September 2, 2025 • 18 mins
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
❓ How do I scale past $10K/month when my current customers are all small? How do I win bigger shippers, and how should my prospecting and pitch change?
🚚 I got a load from a customer — how do I find a truck now?
🇨🇦 As a broker, can I move CAN–CAN (intra-Canada) loads?
🌍 Can I move international loads?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back.
It's another edition of theFinal Mile.
Your questions we're going toanswer them on today's show.
If you're new, continue or Ishouldn't say continue.
If you're new, check out all ofour other stuff.
If you've been with us for awhile, continue to share us,
leave those comments, reviewsand check out the Freight Broker
Basics course.
(00:20):
If you are looking for aneducational option for you or
your team, team and check outthe sponsors down below to help
support the channel.
Ben, we're going to get rightinto it this morning.
Man, all right.
First question and I think thiscame from, I think someone just
emailed us or did a form on ourwebsite which you can do right
at Freight360.net.
They said here's my question.
(00:40):
I've got about 10 customers,but they're all very small.
The largest one might give methree loads a week at most.
(01:01):
I'm trying to scale past the10K a month mark.
I've quoted for one or talkingbrokerage profit there, or
brokerage revenue, some peoplecall it.
That's what you're retainingafter you pay your carriers,
right?
So we're not talking 10K andcustomer invoicing, we're
talking after we pay the trucks.
Here's how much we're able towork with as a brokerage.
So 10K a month, I think is agreat benchmark for folks to you
(01:24):
know, to kind of aim for that's.
You know, I would say you madeit per se.
If you get to that point, firstthing I would say is great job
having a diversified book with10 customers, three loads a week
for one.
I think you know.
The positive there is that ifyou lose any one of those
customers it doesn't ruin yourbusiness.
(01:46):
But how do you get biggercustomers?
There's probably two ways tolook at it.
How do you get more businessout of your existing customers
so they become a larger part ofyour book?
And there's also how do I getcustomers that just do more
business.
There's really no change toyour prospecting methods other
than the types of companies thatyou're targeting.
(02:07):
Ben, you've had kind of abenchmark of loads per week that
a customer is shipping for themto be a good candidate.
What would you say as far asthe size of customers for this
person to prospect?
And then I'll kind of talkabout how to leverage what
you're already doing.
But what would you say as faras size to be prospecting?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Pretty much like.
This was what TQL taught yearsago and I think it always kind
of holds pretty true, as if acompany again there are
exceptions to all of these.
It does not mean this alwaysholds true, but it's like a rule
of thumb If a company's notshipping at least 20 to 25 loads
a week, they're not going torely on a broker too often
because they can coordinate withtrucking companies.
(02:50):
They usually sometimes haveenough lead time to get the load
so the trucks can repositionthemselves for the shipper.
So they'll occasionally have aload that they need covered
because they come up last minute.
And those are probably thethree loads a week that maybe
this person's getting right.
The other ones are probablygoing directly to trucking
companies or they could be goingto other brokers.
But I mean most of the time.
(03:11):
That pretty much holds true.
And if you think about it, ifyou're a one person cradle to
the grave brokerage, if you'rebooking five loads a day, five
days a week, that's 25 loads.
One or two loads every otherday falls off which requires you
to scramble to recover thatload.
That's what the shipper's doing, except the shipper doesn't
have the ability to access thatin the open market as quickly as
(03:33):
you do, which is why thoseloads come to the broker right.
So again, there's lots of othervariables of planning.
It's like the staffing at theshipper.
If there's three people thereand they're moving 25 loads a
week, like maybe they stilldon't need a broker that much
because they've got enoughpeople over there to call
trucking companies.
But usually a company of thatsize, shipping that volume,
probably has one person andthat's really where they'll need
(03:55):
to rely on a broker for time totime.
Trucks that get held back,delayed incidents over the road
you know traffic, whether theyneed somebody who can get them
capacity in a short period oftime, frequently enough that it
makes sense to work with them.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
Now the, as far as you know,what can they do to leverage
their current book of business?
