October 21, 2025 • 15 mins
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
💼 How many brokers carry their own insurance vs. just rely on their bond and the carrier’s insurance?
🗣️ Tips from experienced brokers on booking trucks and improving negotiation skills for newcomers.
🚛 Do brokers prefer working with owner-operators, small fleets, or larger carriers—and why?
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
Welcome back for another edition of the final
mile where we answer all yourquestions.
These all come from our Facebookgroup today.
So thanks for the roughly100,000 of you that are
participating in there.
And if you're not, make sure tocheck out the link in our show
notes or description box to jointhat group.
A lot of good stuff.
A lot of people asking goodquestions and sharing knowledge
(00:40):
and sharing capacity and loadstoo.
So um make sure to, you know,subscribe, do all the good like
stuff that helps the algorithmget us in front of more people
just like you to help with themout and answer their questions.
And you can check out ourFreebroker Basics course if
you're looking for um a solutionfor training for yourself or
your team to get your brokerageto the next level or just off
(01:02):
the ground if you're brand newand check out the sponsors of
the show.
Um help support the channel.
All right, Ben, first question.
We've got how many of youbrokers have your own insurance?
And how many of you just haveyour bond and use the carrier's
insurance?
So we get a lot of questionsabout insurance, and the the
(01:22):
thing I want to explain here isthat what we can purchase, and
I'll just talk generically herebecause there's always
exceptions.
What we can purchase as a brokerversus what a motor carrier can
purchase as a carrier withassets are two different things.
SPEAKER_00 (01:39):
This is so important, like so very
important.
And to be honest, I was on threeor four calls last week with
brokers, shippers, and insurancecompanies clarifying what seems
to be a large misunderstanding.
And the thing that I find reallyinteresting is that like this
(02:02):
misunderstanding goes all theway up to the largest chippers
that I've ever worked with.
I mean, I've literally had thisconversation with companies the
size of like Mersk in regards tolike what insurance covers what?
What you require a broker tohave, and what you think that
actually does.
Because they are very, verydifferent things from what I
(02:23):
think people think are anyinsurance can cover and what it
actually does cover.
SPEAKER_01 (02:28):
Yeah.
So let me kind of break it down.
Um, the the question involvedabout the bond, it's a
requirement.
You've got to have a bond or afreight broker trust.
$75,000.
That's just a requirement.
Everyone's got to have that.
Insurance policies, motorcarriers will have a prime, like
if we look at just cargoinsurance, they'll have the
primary cargo insurance.
(02:48):
Usually$100,000 is fairlystandard.
Your contingent cargo policydoes not replace that.
Okay.
The carrier needs to have thatprimary policy.
Now you can purchase a firstposition policy.
We, you know, we call that likean all-risk policy or a single
load insurance policy that willum take the first position in
(03:09):
the event of a claim.
So let's say, for example, acarrier has an excluded
commodity or their insurancelimits are too low for a high
value shipment.
You can go into something likean all uh all-risk policy from
uh loadsure, you can accessright through your DAT account.
Um, real quick, just type inwhat it is of value, and you'll
(03:29):
get a quote spit out.
But when you're booking a load,your carriers need to have that
cargo insurance policy, right?
Your same thing, your carriersneed to have that auto liability
policy.
Um, we can have contingents, andthose contingents are typically
very cheap and they don't reallycover a whole lot of situations.
Um, but to answer the questionpoint blank, um you need to have
(03:53):
your bond or trust, and yourmotor carriers need to have a
primary policy for liability andfor cargo.
Now, if your customer requiresanything specific, like a
general liability policy or anumbrella policy or a contingent
policy or whatever, that issomething where I'd recommend
work with an insurance brokerand a strong transportation
(04:13):
attorney to review your customercontracts and requirements, and
then you make a businessdecision to meet these criteria
and the costs associated.
Is this worth doing businessthis way?
So anything else on insurance?
SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
I would just say that like, keep it very simple.
Your insurance as a freightbrokerage basically covers
nothing.
It only covers you when you getsued.
Basically, the only value I'veever seen really in any
insurance a freight broker isrequired to have is if we get
sued or didn't do our job makingsure the trucking company has
it.
Like at the end of the day, ifyou're a freight broker, just
(04:49):
make sure the trucking companyhas the amount of cargo
insurance that is at least equalor higher than the thing you're
moving, because your insuranceas a freight broker is never
going to help your customer.
Your customer will say, Hey, werequire you to have 500 grand.
Well, that's just to do businesswith them.
