August 12, 2025 • 18 mins
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
🚛 Is demand for freight brokers declining, and are small brokers still relevant?
❄️ Tips for finding carriers for 2–3 pallet frozen LTL loads.
🛣️ How to transition from owner-operator to freight broker.
💸 What to do if you misquote a load and face a potential loss.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome back.
It's another edition of thefinal mile.
We got some good Q&A here todayfrom our audience.
Mix of this comes from emailquestions, youtube comments, and
I did pull one off of Reddittoo I thought it was.
It was an honorable mentionthat I figured we could give our
take on.
So, but first make sure tocheck out all of our other
content.
(00:20):
There's a whole searchablelibrary on the website.
You'll also find the freightbrokerics course in there If
you're looking for a goodtraining option.
If you're starting a brokerage,you're looking to help train
your team, and please check outthe sponsors in the description
box.
That always helps this channel.
So, ben, we're going to getright into it.
Our first question someone hademailed us asking is demand for
(00:43):
freight brokers declining?
Are small brokers stillrelevant and what does the
future look like for our role inthe industry?
So the first thing I wanted tosay here and we haven't talked
about it in a while, but we'vementioned it a handful of times
is that one of the greatestthings about our industry is
that the small guy versus thebig guy.
There's really not a whole like.
(01:03):
You don't have a whole lot ofcompetitive advantage if you're
like the big guy versus thesmall guy.
Further, you might actuallyhave a harder time running a
scaled out company as profitableonce you add that overhead in
as a smaller company, but inreturn you also might be able to
afford some of the better toolsout there.
So I wanted to at least startoff with that.
But what's your take on thedemand for brokers and what kind
(01:25):
of dictates when we come intoplay?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
That's the first thing you said, because I
thought about that a lot, right,and it was like working at a
really big brokerage.
You have some advantages, right, like there's more support,
there's readily accessible legaladvice on things, the tech
carrier base training and justyour tools, right, and brand
recognition for sure.
(01:48):
But there's a huge disadvantagefrom a broker's point of view,
meaning, like when you first tryto find prospects, you're
actually competing with theother 5,000 people that are
there that are already taggingthose companies, working them or
already doing business withthem.
So it's like there's like agiant moat around the entire
(02:09):
business where, like, you've gotto first find a niche or a way
to just literally just get theability to call a company Right.
Like that is like a gianthurdle and its first hurdle
before you can even startcalling and even doing business.
Hurdle.
And its first hurdle before youcan even start calling and even
doing business when smallercompany it's like blue ocean you
(02:31):
can call anybody to do anything, to ship anything at any point
in time, no friction, littleless brand recognition and some
of the other.
I mean there are somedisadvantages in regards to,
like tech, some support andthings like you're just going to
have a little bit lessresources.
But, like to me, I mean Idefinitely prefer the smaller
companies over like the giganticones, like 100 million.
If you're an actual broker andyou want to go earn income and
(02:53):
do the job to me, I'll take thatall day long.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah.
Now the other part you know weand this actually came up today
is like when do brokers?
Because he asked, like is thedemand dropping right?
And we, we do kind of uh fluxwith the market.
So like if you look atpost-covid versus now, five
years later, like the initialpost-covid, right after the
shutdowns and everything wenthaywire and the market went wild
(03:18):
.
You could a new broker couldhop in and start like getting
customers and quote on stuff andbecause everybody had a hard
time finding a truck and that'swhere he came in.
So like these contractedcarriers started rejecting all
their contracted lanes and said,nope, I'm going to go out there
and chase higher paying loads.
So then what happens?
All that freight that wasalready pre contracted falls to
(03:39):
the spot market.
And that's where brokers arelike all right, here's a load
that's got to go today ortomorrow morning.
It's my job to go search themarket right now and find a
truck right now for this load.
And when that happens we comeinto play.
And if you look at the marketnow, where it's a softer market,
a lot of companies are tryingto weed out some of their
onboarded brokers to refine andkind of get their bullpen of
(04:03):
transportation providers down toa core set of like a dozen or
less, depending on what it islike I had.
So basically to answer thequestion, the demand is is it
declining?
I think it's it's not declining.
