June 24, 2025 • 21 mins
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
- 📦 Recommended freight broker software tools to manage rate confirmations, BOLs, PODs, and invoices.
- 🚚 Strategies for pricing and moving LTL (Less-than-Truckload) shipments.
- 🥔 What to do when shippers underpay: Can brokers ask for more money without damaging relationships?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back for another edition of the Final
Mile.
It's our Q&A session, where weanswer all of your questions,
whether they come from YouTubecomments or directly sent to us
through our website or via email, and sometimes from our
Facebook group and other sources.
These today all happen to comefrom YouTube comments.
Hopefully, I didn't repeat anyof the ones that you and Stephen
(00:22):
did the last two weeks.
So if we did, we'll just we'llplay an audible.
But, also check out all of ourother content at Freight360.net,
including the Freight BrokerBasics course for your
educational option, and checkout the sponsors down below to
help support us All.
Right, ben, here's our firstquestion, and this probably ties
into your episode that you guysdid on technology last week,
but this one is can yourecommend any software for
(00:45):
freight brokers that helpsmanage documents like rate
confirmations, bols, pods andinvoices, which my blatant
answer to this is gonna be?
That's a TMS?
So that's like my main answer,but you can go a lot deeper on
this.
Depending on what TMS you have,does it allow you to handle all
those things?
We've talked a lot aboutsoftware in the past and we
(01:05):
teach this with the TIA'scoaching for their new broker
program, but a TMS is like yougot to have it.
You can't get away without it.
It's going to make your lifevery difficult and, at a minimum
, try out a free trial ofsomething or one of the free
versions of some of theplatforms that are out there,
like Rose Rocket, for example.
(01:26):
We've got a link on our website.
They offer a freemium versionand a paid version as well, but
your basic things like beingable to send a rate confirmation
, which is a legal document,right Like you need to be able
to have that generated properlywith the correct terms and
conditions on it.
Now here's a caveat I'll add inis like bill of ladings and
invoices depending on the TMS,you may or may not have this
(01:50):
ability.
So, like some TMS, have youever worked with a TMS that
doesn't do invoicing itself butyou have used a third party?
I haven't.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm aware of it.
Most of the ones I've used forthe past few years have this,
mostly because I make sure ithas it.
The other thing, too, is thebig differentiator I've seen
with managing this is splittingthem.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Meaning.
Your carriers will frequentlysend them to you as one PDF.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah With like five pages, yeah, one attachment with
everything in it.
And then usually you've got totake that step in the middle and
use, like Adobe or some, somedocument splitting software to
go nope, this is the carrierinvoice, this is the BOL, this
is the POD, this is the rate conright Now.
A lot of TMSs have that builtin now where it's automated and
(02:37):
it'll just separate them for you.
Some have like a medium stepwhere basically it has document
splitting software in the TMS.
You just drag it to the leftand the right, you just go.
This is the BOL, this is thePOD.
That's much faster.
I would say the best one is theones that split them for you.
The worst one is the one I havenow, which is tie, which
(03:01):
doesn't do it.
We'll create the invoices butit doesn't have the document
splitting and here's the crazypart.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Come out with that, though, because they're still
fairly new.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know what I mean maybe but I've been super
frustrated with them of latebecause a lot of the things that
they say are out of the boxthey're working on, which means
we're paying for things thataren't there, don't exist yeah,
whole other conversation.
But, like, the thing that I'mreally frustrated with is yeah,
it creates invoicing.
Oh yeah, it's integrated withyour factoring.
(03:29):
Here's what it's not and here'swhere the devil's in the
details.
One, it's a one-way integrationwith my factoring company, so
when my customers pay myfactoring company, that
information doesn't come backinto my TMS.
So we have to manually updatecustomer balances in our TMS,
which is a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
It allows for human error too.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Human error opportunity.
Here's the other one.
You have to split the documentsin the TMS for to send it to
Triumph, for example.
So like you have to manuallysplit them somewhere else and
then you need to upload them bytheir name in the TMS in order
for it to send it to thefactoring company.
(04:10):
The irony is our factoringcompany doesn't require that.
So our factoring company islike you could just send it all
to us in one PDF.
We have the automated splittingsoftware anyway.
You don't have to do that forus, but our TMS requires it.
So we're paying accountingpeople to go somewhere else to
classify, but our TMS requiresit.
So we're paying accountingpeople to go somewhere else to
classify it for our TMS toautomate it to the factoring
company.
(04:30):
That doesn't need it.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So the other things that were mentioned here PODs,
bols.
So oftentimes your BOL, yourbill of lading and your POD
proof of delivery, they'reoftentimes the same thing.
I will tell you this.
So we use McLeod right now atmy company and McLeod, out of
the box, does not have a BOL.
We had to use like a documentgenerator tool and McLeod and
(04:53):
build a bill of lading which Iwas like blew my mind and I like
I remember we upgraded a coupleof years ago and I asked I was
like hey, does this, does thisnew version have a BOL template?
