June 6, 2025 • 54 mins
🎧 This Freight 360 episode explores winning brokerage strategies, industry risks, and economic shifts.
-Securing more freight through strong communication and customer value
-FMCSA identity verification changes and rising fraud concerns
-Tariffs, safety budget cuts, and their economic impact
-Tech, AI, and personal productivity tips for brokers
Support Our Sponsors:
QuikSkope - Get a Free Trial: Click Here
Levity: Click Here
DAT Freight & Analytics - Get 10% off your first year!
DAT Power - Brokers & Carriers: Click Here
Recommended Products: Click Here
Freight Broker Basics Course: Click Here
Join Our Facebook Group: Click Here
Check out all of our content online: Click Here
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome to this week's episode of Freight 360.
Nate is off on military dutythis week, so Stephen's going to
be joining me for this episode.
If you're a friend of thecontent, please like, share,
comment, send your questionsover All that's appreciated.
We are going to cover how toget more freight for brokers
(00:21):
Some like 101 level stuff, somebasics these are probably the
things that we'll talk abouttoday that the folks that do
these well consistently tend tohave long, profitable or
successful careers, and they'rethe most common things I see
brokers not getting business orwatching their accounts shrink
(00:41):
aren't doing.
So they are just some likereally straightforward things
that everyone should be doing inthis industry that we'll talk
about.
In sports, to kind of kickthings off, the Memorial
Tournament was last weekend.
Scotty Scheffler won.
I don't know if anyone saw that.
You got the French Open goingon.
Finals will be this weekend.
(01:02):
I don't think there was toomuch noteworthy in there.
Oh, my cousin Darren Kowalskiwon the Tri-State Open in South
Hills Country Club in Pittsburghyesterday.
As an amateur he ended upwinning in a playoff hole, so
that was pretty cool.
Shout out to him.
That's awesome.
What do we got in the news?
(01:22):
Got a few things we wanted tochat about.
You want to talk about theFMCSA thing that's making some
note.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, so the FMCSA released in April the identity
verification steps for motorcarrier and the fall off from
new authorities applications hasbeen quite dramatic.
I don't know if you, if youlook at your stocks, it's not a
line on a chart that you wouldlike to see.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Sixty five percent in the month prior, down to 30
percent in April.
So it got cut in half and theimportant part is like, that is
the step between, like theapplication and approval Right.
So same number of applicationsbut like half of the people that
would have gotten through aregetting through, now that they
need to go through an identitycheck.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah and then.
So there's a lot of peopletalking about how this could
impact rates capacity, whichthere's some obvious correlation
there.
Rates capacity, which there'ssome obvious correlation there.
But the one thing that isinteresting is the MCS-150 form
that the carriers have to fillout, which is every two years.
They have to re-verify theiressentially their identity, all
(02:35):
their equipment, all that kindof stuff.
Miles like average miles, thatwill be part of that process.
So I think every month, asthese biennials are due from
different carriers, you'll keepseeing that go down and down and
down.
So it'll be it'll beinteresting to track.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Agreed.
I mean I'm just really excitedthey're actually doing something
.
I mean clearly it's having someresult.
I'm super skeptical in theshort run this is going to halt
any type of fraud or crime,because I don't know the
instances.
I haven't seen go down at alland I've had some conversations
(03:13):
with folks that are on that side, meaning like I'll give you an
example we had.
It was a client of mine had atruckload stolen, right.
He was a client of mine had atruckload stolen, right.
We were able to one I can'tremember if we were.
I think we were in contact withthe dispatcher who was clearly
(03:33):
the one committing the fraudbecause he was holding the load
hostage and we were trying tonegotiate some portion to get
the load back.
And I think they had said youknow, the load's worth a hundred
grand.
If you give us 10 grand, we'lltell you where the load was.
But then you run into this hardproblem of like, okay, we give
you 10 grand, what's going tosay?
You're going to give us theinformation or that the truck's
(03:55):
there.
So there was a whole bunch ofback and forth with this
gentleman that was clearlyadmitted to have stolen the load
.
Right, knew the load stolen.
We're talking to the personthat stole the load.
And the two funny things werethe client I was working with
was in Europe and when he was onthe phone with this guy, I was
(04:16):
on the phone too.
It was like a three-way call.
The police car happened todrive past the broker and the
broker owning the USs company ineurope right, but it was a
european cop car, so the sirensounded different and you could
hear the criminal on the phone.
Just pause.
And his voice changed like well, wait a minute.
(04:38):
Like where are you again?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
like because he clearly wasn't in the united
states right, which was like thefirst part that I thought was
kind of comfortable.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
But the second piece was and this is the part that I
think is worth telling foreveryone to be aware of is like
he said listen, I know whatyou're gonna try to do.
You're gonna try to pay me half, because I think we got to the
point where, like, hey, you want10, we'll give you eight, but
we'll give you four up front andthe other four when we can find
the truck Right.
(05:06):
So here's half, in good faith.
Here's the other half, becausethe reality was like this client
of ours like has theftinsurance and the deductible was
like 10 grand anyway.
So it was like hey if you'regoing to pay the money anyway
and you're not going to get itback, this gets the cargo to
your customers sooner and youdon't have the claim, your
insurance premiums don't go up.
So it seemed like it made senseto go this route.
(05:27):
Okay, and what he said waslisten, I know what you're
thinking, because the firstthing we asked was like well,
just have your driver bring itto our customer.
He's like I'm not, because likeyou're just going to have the
authorities meet my driver thereand arrest them.
So like we're not going to dothat.
Okay.
And then the second thing thethreat that he made was he goes,
(05:48):
listen, like I know what you'rethinking is you're going to pay
me half and then screw me onthe other half, not pay me the
other half once you get thecargo.
But he's like I'm telling youright now, like we know who your
brokerage is, we obviously haveyour MC, we know who this
customer is.
He's like I've got at least ahandful of other legitimate
(06:09):
carrier MCs right now that haveno freight guards, that are
running freight legitimately.
That I absolutely can, whetherit's next week, two weeks or
three weeks from now, I willtake another load from you and I
will take one of thiscustomer's loads and I will let
that customer know that you knewthis was getting stolen and you
(06:30):
won't get it back.
So basically he was telling usthat, hey, you don't pay this
other four grand, I will use oneof my other clean MCs,
absolutely steal another loadand I will make it very clear
and apparent to your customerthat you didn't do what you were
supposed to and you knew thiswas going to get stolen.