It's probably just kind of flat, like plateaued right now, but
it always kind of moves with themarket.
I had a guy that was looking tocome join my brokerage that you
know, today he was askingactually it was yesterday that
(04:24):
was looking to come join mybrokerage, that you know today
he was asking, or actually itwas yesterday.
He was asking like do you guyswork with, you know this
specific company?
And I was like, nope, we don't.
You're in luck, like they'reavailable for you.
And he's like, no, actually I'mnot in luck because they're not
onboarding new brokerages.
I was hoping you guys werealready in their system.
And I was like, ah, like that'sa.
That's a pure example of like alot of companies are saying
we're not adding anybody rightnow because we're fine, there's
(04:46):
less problems right now.
And when there's less problems,let me reverse engineer that
when there's more problems,there's more opportunities for
us and the spot market asbrokers.
Would you do you have any otherinsight to that?
It's pretty much our doctrinethat we've spoken for years on
this show.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, I think at the end of the day we talked about
this in last week's episode islike I was telling you I was
talking about that story from umuh war dogs, right, where he's
talking about, like just they'recompeting as a small business,
yeah, against, like you know,hundreds of billions of dollars,
you know size companies.
And he's like look, man, thispie is so big that, like you
don't need a slice, like youneed a crumb, right, and the pie
in our industry is roughlysomewhere between 800 billion
(05:29):
and a trillion dollars.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Hundreds of billions of dollars, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Big or small, growing or smalling, to me like what
we're trying to be able to getout of it and to be successful.
And, honestly, like almost anysize company, like there's
always opportunity.
You just have to look a littleharder.
Sometimes you have to find amore specific of a niche, but,
like there's always a problem,there's always somebody that
needs more help.
It's just a matter of puttingthe effort in to find it.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Speaking of niches, our next question leads right
into that.
Someone asked I'm a brokerlooking for carriers to handle
two to three pallet frozen LTLloads weekly Any tips on
connecting with reliable owneroperators or carriers?
So that is definitely a nicheand it's a nut that I have
rarely been able to crack, whichis that reefer LTL.
The first thing I would tellyou is, if you're looking at
(06:18):
frozen LTL, your traditional LTLcarrier is likely not the
option.
So this person's at leastlooking in the right direction.
They're saying hey, I want togo find a full truckload carrier
that can partial a bunch offrozen things together and
that's a very good niche.
The tough thing is findingenough freight to fill up a full
(06:39):
truckload where it saves coston the shipper and it makes
sense for the carrier thatthey're going to have enough
money in it to haul it and stillbe profitable.
So that's why there'sconsolidation carriers that have
I've worked with a couple overthe years where that's their
niche is they try to take alltheir costs.
They basically they're aco-brokerage Right and they try
(07:01):
to take all their othercustomers who are brokers that
have this reefer LTL and theytry to consolidate it and then
put it on their carrier networkand match it up and make money
and save money for the customerat the same time.
So also you've got companieslike Expedite, all who have
leveraged the smaller truckloadmarket of temp control with your
refrigerated sprinters, boxtrucks, straight trucks, things
(07:23):
like that, to save on the fulltruckload cost and still be able
to give that LTL size shippingcapability.
So any other thoughts on theFresh X?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Fresh X is a pretty decent one.
I think the guy's name is Lancewho's running that company.
I've met with him a few times.
They're doing similar things toExpedite All, except it's
primarily going to be like yoursmall refrigerated trucks, able
to pick up a pallet or two,being able to book similar loads
like this, and it's a reallygood platform to start looking
for carriers out of it.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, the biggest risk that I've seen with people
that try to do reefer LTL andthey try to do it all in-house
themselves, is that they mightsay, well, I've got this one
customer that does ice cream andanother customer that does
frozen seafood and anothercustomer that does frozen
whatever, and the temperaturesare all similar.
But the issue comes with thesensitivity during unloading,
(08:17):
when that roll-up door is openor that swing door is open and
all of a sudden that ice creamgot just a little bit too warm
and melted and it can't beexposed to that at all right,
whereas another commodity may beable to be a little bit more
resilient during its loading,unloading time.
So it's it's tricky, there's alot of risk there, but there's a
lot of opportunity as well.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And here's the other one.