We've said this before.
I probably don't say it enough.
If you don't ask, you'll neverreceive most times from a
customer, right?
So whoever's given them threeloads a week, I would and and
(04:29):
your other nine customers, right, I'd be asking them about other
opportunities that they've got,other lanes that they're
running, because you're likelynot moving 100 percent of their
business If you are here'shere's a trick to that.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Right Before you move past that point, I want to
interrupt you.
But, like, how you ask thatquestion matters, right.
If you're just saying whatother freight do you have, that
is clearly a self-centeredquestion, meaning it's like, hey
, I'm asking you what else I canhave, what other freight do you
have that I can run for you,right?
(05:02):
However, if I give them areason why they should tell me
this, the whole thing changes.
Hey, I know you have thesefacilities in these cities.
We've got guys delivering forother customers that are in
these areas pretty frequently.
Do you guys have any otherlanes during the week where you
might need some capacity?
Because, like I, literallyalready have drivers in some of
these areas.
Maybe we can match up some ofthe dates and times where I can
(05:22):
either get you some betterservice or maybe some better
pricing.
Is there anything else you guysare moving that we can discuss
to see if it makes a fit?
Now I'm giving them a reasonwhy they should tell me about
other lanes instead of justasking what else I can have and
what else I can price and whatelse I can get out of the
situation.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, the other way I would do it too is just ask for
general feedback on how you'reperforming service-wise for them
.
How are your rates looking, howare the drivers you're sending
in doing, how's the interactionat the dock, any issues with
paperwork or pickup numbersbeing confused?
And when you sort of get thatfeedback, then you can, you know
, assuming it's good feedbackhey, you know how am I stacking
(06:00):
up against your other providers?
Right, and you could crack theegg open on.
Actually you're doing a greatjob.
I just I wish I can getso-and-so over at TQL, you know,
to have the same kind ofservice you do, or whatever the
case might be.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, and that gives you a clue into what else might
be there.
If you're talking to a customerand you can get them to tell
you how many other brokers theywork with, and you're getting
three loads a week and they'retelling you in one way or
another they're working withfour other brokers regularly,
that's 12 loads, right, yep?
Just take what you're gettingto multiply by the number of
other brokers are working with.
(06:33):
It's not going to hold up 100%,but it gives you some insight
into probably how that person isdivvying up what they have and
actually what they do have, thatyou might have an opportunity
to service better.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Now, as far as you know, finding other shippers,
the internet is like your bestfriend in this case.
So if you know that, I'll justmake this up, if this is a if
your three load a week customeris like a small widget
manufacturer.
That's just a local, regionaltype production.
(07:05):
You can go to like chat, gpt orGoogle and just say like hey,
who are the midsize widgetmanufacturers, united States or
you know?
Replace widget with whatevercommodity and Google right up
top now has like the Gemini AIthing or you know just sort of
standard search or chat, gpt orany of the LLMs out there will
help you or any otherprospecting tool that you're
(07:28):
used to using.
Just look up the same type ofcommodity or manufacturer and
search a higher revenue size.
So that will you know that willtend to get you the results
you're looking for, because thekey here is, if you're
succeeding in a certain area,lean into that.
There's no reason for you topivot to a totally new commodity
or equipment type or region ifyou're already doing well and
(07:51):
have a carrier network thatworks well with those
commodities.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I did this yesterday.
So we've got a pretty largeproject over a long period of
time where all of the materialwe're shipping is going to a
specific type of project and allof those projects are managed
by certain types of companies.
Just to throw out an example,like let's just say it's like a
construction site, right, if youknow the construction site.
Or like use oil rigs.
(08:14):
Like okay, my niche is shippingcrane mats and pipe to oil rig
companies, right?