And it was like you could tellin the guy's tone of voice.
(06:51):
It did not seem like a bluff,Like he absolutely knew what he
was doing.
He absolutely understood thesystem and clearly was doing
this more than a one-offscenario.
Like these are sophisticatedcriminals that operate like
legitimate brokerages.
They just steal the thingsinstead of actually moving them.
(07:12):
And to me, like, if you're thatsophisticated and you see what
the FMCSA is doing, there'sstill so many MCs out there that
are legitimate.
There's so many carriers thatare going to go out of business
or are in financial hardshipthat, like they'll probably sell
their MCs to some of these inthe meantime and if they got a
two year window before they'regoing to get verified, to lose
(07:32):
that MC they only need three orfour days to steal a lot of
freight under a legitimate MC.
So like hey, kudos, I'm gladthey're starting to do these
things.
I'm surprised they did them asfast as they have, but I think
it's still going to be a longwhile before we see a reduction
in crime or fraud.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, I agree and I think, kind of going to what you
said.
During COVID, I mean, we alltalked about it we saw the rise
in authorities A lot of that wasjust people applying for these
burner MCs because they couldjust get 30, 40, 50 of them at a
time.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So at least it's not.
That's not going to continue tohappen.
Agreed Again.
Hey, I don't want to criticizemaking steps towards the goal
that we all want them to have,right, not trying to be
overcritical.
I'm mostly pointing this outbecause I think everyone needs
to be super diligent still andnot expect this to go away just
because the FMCSA is finallydoing something.
The other thing this was inFreight Caviar this morning and
(08:37):
this just astounds me is thatthe FMCSA is cutting their staff
.
At the same time, they'resupposedly combating fraud by 7%
.
Like to me, that is absolutelyabsurd.
Yeah, I know that they don'thave the ability to determine
how much funding they get.
That comes from DC and Congress.
(08:58):
But when you are reading what isgoing into the budget the
amount that they're adding tothe deficit within weeks of
being all over the news sayingwe have this huge problem, the
government is over leveraged,we're spending too much money,
doge is going to cut $2 trillionWithin weeks, you don't hear
(09:18):
anything about Doge.
I've seen articles that itmight've cost more money to
implement Doge than theyactually saved.
So it was basically a net zero.
And then, when it came time forall of Congress to decide, hey,
we actually do need to makesome of these cuts permanent or
reduce our spending.
They're spending more money andin addition to that, they're on
(09:41):
the news talking about driversafety because people were
getting killed by unsafe drivers, unlicensed cdl drivers what
was the number like?
Four percent on dot blitz weekthat just had no driver's
license whatsoever yeah, it was.
Uh, I think it was one in one infive, right it was one in 20,
but one in five are below thesafety standard.
(10:01):
So one out of five trucks arenot meeting the safety standards
and it was like 4% of thedrivers pulled over during Blitz
week had no CDL whatsoever.
We're just driving without alicense and when you look, and
on top of that, like there is abacklog of years of inspections,
they're behind on the safetystandard.
Safety is literally in thatorganization's name Federal
(10:26):
Motor Carrier Safety Associationand they haven't been caught up
.
I don't even know when the lasttime they were actually
upholding the safety standardsthat they're supposed to be
holding.
And now they're going to cutthe budget.
So you've got government sayinghey, this is a big issue for us
, yelling about people notspeaking English, when one in 20
(10:48):
drivers has no CDL.
One in five trucks is below thesafety standard and they're
like you know what, we're goingto give you less money, but hey,
we need more money foreverything else that we want to
spend it on.
Like, to me, it's just suchhorseshit.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Well, did you?
I don't know if you saw thestuff about the Blitz week and
that carrier that got the mostinspections?
That was a Prada, I think PradaLLC.
I didn't see that.
So Garrett made a system calledsearch carriers and during
Blitz week he collected all thedata and there was this carrier
and everyone thought his datawas wrong.
It was two trucks and they hadlike 200 inspections or
(11:27):
something, just during BlitzWeek.
And then when you look intotheir company profile, they got
started in February of this yearand they've had 1,128
inspections.
I think the last time I lookedat since February of this year
for two trucks and everyone waslike no, this isn't right, this
isn't right.
So then Ryan at Genlogs lookedat it and then he confirmed with
(11:48):
their system that oh, it'sactually multiple trucks.
They're just putting like paperMCs on it.
And then the kicker that noone's talked about that I
noticed is that this carrierwith two trucks, 1,100
inspections, more than Swift andall these large mega carriers
is still unrated.
They have never been looked at.
(12:08):
Nope, although I mean they haveall the red flags.
They're obviously doing thingscompletely wrong, but the FMCSA
still has never looked at them.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, and the two things that bother me the most,
I would say like fraud isprobably number two to safety
for me.
Like I have a family, like Idrive on the road with my kids
in the car.
Like and when you see theseincidents and you see how much
more carriers that are operatingthat way have more incidents,
(12:39):
more accidents, more fatalitiesrelated to it, like everybody in
the country is likely on theroad at some point in time,
maybe on a given week or a givenmonth, right, and like these
are huge things for justsocietal safety that this agency
is just absolutely not doinganything about and they're
(12:59):
cutting their budget to me, likeI am, I'm not not surprised,
but it makes me want to throw up, to be honest right and like
when you look at so, uh, one infive pieces of equipment are,
you know, unsafe at any speed.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And then you do the licensing and I did the the math
on it a couple weeks ago.
So if you don't weight it atall right with the, the illegal
or the invalid license and thesafety equipment, there's a 1%
chance that someone without alicense is operating unsafe
equipment.
It's like 0.7 or something likethat and I'll bet if you
(13:34):
weighted it.
It's very high.
Well, yeah, you obviously haveto weight it because the unsafe
drivers are going to be using.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah because I don't have a driver's license and I'm
willing to cut, make that gamblelike I'm probably not on top of
my maintenance either and I'mprobably driving a truck that
absolutely has some issues withit, right, I mean right.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So then you have to think OK, so if then, maybe if
you wait, what is it then?