The other one is that's on thefrozen side.
But if you're doing like thereefer, like fresh control, like
that fresh like, then you canalso run into.
Certain produce can't be loadedwith other produce because one
emits whatever chemical thatactually ripens the other one
Ripens it, I think like tomatoesand bananas are one that I
think I remember that like ifyou put them together, like,
(08:59):
literally, potatoes and onionsare two that definitely you
don't want to put together.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I remember you just put them on your, put them in
the same bowl on your counterand all of a sudden, like your,
your onion starts growing likeSprouts, sprout, whatever out of
it, and it's like, yeah, you're, you're, you're right.
I remember when we had uhproduce blue book on an episode
in the past they talked aboutit's the, the certain chemical
that's emitted from one ethylene.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I think.
I think it's right, I thinkit's ethylene from tomatoes is
the one that ripens a bananafaster.
Again, I'd have to go back andlook at some of the very
specifics, but there aredefinitely things you can't load
without compartmentalizing.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Think about the sensitivity of something like
avocados right, like you alwayslook for the perfect avocado in
the store.
Imagine if you got there andthey're all mushy like too ripe.
You know it's bad news, so allright.
Next question as anowner-operator wanting to
transition into brokerage,what's the best way to get
started?
And I think further on.
The guy said he had been.
He had been driving for likefive years and wants to get you
(09:55):
know away from being behind thewheel and more behind the
computer and on the phone.
My best advice to anybody that'slooking to get into brokerage,
that it's worked in truckingbefore, is, first of all, you
have a leg up on anybody that'sbrand new, because you
understand what it's like todrive.
So your communication withcarriers is going to be very,
very, you know, more relatablethan the average broker out of
(10:15):
college that has never done thatjob before.
What I would tell you, though,is it's a totally different
world, and you really need tolearn how brokerage works versus
just operating a truck.
So definitely educate yourself.
But then, if you've hauled inor out of certain facilities and
you've made some contacts thereand it's not against a
(10:36):
solicitation agreement that youhave, I'd start with that Like
if you're, if you're, deliveringsomewhere.
I'd just be like hey, startasking questions in person Like
are you guys, have any anyissues outbound with with people
not showing up, looking atbranching out into the 3PL side?
And I've got you know wouldlove to grow a carrier network
that outside of just me I mightbe able to offer you additional
(10:57):
capacity and remain as a singlepoint of contact for you.
Outside of that, you're prettymuch in the boat as everybody
else.
You're going to have to do alot of prospecting, learn what
the brokerage side of thebusiness looks like and get to
work.
Any any take on that.
I mean we coach a lot of folksfrom TIA who they're in this
boat.
Right, they've managed a smallfleet or a single truck for a
while and they want to branch ityou know, branch off into it.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And also, like I feel like the other advantage for
folks that were driving one isthat, like you've probably got a
pretty good idea of the placesyou didn't want to load at or
unload at, right.
Well, like that's a pretty bigsignal that other carriers don't
want to go there and that ifyou keep pulling on that thread,
there's a pretty goodlikelihood that that shipper is
always having a hard timegetting new carriers because
(11:43):
they're not managing theiroperations well Too long a dwell
time, too long to load, not agreat facility to load at right,
Like, when those things happen,that means that shipper
probably has more turnover intheir direct relationships with
carriers, which in turn, meansthey're probably using more
brokers than another facility,right?
So there's signals that youlikely probably already know
(12:05):
that you could use to youradvantage just by paying
attention to honestly, likethink about the negatives,
Because if it's a negative foryou as a driver, it's a negative
for other drivers.
That means there's lesslikelihood that shippers able to
retain their carriers long-term.
And also, I had a carrier thatworked for me not carrier, but
like a driver right, that was abroker.
We interviewed him the one timeand like when he would get on
(12:27):
calls with facilities he'd gone.
Being able to speak from thatperspective allowed him to get
rapport so quick.
He's like yeah, like I knowyour facility really well, Like
I was there, I could tell youexactly who I dealt with and
what some of the issues I raninto.
So it wasn't even just gettingloads to move, which is, I think
, what people think is like.
This is where I'm trying to getto.