That insurance policy will notcover if something happens to a
load, if and literally anythinghappens.
(05:11):
Like they're basically justadditional expenses we pay to
work with a shipper, but theyreally cover nothing.
So you need to one, like yousaid, make sure that trucking
company has enough, or you go toa different kind of insurance,
which is what load shore wouldbe, which is it's called a first
position policy because it isinsuring your customer directly,
(05:33):
meaning, like you don't need togo to the carrier to work with
the insurance company.
If something happens, thatinsurance company just pays your
customer.
Yep.
They're more expensive.
Like roughly, I'm looking atsomewhere between an extra
hundred dollars per$100,000.
I reviewed a bunch of these lastweek, and it's like$500,000 a
load was about$500.
(05:53):
Additional insurance cost forone load.
A million dollar one was alittle more than a thousand
dollars.
So like they were roughly about$110 per$100,000.
SPEAKER_01 (06:03):
So cargo shield, um, I think and they're an all-risk
policy, but it's just standard$100,000.
I think theirs is like$35,$35 aload.
But all it's doing is like it'snot adding any additional
insurance or any, you know, it'sit's just saying like, hey,
we'll help settle the claimfaster and not, you know, we'll
(06:24):
settle it within 30 days.
Whereas um when you go abovethat or to other commodities,
that's where yeah, you're gonnabe looking at a higher price.
Like, I I've seen people thathave gotten like a load share
policy for a couple hundredbucks, um, but and it's worth it
for them because it's quick andeasy, covers what's needed, and
the carrier doesn't have to goand try to figure it out on
their end and factor it intotheir rate.
SPEAKER_00 (06:47):
So um there's another whole rabbit hole you
can go down with this, meaningthat like since most shippers
don't know this, what that whatis actually happening in a lot
of scenarios is shippers aremoving freight that is just
uninsured all of the time.
And then because I've been inbids that were pretty large with
(07:09):
pretty large companies, and I'vegotten feedback where they're
like, Well, hey, you're like$300too much on every lane.
And I'm like, okay, that'sbecause I added the insurance
cost because everything you shipis three to four hundred
thousand dollars.
And they went, Well, everyoneelse that gave me rates is
exactly this amount cheaper thanyou.
I'm like, that's your you're notinsured.
(07:30):
They're like, but they havecargo contingent cargo
insurance.
I'm like, that's not realinsurance.
And I'm like, you are moving insome cases hundreds of loads
uninsured every day and justdon't realize it.
SPEAKER_01 (07:42):
Like this is what it should cost.
We had one that where thecustomer was shipping stuff that
was worth like two to threemillion dollars.
Yeah.
And big box brokerages that welost a few loads to, um, won't
name them, um, but they wererunning them uninsured.
And when the customer realizedour, you know, why our rates
were higher, it's because wehave this insurance on it.
(08:04):
They were like, oh my gosh.
Like, and they were they werelucky that nothing ever happened
and got damaged because thatyou'd be in a huge mess there.
SPEAKER_00 (08:12):
So well, that's the real move, right?
Having this conversation withyour customer and kind of
explaining the truth of it,right?
Like, hey, you can keep payingthose rates, but whether you pay
us or any other brokerage, it'snot a coincidence that all of
those rates are exactly myinsurance cost cheaper, right?
Because like, and I've shoppedthese at a handful of different
(08:35):
insurance options.
I've looked at account specific,customer specific, lane
specific, commodity specific,per load, per account.
And like, no matter how you cutit, like if you are that much
more expensive, it's becauseyour competitors uh either don't
probably don't know this, is thefirst thing.
And your shipper probablydoesn't know this.
And they'll go, well, I movedthousands of loads, there hasn't
(08:55):
been an issue.
I'm like, yeah, because youhaven't had a claim yet.
Where do you have a claim on amillion dollar load?
And then tell me what happensbecause you are going to be in a
shitstorm of problems trying tofigure out why you lost a
million dollars and thought itwas insured, but it actually
wasn't.
SPEAKER_01 (09:09):
Exactly.
All right, next question.
Um, any brokers want to giveadvice on booking trucks?
I need some negotiating skills.
I'm new to this.
So I picked this question out ofall of them because I dealt with
something this morning that wasbasically the wrong way of
trying to book a truck.
Um, and long story short,somebody was trying to email
(09:31):
blast like 4,000 people all at,you know, 4,000 emails in a day,
just shotgun blast out, tryingto capture carriers about
available, you know, a bunch ofavailable loads.
And I would say that is, youknow, it's one tactic, it's
probably not the best.