Is it 10 percent, Is it 15percent?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
You know it's it's just crazy that, yeah, like
driving on the highway over thelast, like this year,
specifically with all the amazonrelay issues and stuff like
that, like it makes me thinktwice before, like putting all
my kids in the car and drivinganywhere and I'll tell you this
again, it's anecdotal, but mynext door neighbor is a fireman
(14:25):
and like, so he's constantly atthese scenes, right, I mean,
you're on that side of the world, like on that side of things
I'm sure you have friends thatare in the paramedics and the
you know emergency services andlike he we talk about dude, like
so often he's like, yeah, likeI don't like taking road trips
to go anywhere anymore, like Itry to minimize driving at any
(14:48):
point in time and like again, Iprobably think Florida probably
is one of the states where yousee more instances of this for
sure, like the insurance ratesjust to drive a normal car here
are obscene.
Because I remember when I firstmoved here, my insurance and I
had no accidents, no speedingtickets, nothing, right, in
(15:08):
Pennsylvania where I lived untilI was 32 or 33, like my
insurance was like 80 bucks,maybe 110 bucks a month,
something like that Give or take.
When I moved to Florida and gotmy license in Florida and
bought my first car in Florida,I was quoted at like five to six
hundred dollars a month forinsurance, with nothing on my
(15:29):
record at all.
And I remember asking him I'mlike this is more than the car
payments I was looking at, I'mlike how in the world one does
anybody afford this and why isthis so high?
And the insurance agent wastelling me he's like, oh,
something like 43% of drivers onthe road in Florida were
considered underinsured orcompletely uninsured.
(15:52):
So most of my premium was myinsurance company making me
insure myself against peoplethat could hit me that had no
insurance, because like roughlyone in two cars just don't have
insurance or not enoughinsurance.
And I got hit by a car on mybike and it was somebody that
had $10,000 in insurance.
I had like $200,000 in medicalbills from this car accident.
(16:14):
I got hit as basically apedestrian on my bike and had an
attorney like yeah, there'slike basically 10 grand that
they're going to be able to getfrom this company's insurance.
Like the whole scenario is justabsolutely ridiculous and I
don't think anybody realizes howbad this is for just regular
vehicles, let alone a vehicledriving 90,000 miles, 90,000
(16:35):
pounds or 85,000 pounds rightdown the road going 80 miles an
hour three feet away from you,driving 70 miles an hour in the
other direction.
Like it's terrifying when youthink about it.
Yeah, yeah, it definitely is.
Anything else in the newsworking.
Oh, tariffs went up 50% onsteel and aluminum, seemingly
(16:57):
out of nowhere.
Ironically, I think it wasrelated to Trump's Also
seemingly out of the blue.
Tariffs on steel went from 25to 50 percent, according to
Jason Miller.
It's worth emphasizing how muchbroader in scope the 25 tariffs
(17:17):
are relative to the 2018.
Based on the Federal Registerof Documents, 2018 tariffs and
the 25 tariffs the HTC couldsubject to these two sets of
tariffs obtained.
To be honest, it just lookslike they're going to have a
much larger impact than they did.
(17:38):
I mean, who really knows itsays how can this be?
I mean, who really knows itsays how can this be?
You'll see that China is themost affected country because
the derivative products in 25tariffs are much more expansive
and they include computer parts,exercise equipment, metal
furniture, air conditioner partsand cookware.
(17:59):
Mexico is next on the list withauto parts.
Canada is third due to importsof steel and aluminum.
So, yeah, that's going to havean effect for sure on load
volume, freight, what everybodyis paying for cost of goods sold
.
So things certainly aren'tgoing to get cheaper.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
No, yeah, and I saw Brian Peterson over at Flexport,
I think it was yesterday, maybetwo days ago.
They put out, they made acalculator, so like people can
go and put in what their productis or whatever, and it'll spit
out like, hey, this is what wethink your tariffs will be based
on the most in it, and I guessthey set it up in a way that, as
(18:40):
news breaks Based on thismorning or an hour ago Right, I
mean, that's the only way youcan do it the tariffs change
like with the wind, it seems.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, I mean there's a lot of pushback now where
basically not just the press butI mean they're picking up on
the fact that like yeah, this,oh the art of the deal, this
super great negotiator, right.
They're like it's kind of thesame playbook.
You throw out some crazy numbernobody thinks is going to play
(19:10):
out, then the market reacts, itfalls, and then you walk it back
and they're like yeah, how longdo you think that's going to
continue to work?
Like people have kind of pickedup on the whole strategy at
this point.
So I don't know.
And then I hear defenders,people that are supporting it,
basically saying well, at leasteverybody's talking about it.
I'm like, yeah, that doesn'tmean it's a good thing.
(19:33):
Just because he's drawnattention to it doesn't mean
there's not entirely more damagethan there is good coming out
of this.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's just, yeah, it'll be interesting to see,
like once we're through, likewhat the end result finally
becomes.
It's just one of these thingsthat other people, like your
manager, would tell you oh,trust the process, trust the
process.
And then you get to the enddate and you're like this
(20:02):
process sucked.
Well, here's the thing.
Or it could be vice versa.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But that assumes that the ends justifies the means.
Let's just give the wholesituation the benefit of the
doubt and say, hey, at the endthis would be a net good.
That doesn't mean that theprocess doesn't do more damage
in the meantime than the benefityou get at the end.
Right like, right, hey.
Just because you make it to thefinish line doesn't mean like
you don't have two broken legsand you have permanent damage
(20:33):
for the rest of your life justbecause you finished this thing.
That was important to you, liketo me.
That is the biggest piece ofthis that is being overlooked,
that every company is makingarguments for like we can't plan
.
We can't plan.
We can't buy things, we don'tknow how to predict inventory.
We don't know what our salesare going to look like.
We don't know what our cost ofgoods sold looks like we don't
know what our prices are goingto be this company.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I hit the wrong button.
There was somebody talking.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Where the like I mean Walmart announced they're going
to start passing through priceincreases.
Where the like I mean Walmartannounced they're going to start
passing through price increases.
I mean there's only so longcompanies can hold price
increases in their cost of goodssold before they've got to
increase what they're selling itto consumers.
Anyway, we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I don't even think it's worth digging into because
nobody knows what the hell isgoing to happen.
Yeah, I think the oneinteresting thing that kind of
pairs with it and Unusual Whalesis an account on X that puts
out breaking news and they hadput out a stat I think it was
three days ago that there wasmore inventory in real estate
than in any other time inhistory.
(21:41):
Like on sale right now, yes,history.
Like on sale right now, yes, uh, and so pairing that with like
the steel imports and stuff,it's like what's that?
What's the real estate marketgonna look like over the?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
years.