(12:48):
It was being able to give themfeedback on like, hey, you know,
like if you are still runninginto the issues we kind of
outlined, here's some thingsthat I think might be helpful.
And again, hey, not trying totell you how to run your
business, but you might be ableto retain some of the carriers
you guys are spending so mucheffort to get in the door and to
work with you.
Just finessing and changing afew simple things that you might
(13:08):
not have noticed from ashipper's perspective mean the
world to a driver and might helpthem actually do more efficient
service, faster loading.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah, think about if you're a driver that's picked up
at a certain facility on aweekly basis and you could have
a conversation like to a carrier, like hey, I know the broker
normally says these guys willload from 730 to 330.
But I've, I've been able to getmyself in there an hour early
and they're willing to load me,right.
Or these guys have told me onthe dock that they wish someone
would just drop some empty stage, an empty trailer, the night
before, so the the overnightshift can get it loaded and they
(13:45):
can come hook it.
And brokers never telling youthat, right, but you know, when
they have those interactions inperson with the folks on the
dock, you get some really goodinsight into how that operation
works.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There's so many disconnects between what happens
at a loading dock and theperson tendering their freight
and the person overseeing thepeople on the loading dock right
, and just so often the peoplethat are arranging the freight
are just disconnected enoughfrom what's happening when it's
getting loaded that even justcommunicating that upstream can
add value and lets them know,like okay, like this is a
(14:19):
valuable relationship for me tohave.
It's not just hey, a rate in atruck, it's oh, this person can
actually help me understand whatmakes my job easier, which is,
at the end of the day, likethat's the Holy grail as a
freight broker in sales.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yep, absolutely All right.
Last question I misquoted aload and I don't want to take a
loss.
What are my options?
And more more specifically,this person had mentioned it was
a.
I think it was an oversizedload that was like going to
result in a $2,000 loss.
I got a couple thoughts here.
The first one is if you madethe mistake, you've got to make
(14:54):
a business decision here, likeeither A, you eat it and you own
up to your word.
B, you tell the customer, sorry, I can't do it.
Or C, you find some kind ofmiddle ground in between where
you can go back and just withhumility, like look, when I
originally quoted this I didn'tfactor an x, y and z and
(15:14):
unfortunately that's where themarket is.
I I can't move this at thecurrent rate.
Do we have any wiggle room here?
If not, I totally understand.
You know I'll, I'll take abeating here and I'll own this
myself.
But just having that humilityand that, that honesty with a
customer I think can help buildtrust.
Um, what are your, what's yourtake on it?
I mean there's some danger.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The higher value stuff I would make C my A option
meaning like that's the one I'mleading with which is first
taking responsibility, admittingto what happened, what you saw
or didn't see or missed whenquoting it, and then immediately
coming back with a solution,like have that in your back
pocket right Of like hey, thisis where I thought it was gonna
(15:56):
be, this is why I thought it wasgonna be.
This is the thing I miss, and Ijust wanna be totally upfront
with you that like that is on me.
Here are my thoughts on how Ithink we can resolve it.
Are we able to meet somewherein the middle?
Would that be a hugeinconvenience for you?
(16:17):
And if they come back andthey're pushing like like I've
already 10, they're just you.
I've already canceled all myother options, like I need you
to move this or I'm in a badposition.
Now your last option is likeokay, great, well, like I will
help you out with this one.
What else do you maybe havethat I could move that might
help me make up for the $2,000loss?
Do you have two or three otherloads I can move at maybe your
target rate, which helps me atleast break even on a weekly
basis?
So, instead of moving one loadat a $2,000 loss.
(16:38):
Maybe I'm moving five loads andit's break even across all of
it.
And yeah, I'm going to have towork harder to cover the other
four loads that aretheoretically just making up the
two grand I lost over here.
But now that's a win for yourcustomer.
It's a win for you becauseyou're doing more business with
them and you're showing themthat you're willing to stand
behind the things you're sayingand admit you're wrong when
(16:58):
you're wrong and like to me.
That's how you can wrap it upas best case scenario in a
situation like this.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Absolutely Good questions, good stuff.
Keep sending them our way Again.
You've got the website with acontact form.
You can email us info atFreight360.net, check us out on
YouTube and leave us comments.