So if I were to look at theprimary method of booking
(09:51):
trucks, I would say this, right?
Primary option number one is gowith a carrier that you have a
personal relationshiphistorically and that you know
and you trust, right?
Next up, if that's notavailable, a carrier that your
company has a historicalrelationship with that somebody
else within your company hasworked with and can trust, and
(10:14):
you can see historical rates ordata on them.
And then you start to fall intothe, well, I don't have any
internal data.
Okay, well, now you've gotthird-party sources that are out
there that they've gotaggregated data of carriers and
their performance and um othermetrics about them.
So this could be something likeif you want to source carriers
through gen logs or throughhighway or through the DAT
(10:35):
directory, things like that.
So you've got actual objectivedata on where this carrier has
been seen to operate, wherethey've identified they prefer
to operate, where they'veliterally been seen on gen logs
camera sensors throughout thecountry.
Um, and then we get to themarketplaces, right?
The the load boards, like yourDAT, your truck stop, and the
new um, the new highway exchangeas well, where you're literally
(11:00):
you're posting loads up thereand you're seeing carriers post
trucks, or they might call youon a posted load and you don't
have a relationship with them,you don't really have a ton of
data on them.
You're just you're freely outthere in the open marketplace.
Um and that's another way to goabout doing it.
And honestly, when you're brandnew and you don't have any
(11:21):
carrier relationships, you'regonna likely have to rely on
some of these differentplatforms and marketplaces to
start to develop relationships.
And I would say the first timeyou talk to a carrier doesn't
have to be when you have a loadposted, right?
If you know certain areas thatyou're prospecting business in,
I would make the same phonecalls on the carrier side,
trying to reach out and say,hey, um, you know, what kind of
runs are you guys typicallylooking to make?
(11:42):
What lanes do you like tooperate in?
Where are you trying to get backcalls from?
Because that'll help youprospect and you're building
carrier relationships at thesame time as prospecting
shippers.
So when it comes time to coverthat load, you now know, and
based on whether you're trackingstuff in your TMS or in a CRM or
whatever for carriers, you nowknow, hey, I'm gonna call this
guy.
I've already talked to him acouple of times.
Um, they typically have thistruck available or these uh you
(12:05):
know, this equipment availableum in these areas.
And that just helps you go, youknow, way, you know, develop
that relationship way furtherand in advance versus you know,
you get a call from a carrier ona load board, you're trying to
run their MC, and you're justhoping I'm not getting scammed
or double brokered or stuffstolen cargo, et cetera.
So that would be uh my advicethere is to take a proactive
(12:27):
approach to your carrydevelopment.
Um Ben fell out on us, so I'lltake this last question on my
own.
Lastly, uh, as a broker, do youprefer to work with an owner
operator, a company with a largefleet being five or more trucks,
or a smaller startup with one totwo trucks and a third-party
hiring of drivers?
Which and why?
Well, I think it really justdepends on what kind of freight
(12:49):
you're dealing with.
If you're dealing with a singlespot load that is just a very
simple, I got one of these, it'sgot to go out in today or in the
next couple of days.
Um, it doesn't really matter tome which of those I use the the
most likely is probably gonna bea smaller carrier, just because
they tend to operate in the spotmarket spot market more often
(13:10):
versus a larger fleet that islikely gonna have their assets
contracted well in advancedirectly with a shipper or maybe
with a broker in some instances.
Um, larger fleets are reallygreat if you're dealing with
predictable freight for yourcustomer.
So if you know in advance, hey,my customer, I've got a
three-year or a three-monthcommitment with them on um, you
(13:31):
know, these these 20 lanes,that's where you're gonna want
to start piecemealing thecoverage on those and you want
to try and contract them.
And typically your largerfleets, even your mid-sized
fleets, are gonna have moreassets that are more predictable
well in advance.
So um again, it just depends onthe situation and what kind of
freight it is.
But the the rule of thumb Iprobably give here is that um
(13:53):
the smaller the opportunity orthe the more spot market that it
operates in, you're probablygonna be dealing with, you know,
your owner operator, yoursmaller fleet, or mid-sized
fleet, even.
And then your larger opportunityis more predictable,
contract-based with a customer.
Um, you're gonna likely have toleverage or want to leverage a
larger fleet because I'd ratherwork with three large carriers
(14:14):
on a 20-lane project versus 20owner operators in it.
Because then you're justmanaging a lot different.
Um, who am I paying?
And um, you know, what are theterms?
And we have to qualify thesedifferent carriers.
