking at your consistency,Correct and I basically pushed
myself out of it and I told andI talked to the person about it,
I'm like this is why I'm doingthis.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's the same strategy as you before, like
that's a common practice.
Like my, my mentality is likeon these other lanes might as
well go high on them like worstcase scenario you just don't get
awarded them.
Best case scenario if you getone here and there, you make
some good money on it.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
So that's, that's interesting and it's a good
question to ask that's why I putout there is like these are,
why, like, I try to ask lots ofquestions when you're going
through a bid process,especially if it's one you
really want to be awarded,because, like, I asked them this
and they either misled me ordidn't tell me.
Because I'm like, okay, well,like, how are these weighted
against everyone else?
How do these percentages matter?
(09:28):
They're like, oh, it reallydoesn't matter, it really
doesn't matter.
Just, I'm like, cause I want tomake sure I can service it, but
I'm competitive.
And they're like yeah, well, ifyou think you need a little bit
more to service it, we'd ratherhave you service it well than
give you a load you can't cover.
And I said in my head okay,well, then I'll up them a little
bit.
And I spent probably, like alltold, like 30, 40 hours on that
bid over like three months overevery round.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Wild.
All right, our next one.
This is, uh, not really aquestion, but someone was just
basically bitching about us onyoutube, so you know, wanted to
give them a little, uh littlespotlight time here and address
their controversial statement.
They said freight brokersanother legal scam profession.
It's made the truck industrycomplicated.
Remember, folks, these bozoshave never or have never or will
(10:15):
ever haul a load or have nevershipped a product, will never
ship a product, but they are theexperts.
Remember, folks, this industryis the backbone and most
important job in the country,because every single thing on
god's green earth has goes on atruck.
Even the oxygen you breathe andcan't see is hauled every
single day.
This is what people that don'twork for a living but say't work
for a living, but say they workfor a living.
We don't need these clowns.
(10:36):
All right, I want to.
Whoever this guy is, or girl, Idon't know there's pretty much
an AI tool built into everycomputer now that'll check your
grammar for you.
So that's my first tip.
But secondly, here's what'sfunny is you know, my brokerage
has a trucking companyassociated with it.
Right, you've done, you'veworked for companies that are
(10:57):
the same thing, so it's like,we're brokers, but we're also a
carrier.
Like I think a lot, a lot ofpeople don't understand that,
like it's two different facetsof the industry.
There are some brokers thatdon't have a trucking side, but
a lot of people that get intobrokerage have driven a truck,
have been a dispatcher, haveworked on that side of the
industry and I would encourageyou to go check out any of our
(11:19):
other content that addresseswhere brokers come into play.
But the reality is I'm going toassume, based on the lack of
business acumen and intelligenceand grammar, that this person
is probably an owner operator ora leased on driver or whatever.
Okay, um, it's because ofbrokers that you have business.
It's because of brokers thatyou have freight to put on your
(11:40):
truck.
Uh, every single time you wantto drive.
It's because of brokers thatyou can find rates paying as
well as they do in certain lanes.
Um, because we are in a salesforce for the small to medium
sizedsized carrier, we are thebusiness development for the 90%
of fleets that have 20 or lesstrucks.
(12:00):
So I've worked for a shipper,I've worked for a carrier and
now on the brokerage side.
So I've done all three and alot of brokers have done both
sides of the industry andcontinue to do so.
What do you got?
What's your hot take here, ben?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I'm not going to give this guy too much attention,
but I'm going to answer it fromthe other way, in a sense to
explain what you said.
Here's why.
Let's just say you're atrucking company of less than 10
trucks or less than five, orone or less than 20.
And company of less than 10trucks or less than five, or one
or less than 20.
If you've ever hauled a loadlet's say for a company like
(12:39):
Walmart, for a company likeCargill or any of these large
shippers right that most ofthese small carriers have pulled
loads for right Without abroker, here's why you would
have never been awarded thatlane and never been able to
access that shipment or to beable to move that load for that
company.
Because those large shippers onedo not have the procurement
(13:02):
department to work with thatmany trucking companies, meaning
like they are not going to payand set up a hundred thousand or
two hundred thousand truckcompanies.
Yeah, the second thing is oneit would be incredibly difficult
for them to make sure they'repaying all these companies
correctly, on time and for theright things.