What I do is look exactly forwhat you said here's my company,
put all the details in intoChatGBT and give me like a
comprehensive list of companiesthat compete in the same
commodity and service the sameindustries that are of similar
(08:36):
size is where I always start.
You can always go bigger andsmaller, but I always start with
what is working.
And then what I do is, like youneed a piece of information to
use in those calls to help speedup the trust, right?
So then what I would do is Iwould call, like the project
managers for the oil companiesthe ones that are on site or
(08:59):
managing the actual oil rigs andask them hey, name, drop who
I'm working with.
Hey, I'm shipping crane matsand pipe for ABC Pipe and XYZ
Crane Mat Company to a bunch ofsites out in West Texas.
I know you guys are in thatindustry too.
Just out of curiosity, couldyou point me in the right
direction?
Who handles like coordinatingwith your vendors when you guys
(09:20):
need crane mats for your oilrigs and when you're getting new
sites off the ground?
Those people don't getprospected much because they
don't ship anything.
Their vendors do.
But you can call the peoplethat are actually purchasing the
stuff from your customer.
But you can call the peoplethat are actually purchasing the
stuff from your customer.
They'll tell you who else theybuy from.
Then you get their name andtheir company name.
(09:41):
Then you call the othercompanies in your niche, like
the other Craymac companies inTexas, for instance, just to
make one up and you go.
Hey, I was talking with Brianover at BP Oil.
He manages a bunch, brian James.
He runs a bunch of the oilprojects out for BP in West
Texas.
He said he sources most of yourcrane mats from you guys.
We ship a lot of the crane matsout to these other projects for
(10:02):
XYZ Crane Mat Company.
Just out of curiosity, are youguys have any projects coming up
?
This is something that might bea good fit, because we've got
already carriers that are kindof lined up servicing that area.
Now I've connected all of thesedots and guess how quickly that
conversation turns intosomething.
Now they're like receptive theyprobably know that company.
If they don't know that person,they know.
There's a small group ofcompanies that put oil rigs up.
(10:24):
They know who their competitorsare when you name drop your
shipping for their competitorand you're in contact with their
customer.
Now all of a sudden, in 30seconds they start talking to
you.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Now they're not going to give you a load in 30
seconds.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
but now it's opening up like, oh, you know your shit,
you know who the players are,you're in the mix.
You kind of understand thisindustry.
Here's what we're running into.
We don't have any lanes rightnow, but we've got a big project
coming up in a few months.
Reach to me in a few weeks andlet's see if there's something
that we might be able to line up.
That's how you can likeexpedite that whole process from
.
I've got trucks in the area.
Can I talk to who's in chargeof shipping?
(10:59):
To playing like expert level,to get directly to these people,
name dropping who you need toto be able to get that
conversation moving a hell of alot faster.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah and further, because I always like dig on the
whole phrase.
I have trucks in the area.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That's a way of of saying that without saying it,
without saying it all right.
One of the things I wanted toadd real quick along those lines
is uh, a lot of people forgetto look up associations for
those industries.
So, like for me, micah, themeat importers council of
america right, that's anassociation most people don't
know about, but that's where allmy customers are, um, and not
only do they give out articleson, like the industry, so you
(11:37):
can learn more and have thatexpert level information when
you go to prospect, but then youhave a list of prospects as
long as you're updating thosethings.
So when you're a prospect Tradeshow, associations, just trade
associations in general.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, those are great and sometimes, like you know,
people will email you and sayhey, do you want this list of
all these attendees at thisconference?
I'll sell it to you for blah,blah, blah.
You can usually find it forfree online somewhere.
So, yeah, good, good addition,all right.
Our next question I got a loadfrom a customer.
How do I find a truck?
Now I won't go too deep intothis one, but some of your
(12:14):
general carrier sourcing toolsthe obvious one for a new broker
is the load boards.
So, posting a, posting a loadand you know, that way you can
field some inbound calls.
You can also search for postedtrucks.
The load board, I would say,should be your, your last resort
, just based off the fact thatyou have limited information on
(12:37):
them.