So that's my take there.
Great questions.
Thanks for sending them in.
And we'll see you guys on thenext edition of the final mile.
And until next time, go bills.
Welcome back for another edition of the final
mile where we answer all yourquestions.
These all come from our Facebookgroup today.
So thanks for the roughly100,000 of you that are
participating in there.
And if you're not, make sure tocheck out the link in our show
notes or description box to jointhat group.
A lot of good stuff.
A lot of people asking goodquestions and sharing knowledge
(00:40):
and sharing capacity and loadstoo.
So um make sure to, you know,subscribe, do all the good like
stuff that helps the algorithmget us in front of more people
just like you to help with themout and answer their questions.
And you can check out ourFreebroker Basics course if
you're looking for um a solutionfor training for yourself or
your team to get your brokerageto the next level or just off
(01:02):
the ground if you're brand newand check out the sponsors of
the show.
Um help support the channel.
All right, Ben, first question.
We've got how many of youbrokers have your own insurance?
And how many of you just haveyour bond and use the carrier's
insurance?
So we get a lot of questionsabout insurance, and the the
(01:22):
thing I want to explain here isthat what we can purchase, and
I'll just talk generically herebecause there's always
exceptions.
What we can purchase as a brokerversus what a motor carrier can
purchase as a carrier withassets are two different things.
SPEAKER_00 (01:39):
This is so important, like so very
important.
And to be honest, I was on threeor four calls last week with
brokers, shippers, and insurancecompanies clarifying what seems
to be a large misunderstanding.
And the thing that I find reallyinteresting is that like this
(02:02):
misunderstanding goes all theway up to the largest chippers
that I've ever worked with.
I mean, I've literally had thisconversation with companies the
size of like Mersk in regards tolike what insurance covers what?
What you require a broker tohave, and what you think that
actually does.
Because they are very, verydifferent things from what I
(02:23):
think people think are anyinsurance can cover and what it
actually does cover.
SPEAKER_01 (02:28):
Yeah.
So let me kind of break it down.
Um, the the question involvedabout the bond, it's a
requirement.
You've got to have a bond or afreight broker trust.
$75,000.
That's just a requirement.
Everyone's got to have that.
Insurance policies, motorcarriers will have a prime, like
if we look at just cargoinsurance, they'll have the
primary cargo insurance.
(02:48):
Usually$100,000 is fairlystandard.
Your contingent cargo policydoes not replace that.
Okay.
The carrier needs to have thatprimary policy.
Now you can purchase a firstposition policy.
We, you know, we call that likean all-risk policy or a single
load insurance policy that willum take the first position in
(03:09):
the event of a claim.
So let's say, for example, acarrier has an excluded
commodity or their insurancelimits are too low for a high
value shipment.
You can go into something likean all uh all-risk policy from
uh loadsure, you can accessright through your DAT account.
Um, real quick, just type inwhat it is of value, and you'll
(03:29):
get a quote spit out.
But when you're booking a load,your carriers need to have that
cargo insurance policy, right?
Your same thing, your carriersneed to have that auto liability
policy.
Um, we can have contingents, andthose contingents are typically
very cheap and they don't reallycover a whole lot of situations.
Um, but to answer the questionpoint blank, um you need to have
(03:53):
your bond or trust, and yourmotor carriers need to have a
primary policy for liability andfor cargo.
Now, if your customer requiresanything specific, like a
general liability policy or anumbrella policy or a contingent
policy or whatever, that issomething where I'd recommend
work with an insurance brokerand a strong transportation
(04:13):
attorney to review your customercontracts and requirements, and
then you make a businessdecision to meet these criteria
and the costs associated.
Is this worth doing businessthis way?
So anything else on insurance?
SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
I would just say that like, keep it very simple.
Your insurance as a freightbrokerage basically covers
nothing.
It only covers you when you getsued.
Basically, the only value I'veever seen really in any
insurance a freight broker isrequired to have is if we get
sued or didn't do our job makingsure the trucking company has
it.
Like at the end of the day, ifyou're a freight broker, just
(04:49):
make sure the trucking companyhas the amount of cargo
insurance that is at least equalor higher than the thing you're
moving, because your insuranceas a freight broker is never
going to help your customer.
Your customer will say, Hey, werequire you to have 500 grand.
Well, that's just to do businesswith them.
That insurance policy will notcover if something happens to a
load, if and literally anythinghappens.
(05:11):
Like they're basically justadditional expenses we pay to
work with a shipper, but theyreally cover nothing.