We try to respond to as many aswe can and we'll see you guys
in the next Q&A session here.
Final thoughts, ben.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And until next time go Bills.
All right, welcome back.
It's another edition of thefinal mile.
We got some good Q&A here todayfrom our audience.
Mix of this comes from emailquestions, youtube comments, and
I did pull one off of Reddittoo I thought it was.
It was an honorable mentionthat I figured we could give our
take on.
So, but first make sure tocheck out all of our other
content.
(00:20):
There's a whole searchablelibrary on the website.
You'll also find the freightbrokerics course in there If
you're looking for a goodtraining option.
If you're starting a brokerage,you're looking to help train
your team, and please check outthe sponsors in the description
box.
That always helps this channel.
So, ben, we're going to getright into it.
Our first question someone hademailed us asking is demand for
(00:43):
freight brokers declining?
Are small brokers stillrelevant and what does the
future look like for our role inthe industry?
So the first thing I wanted tosay here and we haven't talked
about it in a while, but we'vementioned it a handful of times
is that one of the greatestthings about our industry is
that the small guy versus thebig guy.
There's really not a whole like.
(01:03):
You don't have a whole lot ofcompetitive advantage if you're
like the big guy versus thesmall guy.
Further, you might actuallyhave a harder time running a
scaled out company as profitableonce you add that overhead in
as a smaller company, but inreturn you also might be able to
afford some of the better toolsout there.
So I wanted to at least startoff with that.
But what's your take on thedemand for brokers and what kind
(01:25):
of dictates when we come intoplay?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
That's the first thing you said, because I
thought about that a lot, right,and it was like working at a
really big brokerage.
You have some advantages, right, like there's more support,
there's readily accessible legaladvice on things, the tech
carrier base training and justyour tools, right, and brand
recognition for sure.
(01:48):
But there's a huge disadvantagefrom a broker's point of view,
meaning, like when you first tryto find prospects, you're
actually competing with theother 5,000 people that are
there that are already taggingthose companies, working them or
already doing business withthem.
So it's like there's like agiant moat around the entire
(02:09):
business where, like, you've gotto first find a niche or a way
to just literally just get theability to call a company Right.
Like that is like a gianthurdle and its first hurdle
before you can even startcalling and even doing business.
Hurdle.
And its first hurdle before youcan even start calling and even
doing business when smallercompany it's like blue ocean you
(02:31):
can call anybody to do anything, to ship anything at any point
in time, no friction, littleless brand recognition and some
of the other.
I mean there are somedisadvantages in regards to,
like tech, some support andthings like you're just going to
have a little bit lessresources.
But, like to me, I mean Idefinitely prefer the smaller
companies over like the giganticones, like 100 million.
If you're an actual broker andyou want to go earn income and
(02:53):
do the job to me, I'll take thatall day long.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah.
Now the other part you know weand this actually came up today
is like when do brokers?
Because he asked, like is thedemand dropping right?
And we, we do kind of uh fluxwith the market.
So like if you look atpost-covid versus now, five
years later, like the initialpost-covid, right after the
shutdowns and everything wenthaywire and the market went wild
(03:18):
.
You could a new broker couldhop in and start like getting
customers and quote on stuff andbecause everybody had a hard
time finding a truck and that'swhere he came in.
So like these contractedcarriers started rejecting all
their contracted lanes and said,nope, I'm going to go out there
and chase higher paying loads.
So then what happens?
All that freight that wasalready pre contracted falls to
(03:39):
the spot market.
And that's where brokers arelike all right, here's a load
that's got to go today ortomorrow morning.
It's my job to go search themarket right now and find a
truck right now for this load.
And when that happens we comeinto play.
And if you look at the marketnow, where it's a softer market,
a lot of companies are tryingto weed out some of their
onboarded brokers to refine andkind of get their bullpen of
(04:03):
transportation providers down toa core set of like a dozen or
less, depending on what it islike I had.
So basically to answer thequestion, the demand is is it
declining?
I think it's it's not declining.
It's probably just kind of flat, like plateaued right now, but
it always kind of moves with themarket.
I had a guy that was looking tocome join my brokerage that you
know, today he was askingactually it was yesterday that
(04:24):
was looking to come join mybrokerage, that you know today
he was asking, or actually itwas yesterday.