Building rapport andrelationships with carriers over
time is going to be your bestbet, but again, if you're brand
new, you're probably going to beusing load boards.
There's other tools as well.
You can use any of the carriersourcing tools, like Highway.
You can source carriers thatway.
Dat's directory will let youknow fleet size, equipment type
(13:01):
and their domicile location.
People do it in our Facebookgroup literally all day long Any
of the tools I'm missing?
I mean, there's a whole bunchof paid for capacity tools out
there, but they're allmarketplaces essentially.
Is there anything that I'mmissing there, ben?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
No, I mean there's like parades out there,
fleetworks, rmis Highway, theyall have some carrier sourcing
feature.
I mean you could also do itthrough Google.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Genlogs 2 is a great one, if you're a Genlogs
customer.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, but I mean honestly, if it's like your
first load from your customer,probably go to the load board
because you probably have alimited amount of time, like
that's where I would start.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yep, all right.
Next question as a broker, canI move Canada to Canada loads?
Yes, this question actuallycame up.
Somebody asked me this earlierthis week and it's interesting
because I remember years ago Iwas like I don't think we can do
that, and then I looked into it.
I'm like, actually you can.
The only limitation on it isCanadian carrier.
(14:04):
Yeah, cabotage laws.
So like you can't send anAmerican carrier that's in
Canada, well, first of all, youcan't send them into Canada to
haul a intrastate Canadian load.
You need a Canadian only or aCanadian domiciled carrier that
can do that, and that's allcabotage.
Domiciled carrier that can dothat, and that's all cabotage.
(14:25):
The same thing happens with,like, airlines, cruise lines and
motor carriers.
So it's all.
It's all to prevent foreign.
It's basically to preventforeign labor from competing
against the country's internalworkforce.
If I can you know, break itdown?
(14:48):
Barney style is that.
Would you explain it any otherway?
Cabotage, how that works.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's correct.
I would make it even simpler.
You can use the truckingcompany based in that country to
move it in the country, pick upand delivery.
If it goes to another country,it can only pick up or deliver,
not both.
So Canada if it's a Canadiancarrier, they can pick up and
deliver in Canada, or pick up inCanada and deliver to the US,
or pick up in US and deliver toCanada.
(15:15):
A US company cannot run Canadato Canada and a Canadian company
cannot run US to US.
Same thing for Mexican carriers.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yep, very good.
Last question Can I moveinternational loads With just a
brokerage authority?
No, you can't do the import orexport.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Same answer to the first question that we just
answered is true Meaning likeinternational to Canada and
Mexico yes, to any other country, no.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Very true.
Yes, we have the USMCA whereyou can do cross-border stuff
that way.
But a question came up to meearlier this week.
Someone wanted to importsomething from I think it was
Sweden, and what I said is, whenthat container hits the US
ports, the drayage moves and theinland repositioning or inland
(16:10):
transit is where we come in asbrokers.
But we cannot clear customs onand you know we can't do the
import or export portion of it.
What I?
I actually have someone at ourcompany who is both an agent for
our brokerage and he's an agentfor a freight forwarder.
So he is able to do both partsof it.
But the import and the exportpart of it and I think it's
(16:32):
India to US, us to India thatactual import leg or export leg
does not run through ourbrokerage.
It runs through his freightforwarding company that he works
under their license.
I had a guy in the past atanother company who did the same
thing.
He worked as an agent for aforwarder in New Jersey and a
broker agent for a company inBuffalo and the domestic stuff
(16:55):
ran through the brokerage.
The international stuff ranthrough the forwarder, again
with the exception of US, mexico, canada, again as a broker.
We're not doing the customsclearance for that.
That shipper still is going toprobably have a customs agent
that's handling their paperworkand the clearance.
But you can coordinate thetruck for that case.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, you need a forwarding license or an NVOCC.
There's two different licensesOne is to move things
domestically, like you said, andthe other one is
internationally.