And they're like no, and I waslike how do you guys not have a
BOL template?
They're like, well, we canimport your old one.
And I'm like, dude, this islike the most common document
news.
They're like, yeah, but usuallylike the shipper creates it.
(05:13):
And we're like usually, but notalways, yeah, probably like a
quarter of our brokers at somepoint or time, if not more, have
to create a BOL for theircustomers.
So like we, even for Freight360, we have a template on our
website that you can go access,so feel free and use that Well
last one Levity.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You can definitely use a company like Levity that
can build this in and connect itto your TMS via a web hook
usually not an API where it canjust chop these documents up,
automatically, split them andsend it into, where it can just
chop these documents up,automatically, split them and
send it into where it should be,which is what I'm doing.
Everything RTMS can't do, I usea third party tech company and
we're leveraging.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Which brings me to my next point, with AI.
I think you're going to see alot of really cool tools that
are out there.
Levity is a great example.
We've been a partner with themfor over a year now.
Levity is a great example.
We've been a partner with themfor over a year now.
I think you're going to see alot more automation options that
are out there and a lot of thethose little like ankle biter
(06:12):
tasks, that kind of like.
I know you'd have to do, butyou have to do them.
I think you're going to see alot of that be able to be done
or replaced using automation andAI.
So keep your eye out for thatstuff, but at a minimum, have
some sort of TMS to track yourstuff.
If you don't, I literally Ithink I've told this story a few
times I talked to a guy yearsago that never used a TMS.
(06:36):
He tracked everything on penciland paper and literally would
send checks to people in themail.
He would write a check and paya truck.
Just absolutely insane.
Type up an invoice in MicrosoftWord, all right.
Next question how do you priceand move LTL shipments?
I will recommend, because wecan't get super detailed in just
(06:59):
a few minutes here, but we have.
If you just go to our libraryon our website and search LTL,
we've got a whole.
We got some full length stuffon LTL.
But when it comes to LTL, thebiggest difference between LTL
and full truckload is that thepricing is not dynamic, it's
more static, and what I mean bythat is, like in the full
truckload market, dynamicpricing meaning it's going to
(07:21):
change based on available trucksat a certain time, on a certain
day, at a certain time of theyear.
That stuff changes like supplyand demand.
Ltl is more static, right, if I, and the rates can change from
day to day or throughout theweek, but if I request a rate
now and an hour from now, it'sgoing to be the exact same, most
likely.
(07:41):
So what happens is these LTLcarriers they're large, which is
the opposite of full truck load.
Full truck load, the averagetrucking company is small.
They might have like six trucksor something like that LTL
carriers hundreds, if notthousands of power units.
They might have like six trucksor something like that LTL
carriers hundreds, if notthousands of power units All
right.
And they have to be that largebecause they have an entire
(08:08):
structure set up with differentdistribution centers per se, or
reship facilities or servicecenters, whatever you want to
call them throughout the country.
Moving from, in your case, bocaRaton, up to me in Buffalo, an
LTL carrier might have a localdriver pick up from Boca Raton.
Take it to.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Orlando.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Fort Lauderdale or the Miami Service Center,
probably Fort Lauderdale andthen from there have it sent up
to like Charlotte overnight andthen from Charlotte it's hauled
up to middle of Pennsylvaniawhere it then ends up in Buffalo
Service Center and delivered bya local guy.
So, like they had because oflike this, like what's that term
, like the hub and spoke typedeal where, like, these guys are
(08:42):
like service centers all overthe place and they can service
within like a radius of that,and then they have this like big
web throughout the countrywhere, like they'll move from
here to here to here to here andeventually delivered.
Because of that, they canproject well in advance where
they're going to have emptyequipment, based on what's
already flowing through theirpipeline.
You know, you figure, if it'sgoing all the way across the
(09:03):
country, you've got some ofthese transit times are like
five, six days, if not more, sothey can project ahead of time.
You know, hey, we're going tohave some empty capacity in this
area, rates are going to bediscounted, right.
Or, hey, we're heavy in thisarea, we'll have to add capacity
and extra trailers in there andextra trucks in there, the
price is going to be high.
(09:23):
So it's more static but inpredictable days in advance.
Now how do you price it?
Typically, if you're a freightbroker, two options would be
either to go directly to an LTLcarrier and ask them for a quote
.
That's going gonna be your moreexpensive way because LTL
carriers they want volume andthey'll give you cheaper rates
if you give them volume.
So co-brokerage agreements tendto be another option.
(09:44):
Where this one broker has a lotof volume, that goes LTL.
They have really good rates.
They'll co-broker with you anddo a cost plus on their rates to
you.
So that's in a nutshell.
How you would price and movethem is either directly through
the carrier if you have enoughvolume, you may be able to get
some decent rates, but if youdon't look into a co-brokerage
agreement I have used globaltrans, I have used x freight,
(10:07):
I've used worldwide express, Ihave used glt.
Who else?