Here's the thing the biggestindicator of what's gonna happen
really is consumer sentiment.
If people are scared and theyfeel there's uncertainty,
businesses clearly are voicingthat concern right.
But when people like households, your family, my family start
going well, I don't know if I'llhave a job, I don't know if
(22:13):
things are going to get super,super expensive, so I'm going to
spend less money.
That is the bellwether.
That is the thing that startsindicating that things will go
into a recession, because thefirst thing that people stop
doing is making large purchasesautomobiles, homes.
It's not a coincidence thathomes to your point, inventory
(22:34):
is up at its highest level sincelike 2008 or 2009,.
Where people are like I'm notbuying a new home right now.
I have no idea.
And then couple that with allof the fear related to AI and
what everyone's job or industryis going to look like, and
whether or not people will havea job if they're going to get
laid off.
Nobody has any idea.
Like I don't know that there'sever been a point in time in my
(22:56):
life where there's been thismuch economic uncertainty as to
what the future looks like inthe next year, even to three
years, or even six months, orhell, tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Right, yeah, and that's.
That's one thing like me and my, my wife, have talked about.
Quite a lot is not only that,but like, so we're one of like
in that group of people thatbought new houses in 2021.
So, like, my interest rate is2.4 or 5%.
Why would I give that up?
Yeah, Like, and we want, wewant to buy land, we want to
(23:28):
build a house, but for what?
Five percent interest rate.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Even if you can, you just keep your house
indefinitely and wait till youcan save enough to buy a second
one.
My buddy who I used to workwith at TQI I had this
conversation with him he boughtlike a six hundred thousand
dollar house then in Coloradoand, like I was asking, I was
like, oh, what are you doing?
He's like dude, like I would, Ican't ever give up my mortgage.
His mortgage, his mortgage islike on like a $600,000 house.
(23:55):
He definitely put a decent downpayment down, but I think it's
like $2,000 a month, like $1,900, on like a $600,000 house,
cause he's got like a 1.8%mortgage.
He's like, dude, I'm going tolive in this house forever.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Right, yeah, that's it.
Yeah, that's exactly how wefeel, unless I can rent it or
something and make money off it,like there's no reason to give
that up.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
My house was give or take similar to his and my
mortgage is.
It isn't more than double whathis is and I bought mine last
year.
Yeah, yeah, that's nuts Makes ahuge difference.
All right, let's jump into somebasics on like how to get more
freight, what you can do to getloads.
Let's start here.
Like, what do you think mostpeople do with their customers
(24:36):
related to like day-to-day?
Okay, let's just lay theframework.
You've got a new customer,you've onboarded them.
They send you load requestsfrom time to time.
Maybe it's every day.
Hey, here's a list of six loadswe're moving tomorrow.
Here's a list of 20 loads we'vegot this week.
Here's my 50 loads for thisweek.
Here's my 25 for tomorrow.
(24:56):
Right, some variation of thatis pretty common, right?
How do you think most brokersoperate?
You run a brokerage.
Now what do you think mostbrokers do in those scenarios?
They get that email taken fromthem.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
So most of them are going to, they're going to look
at it, they're going to findsome rates.
They're going to kick them over, maybe in a half hour, maybe in
an hour, it just it depends onhow busy they are.
Are they doing, you know, arethey working on other freight?
But in reality what they shouldbe doing is providing that rate
(25:37):
, getting it over at leastwithin the first five minutes,
and then talking, or at the veryleast talking to that.
That shipper like hey, what'sthe details on this?
Like, if you don't know already, in the context of what you
given, this is a new shipper foryou.
So I'm assuming that they'vehad the conversation.
They kind of know what therequirements are.
(25:58):
But if you don't, like thatshould be the first step get the
requirements.
What?
Like engage in a conversation,call that person.
Step get the requirements,engage in a conversation, call
that person.
But most of them are going tothrow it into whatever rating
tool they have.
Kick over a rate, maybewhenever they feel like they
have the time.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Let's go through the most common one.
Most common, I'd say, mostlikely is most people get an
email.
Get to it when they can, hour,45 minutes later, look up a rate
, email it over.
Let's look at this from thecustomer's point of view.
So you're a shipper, you got 25loads to move tomorrow, you
send it out to your brokers andyour carriers get a bunch of
(26:38):
numbers back.
What do you do?
What do you think are thevariables that shipper looks at
to determine who they're goingto go to?
I mean, let's look at thevariables that do exist.
You've got price.
You've got likelihood ofservice, like are they going to
pick up on time and deliver ontime?
And three like I would say thething they're trying to avoid is
(26:58):
booking a carrier or a brokeron a load and then finding out
from their warehouse and nobodyshowed up.
That's the thing they want toavoid the most and they want to
pay the least.
So how do you think they'remaking that decision on a daily
basis?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah.
So, whether it's intentional ornot, the rates that come over.
They're going to look at price,but then they're going to look
at, okay, who's this email from?
Do I trust them, do I know them, okay, and then that's there's.
So there's going to be thatbias that's involved in there,
and then it's going to be therate and quality and the
timeliness of how the rates cameover.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Great.
So let's look at the mostcommon scenario of I'm just
getting rates from a broker viaemail.
Ok, the thing I'm going to doif I don't speak to them,
because your other point is,most of them don't pick up the
phone and talk to these peoplebecause they're too scared to
interact with a human being,they don't want to have a
conversation, they feel likethey don't have enough time,
they're too lazy.
(27:53):
Whatever Pick your reason, it'snot happening most of the time.
So they go OK.
Well, when was the last time Ihad a problem with this company?
Oh well, the next thought iswell, I booked them on six loads
last week.
One or two trucks didn't pickup.
And here's the kicker On theone or two trucks that didn't
pick up, did that broker tell mebefore the load was supposed to
(28:15):
pick up at noon, like, did Ifind out at 11 from that broker,
or 1130 or even 1145?
Or did my warehouse email meand call me at 1230 going
where's this truck?
So when I find out from mycompany that the company I paid
to send a truck didn't knowtheir truck was showing up on
time, I look bad in my company.
(28:36):
I look like I'm not doing myjob because I booked a truck and
I didn't know that.
I didn't even tell my warehouse, hey, this guy's going to be
late.
So you've got guys that maybestaged a load, that are standing
there waiting to load thistruck, and now there's the truck
that was supposed to be there,1230 and maybe at one o'clock
already waiting, but the loadfor noon is sitting on the dock
(28:58):
and I can't load the next truckor the truck after that Cause
this load sitting there and Ididn't know that this guy was
coming or not going to be thereuntil after the fact.