Your free brokerage licensedoes not cover international.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Correct Good questions, keep sending them our
way and we'll keep answeringFinal thoughts, ben.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And until next time go Bills.
Welcome back.
It's another edition of theFinal Mile.
Your questions we're going toanswer them on today's show.
If you're new, continue or Ishouldn't say continue.
If you're new, check out all ofour other stuff.
If you've been with us for awhile, continue to share us,
leave those comments, reviewsand check out the Freight Broker
Basics course.
(00:20):
If you are looking for aneducational option for you or
your team, team and check outthe sponsors down below to help
support the channel.
Ben, we're going to get rightinto it this morning.
Man, all right.
First question and I think thiscame from, I think someone just
emailed us or did a form on ourwebsite which you can do right
at Freight360.net.
They said here's my question.
(00:40):
I've got about 10 customers,but they're all very small.
The largest one might give methree loads a week at most.
(01:01):
I'm trying to scale past the10K a month mark.
I've quoted for one or talkingbrokerage profit there, or
brokerage revenue, some peoplecall it.
That's what you're retainingafter you pay your carriers,
right?
So we're not talking 10K andcustomer invoicing, we're
talking after we pay the trucks.
Here's how much we're able towork with as a brokerage.
So 10K a month, I think is agreat benchmark for folks to you
(01:24):
know, to kind of aim for that's.
You know, I would say you madeit per se.
If you get to that point, firstthing I would say is great job
having a diversified book with10 customers, three loads a week
for one.
I think you know.
The positive there is that ifyou lose any one of those
customers it doesn't ruin yourbusiness.
(01:46):
But how do you get biggercustomers?
There's probably two ways tolook at it.
How do you get more businessout of your existing customers
so they become a larger part ofyour book?
And there's also how do I getcustomers that just do more
business.
There's really no change toyour prospecting methods other
than the types of companies thatyou're targeting.
(02:07):
Ben, you've had kind of abenchmark of loads per week that
a customer is shipping for themto be a good candidate.
What would you say as far asthe size of customers for this
person to prospect?
And then I'll kind of talkabout how to leverage what
you're already doing.
But what would you say as faras size to be prospecting?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Pretty much like.
This was what TQL taught yearsago and I think it always kind
of holds pretty true, as if acompany again there are
exceptions to all of these.
It does not mean this alwaysholds true, but it's like a rule
of thumb If a company's notshipping at least 20 to 25 loads
a week, they're not going torely on a broker too often
because they can coordinate withtrucking companies.
(02:50):
They usually sometimes haveenough lead time to get the load
so the trucks can repositionthemselves for the shipper.
So they'll occasionally have aload that they need covered
because they come up last minute.
And those are probably thethree loads a week that maybe
this person's getting right.
The other ones are probablygoing directly to trucking
companies or they could be goingto other brokers.
But I mean most of the time.
(03:11):
That pretty much holds true.
And if you think about it, ifyou're a one person cradle to
the grave brokerage, if you'rebooking five loads a day, five
days a week, that's 25 loads.
One or two loads every otherday falls off which requires you
to scramble to recover thatload.
That's what the shipper's doing, except the shipper doesn't
have the ability to access thatin the open market as quickly as
(03:33):
you do, which is why thoseloads come to the broker right.
So again, there's lots of othervariables of planning.
It's like the staffing at theshipper.
If there's three people thereand they're moving 25 loads a
week, like maybe they stilldon't need a broker that much
because they've got enoughpeople over there to call
trucking companies.
But usually a company of thatsize, shipping that volume,
probably has one person andthat's really where they'll need
(03:55):
to rely on a broker for time totime.
Trucks that get held back,delayed incidents over the road
you know traffic, whether theyneed somebody who can get them
capacity in a short period oftime, frequently enough that it
makes sense to work with them.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
Now the, as far as you know,what can they do to leverage
their current book of business?
We've said this before.
I probably don't say it enough.