There's a whole bunch of youknow brokerage companies out
there that have good LTLprograms in there, so worth
checking out.
But it's very different.
There's a lot of nuances withLTL versus full truck, so check
out our full length episode onit if you want the deep dive.
It's definitely one of thosethings where at first they can
(10:28):
feel like the juice isn't worththe squeeze, because smaller
dollar amounts for smallershipments mean smaller margins.
But once you can start toautomate it you're kind of just
getting paid without eventouching anything once you get
your customers tied right in.
So any other thoughts orpointers on LTF?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Really just that like one.
It's a good opportunity to getin with new customers, so
providing that service isworthwhile, even if it's not a
lot of money, because usuallythat's a good gateway.
Get your foot in the door toget access to full truckload.
And I mean, once you get thecode brokered set up, usually
they're going to set you up witha portal, or you just put in
the details and it gives you abunch of pricing options you
send your customer to one stepabove that, you can integrate it
(11:12):
with your TMS and also most ofthem will allow you to create a
portal for your customer.
Meaning like step one is Nate'smy customer.
He emails me the detail, I putit in, give him the rate, but if
he does a lot with me, I cangive him a unique portal for my
company where he just puts hisorders in and then it just gives
him the pricing.
The orders come through, theyget picked up and I just
(11:33):
basically handle the invoicing.
It's like mailbox money.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yep, exactly All right.
Our last question.
This one was very specific sowe'll try and answer it on a
more of a generic level.
But this listener asked If apotato shipper in Colorado isn't
paying enough for loads goingto Florida and carriers are
refusing the freight, can abroker ask the shipper for more
money?
Would doing so make the brokerlook bad?
(11:57):
So to generic this one or makeit generic, we'll ignore the
actual lane of Colorado toFlorida and the shipper being
potatoes.
So, ben, what are your thoughtshere?
A shipper the general thinghere is shipper is not paying
enough money for a load.
You can't book it.
So you get a lot of thesecustomers that have load lists
(12:17):
that go out every day.
They might say like lumbercompanies, are like a.
They're a like very commonexample of this here's 20
shipments going out today.
Here's what it's paying Firstcome, first serve.
It's jump ball freight,basically Right.
And you, you find out likethere's not enough money in
these, like I can't cover them,like what's your take on this?
(12:38):
Do you go back to the customer?
Does it make you look bad?
What?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
are your thoughts.
So I'm going to set the stagewith what it looks like for that
shipper.
We talked about this in theepisode, the full length one.
We just did.
So if you have a shipper that issending out a list to 20
brokers five, 10 loads a day,right, and they're just picking
the cheapest one you can bealmost certain some portion of
those 10 loads a day aren'tpicking up that day because
(13:04):
brokers know they don't getawarded unless they're the
cheapest.
So everybody tries to threadthe needle with quoting the
cheapest rate to actually coverit.
Well, on a percentage basislike some of them just aren't
going to get picked up Maybe notevery day but every other day,
but a good portion throughoutthat week need to get
rescheduled.
So the person that's doing thistheir boss is probably telling
(13:25):
them we just need to save moremoney, save more money on
shipping.
But then the person goes well,I need you to hire somebody else
because I got to reschedule allthese loads and I don't have
enough time every day.
So they end up paying that cost.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
no, matter what right yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Like.
So what I try to do is one havethe conversations and try to
talk about understanding, likehey, like how many loads looks
like you guys sent about 10loads a day.
How many loads in total do youguys load out of your warehouses
and some of them are probablydedicated with carriers, so the
number's probably higher.
I don't know.
20 loads a day is what we load,10 go to the spot market.
I'm just like hey, out ofcuriosity, like kind of seems
(13:59):
like price is a pretty importantthing for your organization.
They're going to say yes, likeyou know.
I'm just curious, like, out ofthe 10 loads a day you book,
like ballpark, how many do youhave a hassle with needing to
reschedule or your doc callingyou and needing to get the truck
in that was supposed to bethere yesterday, today or today,
versus tomorrow or today's, twodays from now.
Is that become like a hasslefor you guys?
Do you do a lot of admin workaround that?
(14:20):
If I get them to be honest withme, like I kind of already know
that answer is yes, right, thenI'm going to kind of go back
and be like well, are there anyof your lanes that tend to need
rescheduled more than others.
And in this scenario, prettylikely they're going to tell me
yeah, colorado to Florida hasbeen a huge pain, we are
constantly rescheduling those,and then they'll blame the
(14:41):
brokers.
I am so frustrated with allthese brokers that say they'll
cover this load and then everyday they only pick up one of
their three or four loads.
Now I got seven loads over thepast three days that need picked
up today and everybody's stilltelling me they can't get a
truck.
Well, this is that scenariowhere, like that shipper's
creating the scenario forthemselves, right, when you're
only focusing on the extreme,cheapest available options, you
(15:06):
are going to end up with servicefailures.
So then, where I try to takethat conversation to is like
this is the second part of theconversation.