He was asking like do you guyswork with, you know this
specific company?
And I was like, nope, we don't.
You're in luck, like they'reavailable for you.
And he's like, no, actually I'mnot in luck because they're not
onboarding new brokerages.
I was hoping you guys werealready in their system.
And I was like, ah, like that'sa.
That's a pure example of like alot of companies are saying
we're not adding anybody rightnow because we're fine, there's
(04:46):
less problems right now.
And when there's less problems,let me reverse engineer that
when there's more problems,there's more opportunities for
us and the spot market asbrokers.
Would you do you have any otherinsight to that?
It's pretty much our doctrinethat we've spoken for years on
this show.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, I think at the end of the day we talked about
this in last week's episode islike I was telling you I was
talking about that story from umuh war dogs, right, where he's
talking about, like just they'recompeting as a small business,
yeah, against, like you know,hundreds of billions of dollars,
you know size companies.
And he's like look, man, thispie is so big that, like you
don't need a slice, like youneed a crumb, right, and the pie
in our industry is roughlysomewhere between 800 billion
(05:29):
and a trillion dollars.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Hundreds of billions of dollars, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Big or small, growing or smalling, to me like what
we're trying to be able to getout of it and to be successful.
And, honestly, like almost anysize company, like there's
always opportunity.
You just have to look a littleharder.
Sometimes you have to find amore specific of a niche, but,
like there's always a problem,there's always somebody that
needs more help.
It's just a matter of puttingthe effort in to find it.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Speaking of niches, our next question leads right
into that.
Someone asked I'm a brokerlooking for carriers to handle
two to three pallet frozen LTLloads weekly Any tips on
connecting with reliable owneroperators or carriers?
So that is definitely a nicheand it's a nut that I have
rarely been able to crack, whichis that reefer LTL.
The first thing I would tellyou is, if you're looking at
(06:18):
frozen LTL, your traditional LTLcarrier is likely not the
option.
So this person's at leastlooking in the right direction.
They're saying hey, I want togo find a full truckload carrier
that can partial a bunch offrozen things together and
that's a very good niche.
The tough thing is findingenough freight to fill up a full
(06:39):
truckload where it saves coston the shipper and it makes
sense for the carrier thatthey're going to have enough
money in it to haul it and stillbe profitable.
So that's why there'sconsolidation carriers that have
I've worked with a couple overthe years where that's their
niche is they try to take alltheir costs.
They basically they're aco-brokerage Right and they try
(07:01):
to take all their othercustomers who are brokers that
have this reefer LTL and theytry to consolidate it and then
put it on their carrier networkand match it up and make money
and save money for the customerat the same time.
So also you've got companieslike Expedite, all who have
leveraged the smaller truckloadmarket of temp control with your
refrigerated sprinters, boxtrucks, straight trucks, things
(07:23):
like that, to save on the fulltruckload cost and still be able
to give that LTL size shippingcapability.
So any other thoughts on theFresh X?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Fresh X is a pretty decent one.
I think the guy's name is Lancewho's running that company.
I've met with him a few times.
They're doing similar things toExpedite All, except it's
primarily going to be like yoursmall refrigerated trucks, able
to pick up a pallet or two,being able to book similar loads
like this, and it's a reallygood platform to start looking
for carriers out of it.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, the biggest risk that I've seen with people
that try to do reefer LTL andthey try to do it all in-house
themselves, is that they mightsay, well, I've got this one
customer that does ice cream andanother customer that does
frozen seafood and anothercustomer that does frozen
whatever, and the temperaturesare all similar.
But the issue comes with thesensitivity during unloading,
(08:17):
when that roll-up door is openor that swing door is open and
all of a sudden that ice creamgot just a little bit too warm
and melted and it can't beexposed to that at all right,
whereas another commodity may beable to be a little bit more
resilient during its loading,unloading time.
So it's it's tricky, there's alot of risk there, but there's a
lot of opportunity as well.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And here's the other one.
The other one is that's on thefrozen side.
But if you're doing like thereefer, like fresh control, like
that fresh like, then you canalso run into.