If you don't ask, you'll neverreceive most times from a
customer, right?
So whoever's given them threeloads a week, I would and and
(04:29):
your other nine customers, right, I'd be asking them about other
opportunities that they've got,other lanes that they're
running, because you're likelynot moving 100 percent of their
business If you are here'shere's a trick to that.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Right Before you move past that point, I want to
interrupt you.
But, like, how you ask thatquestion matters, right.
If you're just saying whatother freight do you have, that
is clearly a self-centeredquestion, meaning it's like, hey
, I'm asking you what else I canhave, what other freight do you
have that I can run for you,right?
(05:02):
However, if I give them areason why they should tell me
this, the whole thing changes.
Hey, I know you have thesefacilities in these cities.
We've got guys delivering forother customers that are in
these areas pretty frequently.
Do you guys have any otherlanes during the week where you
might need some capacity?
Because, like I, literallyalready have drivers in some of
these areas.
Maybe we can match up some ofthe dates and times where I can
(05:22):
either get you some betterservice or maybe some better
pricing.
Is there anything else you guysare moving that we can discuss
to see if it makes a fit?
Now I'm giving them a reasonwhy they should tell me about
other lanes instead of justasking what else I can have and
what else I can price and whatelse I can get out of the
situation.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, the other way I would do it too is just ask for
general feedback on how you'reperforming service-wise for them
.
How are your rates looking, howare the drivers you're sending
in doing, how's the interactionat the dock, any issues with
paperwork or pickup numbersbeing confused?
And when you sort of get thatfeedback, then you can, you know
, assuming it's good feedbackhey, you know how am I stacking
(06:00):
up against your other providers?
Right, and you could crack theegg open on.
Actually you're doing a greatjob.
I just I wish I can getso-and-so over at TQL, you know,
to have the same kind ofservice you do, or whatever the
case might be.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, and that gives you a clue into what else might
be there.
If you're talking to a customerand you can get them to tell
you how many other brokers theywork with, and you're getting
three loads a week and they'retelling you in one way or
another they're working withfour other brokers regularly,
that's 12 loads, right, yep?
Just take what you're gettingto multiply by the number of
other brokers are working with.
(06:33):
It's not going to hold up 100%,but it gives you some insight
into probably how that person isdivvying up what they have and
actually what they do have, thatyou might have an opportunity
to service better.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Now, as far as you know, finding other shippers,
the internet is like your bestfriend in this case.
So if you know that, I'll justmake this up, if this is a if
your three load a week customeris like a small widget
manufacturer.
That's just a local, regionaltype production.
(07:05):
You can go to like chat, gpt orGoogle and just say like hey,
who are the midsize widgetmanufacturers, united States or
you know?
Replace widget with whatevercommodity and Google right up
top now has like the Gemini AIthing or you know just sort of
standard search or chat, gpt orany of the LLMs out there will
help you or any otherprospecting tool that you're
(07:28):
used to using.
Just look up the same type ofcommodity or manufacturer and
search a higher revenue size.
So that will you know that willtend to get you the results
you're looking for, because thekey here is, if you're
succeeding in a certain area,lean into that.
There's no reason for you topivot to a totally new commodity
or equipment type or region ifyou're already doing well and
(07:51):
have a carrier network thatworks well with those
commodities.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I did this yesterday.
So we've got a pretty largeproject over a long period of
time where all of the materialwe're shipping is going to a
specific type of project and allof those projects are managed
by certain types of companies.
Just to throw out an example,like let's just say it's like a
construction site, right, if youknow the construction site.
Or like use oil rigs.
(08:14):
Like okay, my niche is shippingcrane mats and pipe to oil rig
companies, right?
What I do is look exactly forwhat you said here's my company,
put all the details in intoChatGBT and give me like a
comprehensive list of companiesthat compete in the same
commodity and service the sameindustries that are of similar
(08:36):
size is where I always start.
You can always go bigger andsmaller, but I always start with
what is working.