The second question right, canyou ask for more money?
Yes, would doing so make youlook bad?
It depends on how you explainit, right?
So now that I've got themtalking about the thing I can
clearly see happening, right,like, okay, we can hopefully now
(15:29):
segue into me, helping themunderstand why they should maybe
do something a little different, just for this instance.
They're never just going to paymore money on all their loads
Like that's not even worth megoing to die on that hill, but
if I can go.
Well, listen, it probably seems.
And sometimes I'll be like this,like, hey, I'm guessing you're
probably having more of yourservice reschedules related to
(15:51):
the loads from Colorado headingdown to Florida, and they're
going to think you're like amind reader, yeah, like you'll
hear it in their voice, yeah,and it's like, well, hey, the
reason I can.
Or they'll say like, yeah, howdid you know?
Right, I'll be like well, Inoticed that, like Colorado has
not a lot of capacity thisseason this time of year, that,
like Colorado has not a lot ofcapacity this season this time
(16:12):
of year, there's just not a lotof trucks delivering there.
And I also know Florida'spretty dead coming out of there
because there's not a lot ofloads and freight leaving
Florida.
So not only do you have lesscarriers to choose from by your
facility, but all of them wantto go to Texas these few weeks
of the year because that's whereall the freight's coming out of
.
None of them are going to wantto go into Florida because
they're going to have a hardtime getting a load to get back
out.
So some food for thought.
(16:33):
If you really want to improveyour service.
Maybe it's just a couple ofdays of the week or for a few of
your urgent loads that keepgetting rescheduled.
Let me know.
I'll let you know what thelowest we can move it for
without you giving up service.
Right, like I'm not going togouge you but like I'll give you
a reasonable, fair rate forwhat it costs to get a truck
into, because maybe it's Miami.
I'll be like, look, there'ssome loads coming out of central
(16:55):
Florida or even northernFlorida, but like I'm going to
get to give this guy deadheadmoney, like 250 miles worth to
go empty from Miami toTallahassee or maybe to Georgia
to get the next load.
So it's not like I'm chargingyou more.
This is just what the carrierneeds to perform the work you
guys want done.
And if I can get them tounderstand why they need to
(17:16):
spend more there, they're notblaming me for the rate increase
.
I'm arming them with what theyneed to go to their boss.
When their boss slaps them onthe wrist and goes why are you
paying so much for the Floridaloads?
Now they can go.
Well, hey, florida's prettydead right now and we were
rescheduling four loads a dayfor the past week and our
customers are yelling at us.
You told me to make surethey're still happy.
(17:38):
This is what I had to dotemporarily to fix that.
Okay, sounds good, right, likethat's.
What you're trying to do iseducate them as to why and
what's causing this, so thatyou're not just throwing a
number at them and they're goingto.
They're always going to blameyou for a number higher than
what they want, but if you givethem the context, they're not
mad at you, they're mad at thesituation, and we're a team.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
A huge takeaway here is like you ever like have
somebody give you?
You ask a question, they giveyou an answer, but they don't
explain why that's the answerand you're like well, I want to
know why.
Right.
And a lot of times it's good tohave those conversations with
your customer and whoever's youknow in that department over
there, because they just mightnot know.
They might think like, oh, ourbenchmark is to pay two bucks a
(18:19):
mile on average fortransportation.
Well, you might pay two bucks amile on average but it might be
350 a mile in certain lanes.
Certain times of the year itmight be $1 a mile in some of
that California freight that wewere seeing earlier this year.
It's all contextual.
It all depends the boss there,the traffic manager, might be
(18:41):
new and might not understand howthe different lanes operate and
the different metro areas ofour country and work capacity,
but literally might not know.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
So many of the people giving you these loads might
have been in that job six months.
Their boss trained them all ofa week and says we pay two bucks
a mile, don't pay any more thanthat.
Well, to your point, like, yeah, well, that's an average over
the week, some you'll pay less,some you'll pay more.
And in their mind they don'tsee what we see.
They're not on load boards,they don't see dynamic pricing,
(19:10):
they're not talking to carriersgoing, I'm not near you, I need
some deadhead money.
I'll pick it up.
Like they don't understand toyour point the why.
Because nobody told them right.
People that tender loads andarrange transportation at a
shipper do not live in the sameside of the market we do, so
they don't have the sameinformation.
They're looking at this going.
(19:30):
Well, why would one truckcharge me more than another
truck?
Isn't it the same thing?
What they don't understand isthat truck's coming from
somewhere different needs to gosomewhere different after, and
the details of the load reallydo matter.
Where in their mind they'relike first come, first serve or
by appointment, what does itmatter?
Just be on time.
Well, yeah, that means they hadto leave their last place on
time and get there early, whichcosts money, like they.
(19:53):
Just.
There's a lot of thesevariables that affect pricing
Shippers rarely deal with, solike they're not going to be top
of mind when they're talking toyou, they're just going to
blame you for the changes inrates.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yep.