So if I'm going to pick, even ifthat guy's the cheapest, every
time that happens they get alittle less likely.
They're going to get morefreight, right.
And then from the broker'spoint of view they think, well,
maybe he'll get there on timeand I don't really want to have
(29:20):
that conversation, so like I'lljust hope they don't notice,
right.
And then they wonder oh, I wasdoing 10 loads a week with this
customer last month, now I'mdoing seven and now I'm only
getting like one or two quotes.
They must not be shipping thatmuch.
Or the other thing they'll tellthemselves is oh, they must be
just too cheap and they justdon't like my rates.
(29:42):
Then they go oh man, this marketis killing me.
Then they blame something else.
Well, it's the market, it'sthis, this is their manager goes
.
Why is your load volume down,jimmy?
Well, you know, it must be therates.
This customer's just supercheap and they just don't like
me.
That's why my load volume isgoing down.
And then what do they do?
They do the same thing todaySend over rates, hope they get
(30:03):
more freight, nothing changes.
And they blame everybody else.
Right, I'd say that's your mostcommon scenario.
Now let's look at the completelyother end of the spectrum.
Right, and I do think incentiveplays a big part in this,
because when you have brokersthat are more salary and have
guaranteed paychecks, thisbecomes more common.
Why?
(30:24):
Because it takes sorry, Ithought someone said my door.
Because it takes energy and youhave to overcome some fear to
actually have theseconversations when things go
wrong, which most people avoid.
And two right Like let's justbe honest, most people are going
to revert to the least amountof effort they've got to do to
perform the work they've got todo.
Right, you see things similar.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, definitely, and it's just what.
It's funny, you mentioned thesalary Cause.
You know, I've had a couple ofpeople that are like oh, you
know, I'd like to have a, I'dlike to have a raise, or or
maybe we can do something withthe commission split.
You know, I just need to makemore money.
And the first response I alwaysgive them is have you tried
getting more freight Cause?
That's how you make more money,because you earn commission.
(31:06):
And they always are just likeoh yeah, no, I guess you know
it's always the same thing.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It's always an excuse and the thing is right, like
the thing that I always think ofsimply is right, like even long
before I owned businesses.
It's like if you aren'tcreating more value for the
business you work for, how canyou expect to take more value or
(31:34):
money out of it?
Right, like there's nothingthat bugs me more than people
that are like I need to bemaking more money while their
book of business is shrinkingand they're doing less to
increase it or take initiativeto do more things.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Right, initiative to do more things.
Right, right, yeah it.
I never understood that.
And then there's always thiswell, if I you know, xyz, I can
make more.
They're just trying to find moreways to split a dollar, and
it's like just just do the work,bring in more freight, just do
the work.
That's the take, the initiative, that's it's.
(32:03):
The beauty of this industry is,the more you put into it, the
more you will get out of it.
Yep and it's all.
Your success is dependent onhow much you want to work, so
couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It's something I've always been good at.
Now let's look at the other endof the spectrum Brokers that I
think I've met, that I'velearned from that, that trained
me, that did really well good orbad markets, right.
What are they doing?
And this was a guy.
He was like a regional manager,but like when he was telling me
(32:37):
how he ran his book before Iwas even in the industry, right.
And this story just kind ofalways stuck with me because I
could literally picture him inthe front of the room, kind of
like giving this speech.
But he's like listen, like everyday.
He's like here's the way my daystarted.
I have 15 customers that areactive right Every morning.
I'm calling all 15 of them,regardless of whether or not
they sent me any loads or not.
Hey, want to see how your daywas going, how'd your day play
(33:00):
out yesterday?
Do anything last night?
You have a little bit of aconversation and the way I
always described is like yourcustomers.
You should be interacting withthem like they're your coworkers
, not like the people that arephysically sitting next to you.
You don't make any money fromthem.
Like hey, it's great that youI'm not saying you shouldn't be
friends with your coworkers.
I've enjoyed the people I'veworked with too.
(33:21):
But like if I looked at my daylike when I'm just a broker, I
spent way more time talking tomy customers every day than I
ever did talking to peoplephysically in my office.
Right, Because that's the job,first of all.
So it's every morning he wouldcall all 15 of his customers to
see how their loads wentyesterday.
Did anything come up?
Did any orders come inovernight?
(33:43):
Usually a little bit of chitchat hey, how was your morning?
He cause he knew them wellenough.
Like hey, I know your kid had asoftball game last night or
baseball or a dance recital, howdid that go?
Like genuinely talking to themthe same way he would any
coworkers sitting next to them.
And hey, anything coming uptoday.
You might need a hand onanything on the horizon later
this week or you're worriedabout.
Just let me know, give me aheads up so I can try to plan
(34:04):
and help if you need something.
Right.
And what would happen when youtalk to them every day is like
there's always more loads thatwould come in out of those 15
customers.
Between the end of the dayyesterday and the next morning
there were always loads thatwere supposed to pick up that
night.
That didn't get picked up, thatneeded recovered in the morning
.
So guess what?
By being there and talking tothem every morning, that
customer did not send all thoseloads to eight other brokers and
(34:27):
10 other carriers because he'son the phone with them.
He's making a point to know hey, I'm here, I'm ready to work
with you today.
What do you need help with?
So they're going.
Yeah, I got three loads lastnight.
It weren't supposed to pick up.
If you can get a truck firstthing, let me know before I send
these out.
So he's got first dibs.
Now his rates aren't getting,compared to everyone else's, to
be cheaper, which is the firstadvantage.
He's getting them before theygo out to the market to see
(34:51):
who's going to.
Just let this shipper pick.
The second thing it does is itsaves that shipper time.
The shipper doesn't have toemail those loads out because he
just talked to somebody heknows and trusts and says hey,
see what you can do, here's mytargets, get me as close to it.
I got other stuff to do anyway.
I don't want to worry aboutthese.
So now he's adding value tothat person's day to day work
(35:15):
life.
Because he freed their time up.
They don't have to read allthose emails, they don't have to
pick and choose later and he'sworking on them first thing.
So like long before, thisperson could send emails out to
everybody else, get responses,then respond, then they work on
it.
That's like an hour this guy'sliterally on
it already got these loadsposted first thing.
It's 7 30 in the morning.