And then what I do is, like youneed a piece of information to
use in those calls to help speedup the trust, right?
So then what I would do is Iwould call, like the project
managers for the oil companiesthe ones that are on site or
(08:59):
managing the actual oil rigs andask them hey, name, drop who
I'm working with.
Hey, I'm shipping crane matsand pipe for ABC Pipe and XYZ
Crane Mat Company to a bunch ofsites out in West Texas.
I know you guys are in thatindustry too.
Just out of curiosity, couldyou point me in the right
direction?
Who handles like coordinatingwith your vendors when you guys
(09:20):
need crane mats for your oilrigs and when you're getting new
sites off the ground?
Those people don't getprospected much because they
don't ship anything.
Their vendors do.
But you can call the peoplethat are actually purchasing the
stuff from your customer.
But you can call the peoplethat are actually purchasing the
stuff from your customer.
They'll tell you who else theybuy from.
Then you get their name andtheir company name.
(09:41):
Then you call the othercompanies in your niche, like
the other Craymac companies inTexas, for instance, just to
make one up and you go.
Hey, I was talking with Brianover at BP Oil.
He manages a bunch, brian James.
He runs a bunch of the oilprojects out for BP in West
Texas.
He said he sources most of yourcrane mats from you guys.
We ship a lot of the crane matsout to these other projects for
(10:02):
XYZ Crane Mat Company.
Just out of curiosity, are youguys have any projects coming up
?
This is something that might bea good fit, because we've got
already carriers that are kindof lined up servicing that area.
Now I've connected all of thesedots and guess how quickly that
conversation turns intosomething.
Now they're like receptive theyprobably know that company.
If they don't know that person,they know.
There's a small group ofcompanies that put oil rigs up.
(10:24):
They know who their competitorsare when you name drop your
shipping for their competitorand you're in contact with their
customer.
Now all of a sudden, in 30seconds they start talking to
you.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Now they're not going to give you a load in 30
seconds.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
but now it's opening up like, oh, you know your shit,
you know who the players are,you're in the mix.
You kind of understand thisindustry.
Here's what we're running into.
We don't have any lanes rightnow, but we've got a big project
coming up in a few months.
Reach to me in a few weeks andlet's see if there's something
that we might be able to line up.
That's how you can likeexpedite that whole process from
.
I've got trucks in the area.
Can I talk to who's in chargeof shipping?
(10:59):
To playing like expert level,to get directly to these people,
name dropping who you need toto be able to get that
conversation moving a hell of alot faster.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah and further, because I always like dig on the
whole phrase.
I have trucks in the area.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That's a way of of saying that without saying it,
without saying it all right.
One of the things I wanted toadd real quick along those lines
is uh, a lot of people forgetto look up associations for
those industries.
So, like for me, micah, themeat importers council of
america right, that's anassociation most people don't
know about, but that's where allmy customers are, um, and not
only do they give out articleson, like the industry, so you
(11:37):
can learn more and have thatexpert level information when
you go to prospect, but then youhave a list of prospects as
long as you're updating thosethings.
So when you're a prospect Tradeshow, associations, just trade
associations in general.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, those are great and sometimes, like you know,
people will email you and sayhey, do you want this list of
all these attendees at thisconference?
I'll sell it to you for blah,blah, blah.
You can usually find it forfree online somewhere.
So, yeah, good, good addition,all right.
Our next question I got a loadfrom a customer.
How do I find a truck?
Now I won't go too deep intothis one, but some of your
(12:14):
general carrier sourcing toolsthe obvious one for a new broker
is the load boards.
So, posting a, posting a loadand you know, that way you can
field some inbound calls.
You can also search for postedtrucks.
The load board, I would say,should be your, your last resort
, just based off the fact thatyou have limited information on
(12:37):
them.
Building rapport andrelationships with carriers over
time is going to be your bestbet, but again, if you're brand
new, you're probably going to beusing load boards.
There's other tools as well.