So all that to say, I wouldencourage you to have a
conversation with the customerabout this and just give them
context.
So, yes, good questions, keepsending them our way.
Final thoughts, ben.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And until next time go Bills.
Welcome back for another edition of the Final
Mile.
It's our Q&A session, where weanswer all of your questions,
whether they come from YouTubecomments or directly sent to us
through our website or via email, and sometimes from our
Facebook group and other sources.
These today all happen to comefrom YouTube comments.
Hopefully, I didn't repeat anyof the ones that you and Stephen
(00:22):
did the last two weeks.
So if we did, we'll just we'llplay an audible.
But, also check out all of ourother content at Freight360.net,
including the Freight BrokerBasics course for your
educational option, and checkout the sponsors down below to
help support us All.
Right, ben, here's our firstquestion, and this probably ties
into your episode that you guysdid on technology last week,
but this one is can yourecommend any software for
(00:45):
freight brokers that helpsmanage documents like rate
confirmations, bols, pods andinvoices, which my blatant
answer to this is gonna be?
That's a TMS?
So that's like my main answer,but you can go a lot deeper on
this.
Depending on what TMS you have,does it allow you to handle all
those things?
We've talked a lot aboutsoftware in the past and we
(01:05):
teach this with the TIA'scoaching for their new broker
program, but a TMS is like yougot to have it.
You can't get away without it.
It's going to make your lifevery difficult and, at a minimum
, try out a free trial ofsomething or one of the free
versions of some of theplatforms that are out there,
like Rose Rocket, for example.
(01:26):
We've got a link on our website.
They offer a freemium versionand a paid version as well, but
your basic things like beingable to send a rate confirmation
, which is a legal document,right Like you need to be able
to have that generated properlywith the correct terms and
conditions on it.
Now here's a caveat I'll add inis like bill of ladings and
invoices depending on the TMS,you may or may not have this
(01:50):
ability.
So, like some TMS, have youever worked with a TMS that
doesn't do invoicing itself butyou have used a third party?
I haven't.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm aware of it.
Most of the ones I've used forthe past few years have this,
mostly because I make sure ithas it.
The other thing, too, is thebig differentiator I've seen
with managing this is splittingthem.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Meaning.
Your carriers will frequentlysend them to you as one PDF.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah With like five pages, yeah, one attachment with
everything in it.
And then usually you've got totake that step in the middle and
use, like Adobe or some, somedocument splitting software to
go nope, this is the carrierinvoice, this is the BOL, this
is the POD, this is the rate conright Now.
A lot of TMSs have that builtin now where it's automated and
(02:37):
it'll just separate them for you.
Some have like a medium stepwhere basically it has document
splitting software in the TMS.
You just drag it to the leftand the right, you just go.
This is the BOL, this is thePOD.
That's much faster.
I would say the best one is theones that split them for you.
The worst one is the one I havenow, which is tie, which
(03:01):
doesn't do it.
We'll create the invoices butit doesn't have the document
splitting and here's the crazypart.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Come out with that, though, because they're still
fairly new.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know what I mean maybe but I've been super
frustrated with them of latebecause a lot of the things that
they say are out of the boxthey're working on, which means
we're paying for things thataren't there, don't exist yeah,
whole other conversation.
But, like, the thing that I'mreally frustrated with is yeah,
it creates invoicing.
Oh yeah, it's integrated withyour factoring.
(03:29):
Here's what it's not and here'swhere the devil's in the
details.
One, it's a one-way integrationwith my factoring company, so
when my customers pay myfactoring company, that
information doesn't come backinto my TMS.
So we have to manually updatecustomer balances in our TMS,
which is a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
It allows for human error too.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Human error opportunity.
Here's the other one.
You have to split the documentsin the TMS for to send it to
Triumph, for example.
So like you have to manuallysplit them somewhere else and
then you need to upload them bytheir name in the TMS in order
for it to send it to thefactoring company.
(04:10):
The irony is our factoringcompany doesn't require that.
So our factoring company islike you could just send it all
to us in one PDF.
We have the automated splittingsoftware anyway.
You don't have to do that forus, but our TMS requires it.
So we're paying accountingpeople to go somewhere else to
classify, but our TMS requiresit.
So we're paying accountingpeople to go somewhere else to
classify it for our TMS toautomate it to the factoring
company.
(04:30):
That doesn't need it.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So the other things that were mentioned here PODs,
bols.
So oftentimes your BOL, yourbill of lading and your POD
proof of delivery, they'reoftentimes the same thing.
I will tell you this.
So we use McLeod right now atmy company and McLeod, out of
the box, does not have a BOL.
We had to use like a documentgenerator tool and McLeod and
(04:53):
build a bill of lading which Iwas like blew my mind and I like
I remember we upgraded a coupleof years ago and I asked I was
like hey, does this, does thisnew version have a BOL template?
And they're like no, and I waslike how do you guys not have a
BOL template?
They're like, well, we canimport your old one.
And I'm like, dude, this islike the most common document
news.