Certain produce can't be loadedwith other produce because one
emits whatever chemical thatactually ripens the other one
Ripens it, I think like tomatoesand bananas are one that I
think I remember that like ifyou put them together, like,
(08:59):
literally, potatoes and onionsare two that definitely you
don't want to put together.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I remember you just put them on your, put them in
the same bowl on your counterand all of a sudden, like your,
your onion starts growing likeSprouts, sprout, whatever out of
it, and it's like, yeah, you're, you're, you're right.
I remember when we had uhproduce blue book on an episode
in the past they talked aboutit's the, the certain chemical
that's emitted from one ethylene.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I think.
I think it's right, I thinkit's ethylene from tomatoes is
the one that ripens a bananafaster.
Again, I'd have to go back andlook at some of the very
specifics, but there aredefinitely things you can't load
without compartmentalizing.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Think about the sensitivity of something like
avocados right, like you alwayslook for the perfect avocado in
the store.
Imagine if you got there andthey're all mushy like too ripe.
You know it's bad news, so allright.
Next question as anowner-operator wanting to
transition into brokerage,what's the best way to get
started?
And I think further on.
The guy said he had been.
He had been driving for likefive years and wants to get you
(09:55):
know away from being behind thewheel and more behind the
computer and on the phone.
My best advice to anybody that'slooking to get into brokerage,
that it's worked in truckingbefore, is, first of all, you
have a leg up on anybody that'sbrand new, because you
understand what it's like todrive.
So your communication withcarriers is going to be very,
very, you know, more relatablethan the average broker out of
(10:15):
college that has never done thatjob before.
What I would tell you, though,is it's a totally different
world, and you really need tolearn how brokerage works versus
just operating a truck.
So definitely educate yourself.
But then, if you've hauled inor out of certain facilities and
you've made some contacts thereand it's not against a
(10:36):
solicitation agreement that youhave, I'd start with that Like
if you're, if you're, deliveringsomewhere.
I'd just be like hey, startasking questions in person Like
are you guys, have any anyissues outbound with with people
not showing up, looking atbranching out into the 3PL side?
And I've got you know wouldlove to grow a carrier network
that outside of just me I mightbe able to offer you additional
(10:57):
capacity and remain as a singlepoint of contact for you.
Outside of that, you're prettymuch in the boat as everybody
else.
You're going to have to do alot of prospecting, learn what
the brokerage side of thebusiness looks like and get to
work.
Any any take on that.
I mean we coach a lot of folksfrom TIA who they're in this
boat.
Right, they've managed a smallfleet or a single truck for a
while and they want to branch ityou know, branch off into it.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And also, like I feel like the other advantage for
folks that were driving one isthat, like you've probably got a
pretty good idea of the placesyou didn't want to load at or
unload at, right.
Well, like that's a pretty bigsignal that other carriers don't
want to go there and that ifyou keep pulling on that thread,
there's a pretty goodlikelihood that that shipper is
always having a hard timegetting new carriers because
(11:43):
they're not managing theiroperations well Too long a dwell
time, too long to load, not agreat facility to load at right,
Like, when those things happen,that means that shipper
probably has more turnover intheir direct relationships with
carriers, which in turn, meansthey're probably using more
brokers than another facility,right?
So there's signals that youlikely probably already know
(12:05):
that you could use to youradvantage just by paying
attention to honestly, likethink about the negatives,
Because if it's a negative foryou as a driver, it's a negative
for other drivers.
That means there's lesslikelihood that shippers able to
retain their carriers long-term.
And also, I had a carrier thatworked for me not carrier, but
like a driver right, that was abroker.
We interviewed him the one timeand like when he would get on
(12:27):
calls with facilities he'd gone.
Being able to speak from thatperspective allowed him to get
rapport so quick.
He's like yeah, like I knowyour facility really well, Like
I was there, I could tell youexactly who I dealt with and
what some of the issues I raninto.
So it wasn't even just gettingloads to move, which is, I think
, what people think is like.
This is where I'm trying to getto.
(12:48):
It was being able to give themfeedback on like, hey, you know,
like if you are still runninginto the issues we kind of
outlined, here's some thingsthat I think might be helpful.