(35:35):
These loads are posted firsttrucks.
He's going hey, I get this guyin there in 20 minutes.
I got another truck be there in45 minutes.
He's genuinely helping increasetheir efficiency, their supply
chain.
And you know what, when theytrust him and they know he's
going to do what he said, he'sgenuinely helping increase their
efficiency, their supply chain.
And you know what, when theytrust him and they know he's
going to do what he said he'sgoing to do, they don't usually
mind paying an extra 50 bucks or100 bucks on those loads.
Doesn't seem like a ton, butthat adds up.
(35:56):
I got four more loads from mycustomer and they gave me an
extra 75 on each one because Isaved them time and allowed them
to do more other work whichcreates value for their company.
I get paid for my time, I savethem time and the warehouse is
able to get the things out.
They were supposed to get outlast night.
So everybody wins in thesescenarios the trucks that are
empty that want to get theirwheels turning sooner.
He's getting the loads to thoseguys that need it, so they're
(36:18):
not waiting until nine, 30, 10o'clock in the morning to get
loaded.
They're getting loaded at eight30 because they're empty last
night and everybody wins inthese scenarios.
And then the third thing islike when you're talking to your
customers every day, like theytrust you and also you need to
do the thing we talked about amoment ago.
It's like if the truck youbooked is not going to be there
at nine, you've got to be checkcalling or at the very least on
(36:41):
top of your tracking to see hey,are my trucks that are supposed
to be at your place, steven, inan hour?
Are they where they're supposedto be?
Meaning like, did they have anissue?
Maybe they broke down, maybethere was traffic, maybe there
was something that happened,maybe they got stuck at their
receiver and letting you know,hey, guy that's supposed to load
at nine, he was stuck at hisreceiver way late, ran out of
(37:03):
hours, he's not going to bethere till 11, but I can get my
guy that's supposed to be thereat 10 and a little early because
he got empty early.
Can we switch these POs?
Get this truck loaded first Now.
The warehouse wins, the shipperwins, the driver gets loaded
early, the guy who had an issuegets a better appointment.
He's not waiting for detention,he doesn't get because he's late
(37:32):
, and you're able to configureall of these things more
effectively and efficiently.
And again, the shipper doesn'tmind paying me an extra 75 bucks
a load because I'm doing thesethings for them.
With them, I'm proactivelyreaching out, I'm proactively
knowing where my trucks aresupposed to be.
When the ones can't be wherethey're supposed to be, I'm
reworking these schedules withthem to be able to help manage
my shipper's supply chain moreefficiently, so that they spend
less money on warehouse labor,that the guy sending the loads
(37:52):
has less headaches, can get morework done than he needs to do
for his boss.
And I'm adding value to thecarriers because I'm getting the
ones loaded that are therefirst without them having to
wait, and the ones that will belate they don't have to wait and
not get paid detention becauseof something that wasn't their
fault.
Right, these are the thingsthat happen when you are
actively engaged, havingconversations, proactively
(38:14):
reaching out to your customers,having these conversations and
being on top of the thing you'regetting paid to.
You get paid to hire drivers tobe where they're supposed to be
.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
You need to know where they are, otherwise you're
not doing all of your job,either, right right, exactly,
and and one of the things likeyou can, you can kind of take
that into the prospect, likeeven if you don't have a
customer yet and you're justprospecting, like you're not
going to touch the same peopleevery day, but you should be
making these contacts withpeople every single day.
(38:44):
So, whether it's you know,you've got a list of 200
prospects that you're working.
You're going to stagger themthrough and as you add people to
that pipeline right to get thatphrase so the people you call
on Monday, maybe you'll callthem on Tuesday next week or
Thursday and you just kind ofstagger that through so that
(39:07):
you're always calling oremailing.
But it's multiple touches andsame thing with your active
customers.
Just because you got a customerand they're sending you freight
doesn't mean you shouldn't behaving those same conversations
and constantly reaching out andtalking to them, right?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Because there's sayings or cliches like the
money is made on the margins.
Right, it sounds fancy, butlike what does that mean?
Margins are like the smallestpercentage on the outside, like,
think of a paper, or think oflike Microsoft Word.
The margin is that very littleline around whatever document
you create that is blank.
Right, it's the small littledistance at the very edge, right
(39:42):
, little distance at the veryedge, right.
If I know, you and me arecompeting for freight from one
shipper, right, and I knowyou're sending emails with rates
.
Maybe you're sending themquickly, maybe you send them
within two, three minutes, right, dude, we're in a commodity
business.
You're truck loading andpicking up on time and getting
there on time.
It's not much different thanmine.
So if my shipper has a choice,he's going to pick the cheaper
(40:04):
one if we both have equivalentservice, right, and most
shippers have at least a handfulof brokers, so they've got
probably one.
If not, they probably have two,if not three, where they're all
pretty much the same servicepercentage that they can pick
from.
So why do you think they pickthe cheapest one, wouldn't you?
I mean, if you could go buymilk and there's five brands
(40:24):
there, three of them are thesame quality and one's cheaper,
which one are you going to startbuying every day?
Right?
If you've got to buy gasolineand there's five gas stations,
three of them have the samequality gas but one of them's
cheaper.
Which one are you going to goload your tank up with every
time you got to fill up?
Right?
These are the things we do allthe time and everyone wants to
yell and go.
Well, this shipper is justcheap.
(40:44):
Why he always goes on rate.
He won't give me the freight.
What are you doing differently?
What are you doing to get offyour ass, to create an advantage
on the margin?
That the other people aren'tright and most of the time it's
nothing.
It's complaining about themarket, it's complaining about
the shippers, it's complainingabout the government.
It shippers, it's complainingabout the government, it's
(41:06):
complaining about the economy.
And even if any of those things, or all of those things, are
true, what can you do about anyor all of them?
Nothing.
What can you do about your ownbehavior?
You can pick up the phone andyou can make one more phone call
.
You can ask one more question.
I get an advantage over youbecause I will spend more time
trying to build rapport with mycustomer.
I want to get to know them.
I want to know what is going tomake their job easier day to
(41:29):
day.
What can I take off their plate, put on my plate that allows
them to get more work done?
We talked about asking forbonuses without moving more
freight and asking for moneywithout doing better at your job
.
That is great in your company,but the same principle holds
true with your customer.
I'm creating value for mycustomer in a way that you can't
.
How am I doing that?
(41:50):
I don't know what makes theirlife easier.