They're like, yeah, but usuallylike the shipper creates it.
(05:13):
And we're like usually, but notalways, yeah, probably like a
quarter of our brokers at somepoint or time, if not more, have
to create a BOL for theircustomers.
So like we, even for Freight360, we have a template on our
website that you can go access,so feel free and use that Well
last one Levity.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You can definitely use a company like Levity that
can build this in and connect itto your TMS via a web hook
usually not an API where it canjust chop these documents up,
automatically, split them andsend it into, where it can just
chop these documents up,automatically, split them and
send it into where it should be,which is what I'm doing.
Everything RTMS can't do, I usea third party tech company and
we're leveraging.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Which brings me to my next point, with AI.
I think you're going to see alot of really cool tools that
are out there.
Levity is a great example.
We've been a partner with themfor over a year now.
Levity is a great example.
We've been a partner with themfor over a year now.
I think you're going to see alot more automation options that
are out there and a lot of thethose little like ankle biter
(06:12):
tasks, that kind of like.
I know you'd have to do, butyou have to do them.
I think you're going to see alot of that be able to be done
or replaced using automation andAI.
So keep your eye out for thatstuff, but at a minimum, have
some sort of TMS to track yourstuff.
If you don't, I literally Ithink I've told this story a few
times I talked to a guy yearsago that never used a TMS.
(06:36):
He tracked everything on penciland paper and literally would
send checks to people in themail.
He would write a check and paya truck.
Just absolutely insane.
Type up an invoice in MicrosoftWord, all right.
Next question how do you priceand move LTL shipments?
I will recommend, because wecan't get super detailed in just
(06:59):
a few minutes here, but we have.
If you just go to our libraryon our website and search LTL,
we've got a whole.
We got some full length stuffon LTL.
But when it comes to LTL, thebiggest difference between LTL
and full truckload is that thepricing is not dynamic, it's
more static, and what I mean bythat is, like in the full
truckload market, dynamicpricing meaning it's going to
(07:21):
change based on available trucksat a certain time, on a certain
day, at a certain time of theyear.
That stuff changes like supplyand demand.
Ltl is more static, right, if I, and the rates can change from
day to day or throughout theweek, but if I request a rate
now and an hour from now, it'sgoing to be the exact same, most
likely.
(07:41):
So what happens is these LTLcarriers they're large, which is
the opposite of full truck load.
Full truck load, the averagetrucking company is small.
They might have like six trucksor something like that LTL
carriers hundreds, if notthousands of power units.
They might have like six trucksor something like that LTL
carriers hundreds, if notthousands of power units All
right.
And they have to be that largebecause they have an entire
(08:08):
structure set up with differentdistribution centers per se, or
reship facilities or servicecenters, whatever you want to
call them throughout the country.
Moving from, in your case, bocaRaton, up to me in Buffalo, an
LTL carrier might have a localdriver pick up from Boca Raton.
Take it to.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Orlando.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Fort Lauderdale or the Miami Service Center,
probably Fort Lauderdale andthen from there have it sent up
to like Charlotte overnight andthen from Charlotte it's hauled
up to middle of Pennsylvaniawhere it then ends up in Buffalo
Service Center and delivered bya local guy.
So, like they had because oflike this, like what's that term
, like the hub and spoke typedeal where, like, these guys are
(08:42):
like service centers all overthe place and they can service
within like a radius of that,and then they have this like big
web throughout the countrywhere, like they'll move from
here to here to here to here andeventually delivered.
Because of that, they canproject well in advance where
they're going to have emptyequipment, based on what's
already flowing through theirpipeline.
You know, you figure, if it'sgoing all the way across the
(09:03):
country, you've got some ofthese transit times are like
five, six days, if not more, sothey can project ahead of time.
You know, hey, we're going tohave some empty capacity in this
area, rates are going to bediscounted, right.
Or, hey, we're heavy in thisarea, we'll have to add capacity
and extra trailers in there andextra trucks in there, the
price is going to be high.
(09:23):
So it's more static but inpredictable days in advance.
Now how do you price it?
Typically, if you're a freightbroker, two options would be
either to go directly to an LTLcarrier and ask them for a quote
.
That's going gonna be your moreexpensive way because LTL
carriers they want volume andthey'll give you cheaper rates
if you give them volume.
So co-brokerage agreements tendto be another option.
(09:44):
Where this one broker has a lotof volume, that goes LTL.
They have really good rates.
They'll co-broker with you anddo a cost plus on their rates to
you.
So that's in a nutshell.
How you would price and movethem is either directly through
the carrier if you have enoughvolume, you may be able to get
some decent rates, but if youdon't look into a co-brokerage
agreement I have used globaltrans, I have used x freight,
(10:07):
I've used worldwide express, Ihave used glt.
Who else?
There's a whole bunch of youknow brokerage companies out
there that have good LTLprograms in there, so worth
checking out.
But it's very different.
There's a lot of nuances withLTL versus full truck, so check
out our full length episode onit if you want the deep dive.