(13:23):
The next thing that they don'thave the ability to do and don't
want to do is they don't havethe sophistication to be able to
reconcile, vet and confirm thatthe trucking companies that are
picking up their loads eitherhave updated insurance, are the
company that they say they are,are not a fraudulent person
(13:44):
impersonating a trucking company.
They don't have any of thosetools, that understanding or the
setup to do any of those things.
And then, finally, right, likeall of the loads that are ever
available, to just make a phonecall and pick up to your point,
only exist.
The entire spot market existsbecause freight brokers exist.
If you take out all of thefreight brokers, the only thing
(14:06):
that is happening is you'regoing to have small trucking
companies working with a coupleshippers and then you're going
to drive back to where youstarted, empty, unless you could
knock on enough doors or makephone calls to the companies
that are there.
When you arrive and somehow getthem to trust you.
Onboard, you verify yourinsurance, set you up as a
vendor and the next day beforeyou can pick up a load to go
(14:29):
back to where you came from.
And that's not feasible.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, the last thing I'll say on that note too if you
don't like freight brokers,don't, don't use one you don't
have to work with them.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Go get your own freight truck.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Nobody's requiring anybody to yeah, yeah, just just
go go get business direct.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, there's no requirement to use a broker
(15:18):
no-transcript day and somehowthe flower company one 800
flowers or whatever I used gaveme, like for free, a second you
know order to send to somebody.
So like I literally had flowersthat I could send for nothing
and I'm like, ooh, I don't haveanyone to send them to.
So, um, I had a customer whowas a trucking company and a
(15:39):
broker and there was a womanthat worked there that like I
worked with a lot, talked toevery day and was friends with,
and like she was like married oranything, so it was anything
but professional.
You know what I mean.
But I'm like, oh, like thiswould just be nice, like, hey,
appreciate the business, niceworking with you.
And you know, like, whateverkind of desk set up you send to
an office, right delivered froma broker at a brokerage, and
(16:04):
felt as if, like I was eitherbribing them or that she was
giving me favorable treatment,and I got no business from that
person ever again.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Okay, that's a first.
Well, let's go to good gifts.
I think it's the small gesturesthat say a lot.
So literally, a gift can belike a handwritten note at the
end of the year, like, hey,happy holidays, happy New Year,
merry Christmas.
Like just really appreciate thethought that is the real value,
(16:45):
common ones, like calendars,like stuff that like sits on
someone's desk or in theiroffice that they're going to see
and associate with you.
Like calendars, little truck,like wooden trucks, stuff like
that, whatever they're going tosee and associate with you.
Like calendars, little truck,like wooden trucks, stuff like
that.
Um, whatever they're into, youknow what I mean.
Like I've had people send megifts.
Like literally one of the guysthat we coached a few years ago
sent me this giant buffalo billslike computer desk mat.
(17:07):
It's like a mouse pad but it'sthe size of my desk and I have
it to this day.
Like I've moved houses and itmoved with me because it's
amazing and it's the bills.
I love the bills.
So I think it depends.
What I wouldn't do is don'tapproach the bribery you know
level where you're like you knowpay to play because that'll get
(17:28):
you in trouble.
The second part of the questionis the posts on LinkedIn, et
cetera.
Spammy is bad.
What I would say that whatworks on social media is
consistency and adding value.
Like to keep it as general aspossible Writing articles,
sharing your opinion, engaging,just becoming a relevant member
(17:50):
of the social media community.
I think it will add value, willit get you customers?
I don't know.
Marketing's that one thing thateveryone says like 50% works,
50% doesn't.
The hard part is knowing whichpart is which?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
50% is which?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
But I would say consistency and adding value is
where I think people can do goodon social media.
You got any take on it?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Question number one, I think is a good, easy gift is
find out whatever your customerlikes to eat and like.
On a Friday once a quarter,like you can just send Uber Eats
, which is a really appreciatedone.
It's super easy.
It's like 20 to 40 bucksdepending on what you're sending
.
You send a pizza, sandwiches,chinese food, whatever.
Like.
That one, I think, is a onethat goes a long way, everybody
(18:33):
enjoys, never gets wasted and issuper easy and it's real time.
It's not like ordering it andgetting it to your customer a
month later.
I think you kind of saideverything that was relevant
related to, like social media.
It's engaging, it's being there, it's adding value over and
over again and just beingvisible, and I think consistency
is the thing that matters most.
Add value, be consistent.
(18:53):
That's going to go a long way.
I like it.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Final thoughts Ben.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
And until next time go Bills.
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