It's not like they put it ontheir Facebook posts or on X or
put it on LinkedIn.
Hey, you know what would makemy life easier If I got this
load booked at 1030 on a Tuesdayso everyone can see it?
No, you only get thatinformation if you're proactive
and you engage with them and youtalk with them enough until
they trust you and start tellingyou hey, this would be really
(42:12):
helpful if these loads I moveevery Thursday afternoon.
I could book ahead of time somy boss knows where these trucks
are.
Great, I'll try to work on adedicated carrier that works on
that lane that can pick it upevery Thursday.
I can get you that truck number, that driver info on Wednesday.
What does every other broker do?
Waits to cover that load onThursday, tells the customer
(42:32):
they booked it and then, whenthey don't book it, they go oh
sorry, that guy broke down 15minutes before the load picks up
.
Now the customer's pissed, theirboss is yelling at them and
nobody is understanding what isactually happening behind the
scenes.
Why?
Because people aren't beingproactive, right like I always
feel like the best analogy whenI think of like freight
brokering and sports is likeyou've got to actively engage.
(42:56):
You've got to go get the ball.
Like, if it's a baseballanalogy, if you're waiting for
ground balls to be hit directlyto you, you're going to be
standing there a long timewaiting and you have no control.
What you should be doing is,when that ball gets hit, get as
close to where you can and goand chase the ball down.
Get proactive about it.
Engage with it, go get it.
Sitting there waiting, sittingon your ass for freight to fall
(43:19):
in your lap and throwing ratesout via email while you're
staring at Instagram isn't goingto grow your business, isn't
going to grow your book and sureas shit ain't going to add
dollars to your paycheck.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Yep, that's absolutely correct, and one of
the things that especially thelast, like week or two that I've
been thinking a lot about is alot of the AI companies.
You know they focus especiallyin our space.
They focus on um things thatcan control an output.
So, like what was a happy robot, we'll do, you know,
negotiating on the phone and andthat kind of stuff.
(43:52):
But where people are kind oflacking with AI, especially in
relation to this, is, you know,don't use AI to do your sales
outreach, but do use AI toresearch your leads and your
prospects and I was justlistening to my first million
podcast from this I think it'sfrom Monday that they were using
(44:17):
different AI workflows to likescrape LinkedIn and scraped
YouTube and X and all thesethings.
To like find out information on,you know, potential prospects
and leads and stuff.
Then use that information tocater specifically to that
person, learn that, build thatrelationship, learn what it is
that they like and don't likeand like.
(44:39):
That's, I think, whereeventually we'll go to, but you
will get outpaced by the peoplewho are doing that now and that
is that is something that, um,our industry being 10 years
behind tech in general, uh, uh.
If you were to take theseprocesses and start to learn how
to build workflows and likethat is what will make this
(45:02):
easier, but the end goal will bethe same You're constantly
going to be touching differentprospects, different customers,
learning more, and, instead ofit taking three or four hours,
like it did when I first started, maybe it takes 20 minutes, but
you're still getting that samequality information.
But you still have to craftthat outreach yourself.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
And the thing I think that everyone should keep in
the back of their mind, likethat I look at daily, is if you
are doing a task that isrepeatable and takes no thought,
it's pretty likely that taskwill get automated pretty
quickly, like if you were justcovering your loads by waiting
for a carrier posting a load,waiting for carriers to email
(45:44):
you, negotiating down by 25 or50 bucks, looking at the MC
through a system, then puttingthem in another system and then
sending tracking.
That job is not going to existin five years because it's
almost automatable.
Now, right, if you aren't doingadditional things to add value
picking up the phone, callingthat carrier, negotiating with
(46:06):
them, understanding if they'reempty, what their equipment is,
are they fresh on hours,building rapport with them Our
advantage over AI is human tohuman interaction and
understanding and connectingwith people.
Yes, it can talk, but it can'tdo that like a human and at
least they can't do it in thenear future.
And if you aren't doing thingslike that to create value in
(46:29):
your role, eventually someonethat owns your company is
looking at this.
I mean, it's happening everyday in larger companies.
Companies are going hey, beforeyou hire, can you see if we can
automate that.
Well, that's the first step.
The second step is who have wehired that we can automate, that
we don't need?
And then it becomes how many ofthese people do we need to pay
(46:52):
to do what they're doing?
If we can automate it anyway,right.
So even if it's not, hey, howdo I do better for my company?
Now, it's not just thisaltruistic, oh, I need to do
everything for this company Iwork for.
It's like there's self-interestthere.
The more you do, the moreindispensable you become.
The more value you create, thelonger you'll have a career in
(47:14):
that thing that you're doing,the better you'll do, the
happier you'll be.
Right, like it's built intobeing human is the fact that,
like, when you strive throughsomething difficult and achieve
it, it's rewarding and you feelbetter.
When you do the least amount ofwork and effort to achieve a
goal every day, your happinessand well-being decreases.
(47:36):
It's that it's like this cliche,right, that counterintuitive of
like I heard this best phraseis if you do what's hard today,
tomorrow gets easier.
If you do what's easier today,tomorrow gets harder, right?
Yeah, it feels better to belazy in the moment.
I'm no different than any otherhuman being that I have that
part of me there, right.
But when you can beat into yourhead and develop the habit that
(47:58):
like doing more now feels alittle shittier now makes you
feel a lot better a little bitlater, like I always reference
it in my head is like, yeah, Idon't want to do this, but
tomorrow Benjamin will be happyI did it.
Or this evening Benjamin willbe happy, I did it.
I'm like basically incentivizingmyself to do the things I don't
want to do because I know laterme will thank me for it.
(48:21):
And when I do the opposite, I'mlike, yeah, if I want to go and
have a couple drinks tonight,tomorrow morning Ben is not
going to be thankful that I didthat.
So you know what?
I'd rather make my future selfhappier than my current self.
And if you can just think aboutthat a little more frequently,
slowly you start to develop thehabit of just picking the harder
thing over and over again andthen you feel better, like you
(48:44):
have more energy.
Whether it's exercise, whetherit's running, whether it's your
job, whether it's school,whether it's learning a sport
and instrument, literallyanything and any aspect of being
human gets better when you dothe thing.
That's a little more difficultin the short run versus the long
run.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
Yep, exactly, and there's.
There's definitely um, a lot ofthat and some of what I've
learned in probably the last twoyears um, especially recently
being diagnosed with adhd andall that and like managing that.