It's definitely one of thosethings where at first they can
(10:28):
feel like the juice isn't worththe squeeze, because smaller
dollar amounts for smallershipments mean smaller margins.
But once you can start toautomate it you're kind of just
getting paid without eventouching anything once you get
your customers tied right in.
So any other thoughts orpointers on LTF?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Really just that like one.
It's a good opportunity to getin with new customers, so
providing that service isworthwhile, even if it's not a
lot of money, because usuallythat's a good gateway.
Get your foot in the door toget access to full truckload.
And I mean, once you get thecode brokered set up, usually
they're going to set you up witha portal, or you just put in
the details and it gives you abunch of pricing options you
send your customer to one stepabove that, you can integrate it
(11:12):
with your TMS and also most ofthem will allow you to create a
portal for your customer.
Meaning like step one is Nate'smy customer.
He emails me the detail, I putit in, give him the rate, but if
he does a lot with me, I cangive him a unique portal for my
company where he just puts hisorders in and then it just gives
him the pricing.
The orders come through, theyget picked up and I just
(11:33):
basically handle the invoicing.
It's like mailbox money.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yep, exactly All right.
Our last question.
This one was very specific sowe'll try and answer it on a
more of a generic level.
But this listener asked If apotato shipper in Colorado isn't
paying enough for loads goingto Florida and carriers are
refusing the freight, can abroker ask the shipper for more
money?
Would doing so make the brokerlook bad?
(11:57):
So to generic this one or makeit generic, we'll ignore the
actual lane of Colorado toFlorida and the shipper being
potatoes.
So, ben, what are your thoughtshere?
A shipper the general thinghere is shipper is not paying
enough money for a load.
You can't book it.
So you get a lot of thesecustomers that have load lists
(12:17):
that go out every day.
They might say like lumbercompanies, are like a.
They're a like very commonexample of this here's 20
shipments going out today.
Here's what it's paying Firstcome, first serve.
It's jump ball freight,basically Right.
And you, you find out likethere's not enough money in
these, like I can't cover them,like what's your take on this?
(12:38):
Do you go back to the customer?
Does it make you look bad?
What?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
are your thoughts.
So I'm going to set the stagewith what it looks like for that
shipper.
We talked about this in theepisode, the full length one.
We just did.
So if you have a shipper that issending out a list to 20
brokers five, 10 loads a day,right, and they're just picking
the cheapest one you can bealmost certain some portion of
those 10 loads a day aren'tpicking up that day because
(13:04):
brokers know they don't getawarded unless they're the
cheapest.
So everybody tries to threadthe needle with quoting the
cheapest rate to actually coverit.
Well, on a percentage basislike some of them just aren't
going to get picked up Maybe notevery day but every other day,
but a good portion throughoutthat week need to get
rescheduled.
So the person that's doing thistheir boss is probably telling
(13:25):
them we just need to save moremoney, save more money on
shipping.
But then the person goes well,I need you to hire somebody else
because I got to reschedule allthese loads and I don't have
enough time every day.
So they end up paying that cost.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
no, matter what right yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Like.
So what I try to do is one havethe conversations and try to
talk about understanding, likehey, like how many loads looks
like you guys sent about 10loads a day.
How many loads in total do youguys load out of your warehouses
and some of them are probablydedicated with carriers, so the
number's probably higher.
I don't know.
20 loads a day is what we load,10 go to the spot market.
I'm just like hey, out ofcuriosity, like kind of seems
(13:59):
like price is a pretty importantthing for your organization.
They're going to say yes, likeyou know.
I'm just curious, like, out ofthe 10 loads a day you book,
like ballpark, how many do youhave a hassle with needing to
reschedule or your doc callingyou and needing to get the truck
in that was supposed to bethere yesterday, today or today,
versus tomorrow or today's, twodays from now.
Is that become like a hasslefor you guys?
Do you do a lot of admin workaround that?
(14:20):
If I get them to be honest withme, like I kind of already know
that answer is yes, right, thenI'm going to kind of go back
and be like well, are there anyof your lanes that tend to need
rescheduled more than others.
And in this scenario, prettylikely they're going to tell me
yeah, colorado to Florida hasbeen a huge pain, we are
constantly rescheduling those,and then they'll blame the
(14:41):
brokers.
I am so frustrated with allthese brokers that say they'll
cover this load and then everyday they only pick up one of
their three or four loads.
Now I got seven loads over thepast three days that need picked
up today and everybody's stilltelling me they can't get a
truck.
Well, this is that scenariowhere, like that shipper's
creating the scenario forthemselves, right, when you're
only focusing on the extreme,cheapest available options, you
(15:06):
are going to end up with servicefailures.
So then, where I try to takethat conversation to is like
this is the second part of theconversation.
The second question right, canyou ask for more money?
Yes, would doing so make youlook bad?
It depends on how you explainit, right?