You can use any of the carriersourcing tools, like Highway.
You can source carriers thatway.
Dat's directory will let youknow fleet size, equipment type
(13:01):
and their domicile location.
People do it in our Facebookgroup literally all day long Any
of the tools I'm missing?
I mean, there's a whole bunchof paid for capacity tools out
there, but they're allmarketplaces essentially.
Is there anything that I'mmissing there, ben?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
No, I mean there's like parades out there,
fleetworks, rmis Highway, theyall have some carrier sourcing
feature.
I mean you could also do itthrough Google.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Genlogs 2 is a great one, if you're a Genlogs
customer.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, but I mean honestly, if it's like your
first load from your customer,probably go to the load board
because you probably have alimited amount of time, like
that's where I would start.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yep, all right.
Next question as a broker, canI move Canada to Canada loads?
Yes, this question actuallycame up.
Somebody asked me this earlierthis week and it's interesting
because I remember years ago Iwas like I don't think we can do
that, and then I looked into it.
I'm like, actually you can.
The only limitation on it isCanadian carrier.
(14:04):
Yeah, cabotage laws.
So like you can't send anAmerican carrier that's in
Canada, well, first of all, youcan't send them into Canada to
haul a intrastate Canadian load.
You need a Canadian only or aCanadian domiciled carrier that
can do that, and that's allcabotage.
Domiciled carrier that can dothat, and that's all cabotage.
(14:25):
The same thing happens with,like, airlines, cruise lines and
motor carriers.
So it's all.
It's all to prevent foreign.
It's basically to preventforeign labor from competing
against the country's internalworkforce.
If I can you know, break itdown?
(14:48):
Barney style is that.
Would you explain it any otherway?
Cabotage, how that works.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's correct.
I would make it even simpler.
You can use the truckingcompany based in that country to
move it in the country, pick upand delivery.
If it goes to another country,it can only pick up or deliver,
not both.
So Canada if it's a Canadiancarrier, they can pick up and
deliver in Canada, or pick up inCanada and deliver to the US,
or pick up in US and deliver toCanada.
(15:15):
A US company cannot run Canadato Canada and a Canadian company
cannot run US to US.
Same thing for Mexican carriers.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yep, very good.
Last question Can I moveinternational loads With just a
brokerage authority?
No, you can't do the import orexport.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Same answer to the first question that we just
answered is true Meaning likeinternational to Canada and
Mexico yes, to any other country, no.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Very true.
Yes, we have the USMCA whereyou can do cross-border stuff
that way.
But a question came up to meearlier this week.
Someone wanted to importsomething from I think it was
Sweden, and what I said is, whenthat container hits the US
ports, the drayage moves and theinland repositioning or inland
(16:10):
transit is where we come in asbrokers.
But we cannot clear customs onand you know we can't do the
import or export portion of it.
What I?
I actually have someone at ourcompany who is both an agent for
our brokerage and he's an agentfor a freight forwarder.
So he is able to do both partsof it.
But the import and the exportpart of it and I think it's
(16:32):
India to US, us to India thatactual import leg or export leg
does not run through ourbrokerage.
It runs through his freightforwarding company that he works
under their license.
I had a guy in the past atanother company who did the same
thing.
He worked as an agent for aforwarder in New Jersey and a
broker agent for a company inBuffalo and the domestic stuff
(16:55):
ran through the brokerage.
The international stuff ranthrough the forwarder, again
with the exception of US, mexico, canada, again as a broker.
We're not doing the customsclearance for that.
That shipper still is going toprobably have a customs agent
that's handling their paperworkand the clearance.
But you can coordinate thetruck for that case.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, you need a forwarding license or an NVOCC.
There's two different licensesOne is to move things
domestically, like you said, andthe other one is
internationally.
Your free brokerage licensedoes not cover international.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Correct Good questions, keep sending them our
way and we'll keep answeringFinal thoughts, ben.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And until next time go Bills.
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