And again, hey, not trying totell you how to run your
business, but you might be ableto retain some of the carriers
you guys are spending so mucheffort to get in the door and to
work with you.
Just finessing and changing afew simple things that you might
(13:08):
not have noticed from ashipper's perspective mean the
world to a driver and might helpthem actually do more efficient
service, faster loading.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah, think about if you're a driver that's picked up
at a certain facility on aweekly basis and you could have
a conversation like to a carrier, like hey, I know the broker
normally says these guys willload from 730 to 330.
But I've, I've been able to getmyself in there an hour early
and they're willing to load me,right.
Or these guys have told me onthe dock that they wish someone
would just drop some empty stage, an empty trailer, the night
before, so the the overnightshift can get it loaded and they
(13:45):
can come hook it.
And brokers never telling youthat, right, but you know, when
they have those interactions inperson with the folks on the
dock, you get some really goodinsight into how that operation
works.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
There's so many disconnects between what happens
at a loading dock and theperson tendering their freight
and the person overseeing thepeople on the loading dock right
, and just so often the peoplethat are arranging the freight
are just disconnected enoughfrom what's happening when it's
getting loaded that even justcommunicating that upstream can
add value and lets them know,like okay, like this is a
(14:19):
valuable relationship for me tohave.
It's not just hey, a rate in atruck, it's oh, this person can
actually help me understand whatmakes my job easier, which is,
at the end of the day, likethat's the Holy grail as a
freight broker in sales.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yep, absolutely All right.
Last question I misquoted aload and I don't want to take a
loss.
What are my options?
And more more specifically,this person had mentioned it was
a.
I think it was an oversizedload that was like going to
result in a $2,000 loss.
I got a couple thoughts here.
The first one is if you madethe mistake, you've got to make
(14:54):
a business decision here, likeeither A, you eat it and you own
up to your word.
B, you tell the customer, sorry, I can't do it.
Or C, you find some kind ofmiddle ground in between where
you can go back and just withhumility, like look, when I
originally quoted this I didn'tfactor an x, y and z and
(15:14):
unfortunately that's where themarket is.
I I can't move this at thecurrent rate.
Do we have any wiggle room here?
If not, I totally understand.
You know I'll, I'll take abeating here and I'll own this
myself.
But just having that humilityand that, that honesty with a
customer I think can help buildtrust.
Um, what are your, what's yourtake on it?
I mean there's some danger.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The higher value stuff I would make C my A option
meaning like that's the one I'mleading with which is first
taking responsibility, admittingto what happened, what you saw
or didn't see or missed whenquoting it, and then immediately
coming back with a solution,like have that in your back
pocket right Of like hey, thisis where I thought it was gonna
(15:56):
be, this is why I thought it wasgonna be.
This is the thing I miss, and Ijust wanna be totally upfront
with you that like that is on me.
Here are my thoughts on how Ithink we can resolve it.
Are we able to meet somewherein the middle?
Would that be a hugeinconvenience for you?
(16:17):
And if they come back andthey're pushing like like I've
already 10, they're just you.
I've already canceled all myother options, like I need you
to move this or I'm in a badposition.
Now your last option is likeokay, great, well, like I will
help you out with this one.
What else do you maybe havethat I could move that might
help me make up for the $2,000loss?
Do you have two or three otherloads I can move at maybe your
target rate, which helps me atleast break even on a weekly
basis?
So, instead of moving one loadat a $2,000 loss.
(16:38):
Maybe I'm moving five loads andit's break even across all of
it.
And yeah, I'm going to have towork harder to cover the other
four loads that aretheoretically just making up the
two grand I lost over here.
But now that's a win for yourcustomer.
It's a win for you becauseyou're doing more business with
them and you're showing themthat you're willing to stand
behind the things you're sayingand admit you're wrong when
(16:58):
you're wrong and like to me.
That's how you can wrap it upas best case scenario in a
situation like this.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Absolutely Good questions, good stuff.
Keep sending them our way Again.
You've got the website with acontact form.
You can email us info atFreight360.net, check us out on
YouTube and leave us comments.
We try to respond to as many aswe can and we'll see you guys
in the next Q&A session here.
Final thoughts, ben.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Whether you believe you can or believe you can't,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
And until next time go Bills.
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