So now that I've got themtalking about the thing I can
clearly see happening, right,like, okay, we can hopefully now
(15:29):
segue into me, helping themunderstand why they should maybe
do something a little different, just for this instance.
They're never just going to paymore money on all their loads
Like that's not even worth megoing to die on that hill, but
if I can go.
Well, listen, it probably seems.
And sometimes I'll be like this,like, hey, I'm guessing you're
probably having more of yourservice reschedules related to
(15:51):
the loads from Colorado headingdown to Florida, and they're
going to think you're like amind reader, yeah, like you'll
hear it in their voice, yeah,and it's like, well, hey, the
reason I can.
Or they'll say like, yeah, howdid you know?
Right, I'll be like well, Inoticed that, like Colorado has
not a lot of capacity thisseason this time of year, that,
like Colorado has not a lot ofcapacity this season this time
(16:12):
of year, there's just not a lotof trucks delivering there.
And I also know Florida'spretty dead coming out of there
because there's not a lot ofloads and freight leaving
Florida.
So not only do you have lesscarriers to choose from by your
facility, but all of them wantto go to Texas these few weeks
of the year because that's whereall the freight's coming out of
.
None of them are going to wantto go into Florida because
they're going to have a hardtime getting a load to get back
out.
So some food for thought.
(16:33):
If you really want to improveyour service.
Maybe it's just a couple ofdays of the week or for a few of
your urgent loads that keepgetting rescheduled.
Let me know.
I'll let you know what thelowest we can move it for
without you giving up service.
Right, like I'm not going togouge you but like I'll give you
a reasonable, fair rate forwhat it costs to get a truck
into, because maybe it's Miami.
I'll be like, look, there'ssome loads coming out of central
(16:55):
Florida or even northernFlorida, but like I'm going to
get to give this guy deadheadmoney, like 250 miles worth to
go empty from Miami toTallahassee or maybe to Georgia
to get the next load.
So it's not like I'm chargingyou more.
This is just what the carrierneeds to perform the work you
guys want done.
And if I can get them tounderstand why they need to
(17:16):
spend more there, they're notblaming me for the rate increase
.
I'm arming them with what theyneed to go to their boss.
When their boss slaps them onthe wrist and goes why are you
paying so much for the Floridaloads?
Now they can go.
Well, hey, florida's prettydead right now and we were
rescheduling four loads a dayfor the past week and our
customers are yelling at us.
You told me to make surethey're still happy.
(17:38):
This is what I had to dotemporarily to fix that.
Okay, sounds good, right, likethat's.
What you're trying to do iseducate them as to why and
what's causing this, so thatyou're not just throwing a
number at them and they're goingto.
They're always going to blameyou for a number higher than
what they want, but if you givethem the context, they're not
mad at you, they're mad at thesituation, and we're a team.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
A huge takeaway here is like you ever like have
somebody give you?
You ask a question, they giveyou an answer, but they don't
explain why that's the answerand you're like well, I want to
know why.
Right.
And a lot of times it's good tohave those conversations with
your customer and whoever's youknow in that department over
there, because they just mightnot know.
They might think like, oh, ourbenchmark is to pay two bucks a
(18:19):
mile on average fortransportation.
Well, you might pay two bucks amile on average but it might be
350 a mile in certain lanes.
Certain times of the year itmight be $1 a mile in some of
that California freight that wewere seeing earlier this year.
It's all contextual.
It all depends the boss there,the traffic manager, might be
(18:41):
new and might not understand howthe different lanes operate and
the different metro areas ofour country and work capacity,
but literally might not know.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
So many of the people giving you these loads might
have been in that job six months.
Their boss trained them all ofa week and says we pay two bucks
a mile, don't pay any more thanthat.
Well, to your point, like, yeah, well, that's an average over
the week, some you'll pay less,some you'll pay more.
And in their mind they don'tsee what we see.
They're not on load boards,they don't see dynamic pricing,
(19:10):
they're not talking to carriersgoing, I'm not near you, I need
some deadhead money.
I'll pick it up.
Like they don't understand toyour point the why.
Because nobody told them right.
People that tender loads andarrange transportation at a
shipper do not live in the sameside of the market we do, so
they don't have the sameinformation.
They're looking at this going.
(19:30):
Well, why would one truckcharge me more than another
truck?
Isn't it the same thing?
What they don't understand isthat truck's coming from
somewhere different needs to gosomewhere different after, and
the details of the load reallydo matter.
Where in their mind they'relike first come, first serve or
by appointment, what does itmatter?
Just be on time.
Well, yeah, that means they hadto leave their last place on
time and get there early, whichcosts money, like they.
(19:53):
Just.
There's a lot of thesevariables that affect pricing
Shippers rarely deal with, solike they're not going to be top
of mind when they're talking toyou, they're just going to
blame you for the changes inrates.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yep.
So all that to say, I wouldencourage you to have a
conversation with the customerabout this and just give them
context.
So, yes, good questions, keepsending them our way.
Final thoughts, ben.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And until next time go Bills.
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