So you need to one, like yousaid, make sure that trucking
company has enough, or you go toa different kind of insurance,
which is what load shore wouldbe, which is it's called a first
position policy because it isinsuring your customer directly,
(05:33):
meaning, like you don't need togo to the carrier to work with
the insurance company.
If something happens, thatinsurance company just pays your
customer.
Yep.
They're more expensive.
Like roughly, I'm looking atsomewhere between an extra
hundred dollars per$100,000.
I reviewed a bunch of these lastweek, and it's like$500,000 a
load was about$500.
(05:53):
Additional insurance cost forone load.
A million dollar one was alittle more than a thousand
dollars.
So like they were roughly about$110 per$100,000.
SPEAKER_01 (06:03):
So cargo shield, um, I think and they're an all-risk
policy, but it's just standard$100,000.
I think theirs is like$35,$35 aload.
But all it's doing is like it'snot adding any additional
insurance or any, you know, it'sit's just saying like, hey,
we'll help settle the claimfaster and not, you know, we'll
(06:24):
settle it within 30 days.
Whereas um when you go abovethat or to other commodities,
that's where yeah, you're gonnabe looking at a higher price.
Like, I I've seen people thathave gotten like a load share
policy for a couple hundredbucks, um, but and it's worth it
for them because it's quick andeasy, covers what's needed, and
the carrier doesn't have to goand try to figure it out on
their end and factor it intotheir rate.
SPEAKER_00 (06:47):
So um there's another whole rabbit hole you
can go down with this, meaningthat like since most shippers
don't know this, what that whatis actually happening in a lot
of scenarios is shippers aremoving freight that is just
uninsured all of the time.
And then because I've been inbids that were pretty large with
(07:09):
pretty large companies, and I'vegotten feedback where they're
like, Well, hey, you're like$300too much on every lane.
And I'm like, okay, that'sbecause I added the insurance
cost because everything you shipis three to four hundred
thousand dollars.
And they went, Well, everyoneelse that gave me rates is
exactly this amount cheaper thanyou.
I'm like, that's your you're notinsured.
(07:30):
They're like, but they havecargo contingent cargo
insurance.
I'm like, that's not realinsurance.
And I'm like, you are moving insome cases hundreds of loads
uninsured every day and justdon't realize it.
SPEAKER_01 (07:42):
Like this is what it should cost.
We had one that where thecustomer was shipping stuff that
was worth like two to threemillion dollars.
Yeah.
And big box brokerages that welost a few loads to, um, won't
name them, um, but they wererunning them uninsured.
And when the customer realizedour, you know, why our rates
were higher, it's because wehave this insurance on it.
(08:04):
They were like, oh my gosh.
Like, and they were they werelucky that nothing ever happened
and got damaged because thatyou'd be in a huge mess there.
SPEAKER_00 (08:12):
So well, that's the real move, right?
Having this conversation withyour customer and kind of
explaining the truth of it,right?
Like, hey, you can keep payingthose rates, but whether you pay
us or any other brokerage, it'snot a coincidence that all of
those rates are exactly myinsurance cost cheaper, right?
Because like, and I've shoppedthese at a handful of different
(08:35):
insurance options.
I've looked at account specific,customer specific, lane
specific, commodity specific,per load, per account.
And like, no matter how you cutit, like if you are that much
more expensive, it's becauseyour competitors uh either don't
probably don't know this, is thefirst thing.
And your shipper probablydoesn't know this.
And they'll go, well, I movedthousands of loads, there hasn't
(08:55):
been an issue.
I'm like, yeah, because youhaven't had a claim yet.
Where do you have a claim on amillion dollar load?
And then tell me what happensbecause you are going to be in a
shitstorm of problems trying tofigure out why you lost a
million dollars and thought itwas insured, but it actually
wasn't.
SPEAKER_01 (09:09):
Exactly.
All right, next question.
Um, any brokers want to giveadvice on booking trucks?
I need some negotiating skills.
I'm new to this.
So I picked this question out ofall of them because I dealt with
something this morning that wasbasically the wrong way of
trying to book a truck.
Um, and long story short,somebody was trying to email
(09:31):
blast like 4,000 people all at,you know, 4,000 emails in a day,
just shotgun blast out, tryingto capture carriers about
available, you know, a bunch ofavailable loads.
And I would say that is, youknow, it's one tactic, it's
probably not the best.
So if I were to look at theprimary method of booking
(09:51):
trucks, I would say this, right?
Primary option number one is gowith a carrier that you have a
personal relationshiphistorically and that you know
and you trust, right?
Next up, if that's notavailable, a carrier that your
company has a historicalrelationship with that somebody
else within your company hasworked with and can trust, and
(10:14):
you can see historical rates ordata on them.
And then you start to fall intothe, well, I don't have any
internal data.
Okay, well, now you've gotthird-party sources that are out
there that they've gotaggregated data of carriers and
their performance and um othermetrics about them.
So this could be something likeif you want to source carriers
through gen logs or throughhighway or through the DAT
(10:35):
directory, things like that.
So you've got actual objectivedata on where this carrier has
been seen to operate, wherethey've identified they prefer
to operate, where they'veliterally been seen on gen logs
camera sensors throughout thecountry.
Um, and then we get to themarketplaces, right?
The the load boards, like yourDAT, your truck stop, and the
new um, the new highway exchangeas well, where you're literally
(11:00):
you're posting loads up thereand you're seeing carriers post
trucks, or they might call youon a posted load and you don't
have a relationship with them,you don't really have a ton of
data on them.
You're just you're freely outthere in the open marketplace.
Um and that's another way to goabout doing it.
And honestly, when you're brandnew and you don't have any
(11:21):
carrier relationships, you'regonna likely have to rely on
some of these differentplatforms and marketplaces to
start to develop relationships.
And I would say the first timeyou talk to a carrier doesn't
have to be when you have a loadposted, right?
If you know certain areas thatyou're prospecting business in,
I would make the same phonecalls on the carrier side,
trying to reach out and say,hey, um, you know, what kind of
runs are you guys typicallylooking to make?
(11:42):
What lanes do you like tooperate in?
Where are you trying to get backcalls from?
Because that'll help youprospect and you're building
carrier relationships at thesame time as prospecting
shippers.
So when it comes time to coverthat load, you now know, and
based on whether you're trackingstuff in your TMS or in a CRM or
whatever for carriers, you nowknow, hey, I'm gonna call this
guy.
I've already talked to him acouple of times.
Um, they typically have thistruck available or these uh you
(12:05):
know, this equipment availableum in these areas.
And that just helps you go, youknow, way, you know, develop
that relationship way furtherand in advance versus you know,
you get a call from a carrier ona load board, you're trying to
run their MC, and you're justhoping I'm not getting scammed
or double brokered or stuffstolen cargo, et cetera.
So that would be uh my advicethere is to take a proactive
(12:27):
approach to your carrydevelopment.
Um Ben fell out on us, so I'lltake this last question on my
own.
Lastly, uh, as a broker, do youprefer to work with an owner
operator, a company with a largefleet being five or more trucks,
or a smaller startup with one totwo trucks and a third-party
hiring of drivers?
Which and why?
Well, I think it really justdepends on what kind of freight
(12:49):
you're dealing with.
If you're dealing with a singlespot load that is just a very
simple, I got one of these, it'sgot to go out in today or in the
next couple of days.
Um, it doesn't really matter tome which of those I use the the
most likely is probably gonna bea smaller carrier, just because
they tend to operate in the spotmarket spot market more often
(13:10):
versus a larger fleet that islikely gonna have their assets
contracted well in advancedirectly with a shipper or maybe
with a broker in some instances.
Um, larger fleets are reallygreat if you're dealing with
predictable freight for yourcustomer.
So if you know in advance, hey,my customer, I've got a
three-year or a three-monthcommitment with them on um, you
(13:31):
know, these these 20 lanes,that's where you're gonna want
to start piecemealing thecoverage on those and you want
to try and contract them.
And typically your largerfleets, even your mid-sized
fleets, are gonna have moreassets that are more predictable
well in advance.
So um again, it just depends onthe situation and what kind of
freight it is.
But the the rule of thumb Iprobably give here is that um
(13:53):
the smaller the opportunity orthe the more spot market that it
operates in, you're probablygonna be dealing with, you know,
your owner operator, yoursmaller fleet, or mid-sized
fleet, even.
And then your larger opportunityis more predictable,
contract-based with a customer.
Um, you're gonna likely have toleverage or want to leverage a
larger fleet because I'd ratherwork with three large carriers
(14:14):
on a 20-lane project versus 20owner operators in it.
Because then you're justmanaging a lot different.
Um, who am I paying?
And um, you know, what are theterms?
And we have to qualify thesedifferent carriers.
So that's my take there.
Great questions.
Thanks for sending them in.
And we'll see you guys on thenext edition of the final mile.
And until next time, go bills.
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