It's uh, you know, creating the, creating the system that
benefits you the best.
(49:21):
It's going to be different fromyou to your co-worker and after
, but that ability to take thethings out of your head that you
don't need to hold on to andput them in a place where you
know to get them immediately isthe most beneficial thing to
like.
Saving time and being able to bein the moment with the people
that you're talking to whetherit's your wife or a prospect or
(49:44):
a customer and not have thislike thing in the back of your
head of I got to do this, I gotto do this.
So creating, like, whether it's, you know, a knowledge base or
a CRM or something where you canjust take all this information
that you're you're keeping inyour head and put it somewhere
that you know it's going to beand you can go back and tap into
it, take that off your mind.
(50:06):
It has a very powerful impact,especially on phone calls.
When you're cold calling, youcan hear the hesitation in
people's voices when they'recaught up with something else
and you know they're not in tunewith the conversation with
something else and you knowthey're not in tune with the
conversation, and so things likethat are definitely going to
(50:27):
help in getting a relationshipwith those customers and those
prospects and bringing in morefreight and helping you in the
long run.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Good to agree with you more.
Any final thoughts?
Speaker 2 (50:38):
That's all I got.
It's finally warm in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Thank God, I'm happy to hear that buddy, buddy, it's
starting to get disgustingly hotdown here, so I believe it.
Oh, whether you believe you canor believe you can't, you're
right.
Hey, welcome to this week's episode of Freight 360.
Nate is off on military dutythis week, so Stephen's going to
be joining me for this episode.
If you're a friend of thecontent, please like, share,
comment, send your questionsover All that's appreciated.
We are going to cover how toget more freight for brokers
(00:21):
Some like 101 level stuff, somebasics these are probably the
things that we'll talk abouttoday that the folks that do
these well consistently tend tohave long, profitable or
successful careers, and they'rethe most common things I see
brokers not getting business orwatching their accounts shrink
(00:41):
aren't doing.
So they are just some likereally straightforward things
that everyone should be doing inthis industry that we'll talk
about.
In sports, to kind of kickthings off, the Memorial
Tournament was last weekend.
Scotty Scheffler won.
I don't know if anyone saw that.
You got the French Open goingon.
Finals will be this weekend.
(01:02):
I don't think there was toomuch noteworthy in there.
Oh, my cousin Darren Kowalskiwon the Tri-State Open in South
Hills Country Club in Pittsburghyesterday.
As an amateur he ended upwinning in a playoff hole, so
that was pretty cool.
Shout out to him.
That's awesome.
What do we got in the news?
(01:22):
Got a few things we wanted tochat about.
You want to talk about theFMCSA thing that's making some
note.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, so the FMCSA released in April the identity
verification steps for motorcarrier and the fall off from
new authorities applications hasbeen quite dramatic.
I don't know if you, if youlook at your stocks, it's not a
line on a chart that you wouldlike to see.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Sixty five percent in the month prior, down to 30
percent in April.
So it got cut in half and theimportant part is like, that is
the step between, like theapplication and approval Right.
So same number of applicationsbut like half of the people that
would have gotten through aregetting through, now that they
need to go through an identitycheck.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah and then.
So there's a lot of peopletalking about how this could
impact rates capacity, whichthere's some obvious correlation
there.
Rates capacity, which there'ssome obvious correlation there.
But the one thing that isinteresting is the MCS-150 form
that the carriers have to fillout, which is every two years.
They have to re-verify theiressentially their identity, all
(02:35):
their equipment, all that kindof stuff.
Miles like average miles, thatwill be part of that process.
So I think every month, asthese biennials are due from
different carriers, you'll keepseeing that go down and down and
down.
So it'll be it'll beinteresting to track.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Agreed.
I mean I'm just really excitedthey're actually doing something
.
I mean clearly it's having someresult.
I'm super skeptical in theshort run this is going to halt
any type of fraud or crime,because I don't know the
instances.
I haven't seen go down at alland I've had some conversations
(03:13):
with folks that are on that side, meaning like I'll give you an
example we had.
It was a client of mine had atruckload stolen, right.
He was a client of mine had atruckload stolen, right.
We were able to one I can'tremember if we were.
I think we were in contact withthe dispatcher who was clearly
(03:33):
the one committing the fraudbecause he was holding the load
hostage and we were trying tonegotiate some portion to get
the load back.
And I think they had said youknow, the load's worth a hundred
grand.
If you give us 10 grand, we'lltell you where the load was.
But then you run into this hardproblem of like, okay, we give
you 10 grand, what's going tosay?
You're going to give us theinformation or that the truck's
(03:55):
there.
So there was a whole bunch ofback and forth with this
gentleman that was clearlyadmitted to have stolen the load
.
Right, knew the load stolen.
We're talking to the personthat stole the load.
And the two funny things werethe client I was working with
was in Europe and when he was onthe phone with this guy, I was
(04:16):
on the phone too.
It was like a three-way call.
The police car happened todrive past the broker and the
broker owning the USs company ineurope right, but it was a
european cop car, so the sirensounded different and you could
hear the criminal on the phone.
Just pause.
And his voice changed like well, wait a minute.
(04:38):
Like where are you again?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
like because he clearly wasn't in the united
states right, which was like thefirst part that I thought was
kind of comfortable.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
But the second piece was and this is the part that I
think is worth telling foreveryone to be aware of is like
he said listen, I know whatyou're gonna try to do.
You're gonna try to pay me half, because I think we got to the
point where, like, hey, you want10, we'll give you eight, but
we'll give you four up front andthe other four when we can find
the truck Right.
(05:06):
So here's half, in good faith.
Here's the other half, becausethe reality was like this client
of ours like has theftinsurance and the deductible was
like 10 grand anyway.
So it was like hey if you'regoing to pay the money anyway
and you're not going to get itback, this gets the cargo to
your customers sooner and youdon't have the claim, your
insurance premiums don't go up.
So it seemed like it made senseto go this route.
(05:27):
Okay, and what he said waslisten, I know what you're
thinking, because the firstthing we asked was like well,
just have your driver bring itto our customer.
He's like I'm not, because likeyou're just going to have the
authorities meet my driver thereand arrest them.
So like we're not going to dothat.
Okay.
And then the second thing thethreat that he made was he goes,
(05:48):
listen, like I know what you'rethinking is you're going to pay
me half and then screw me onthe other half, not pay me the
other half once you get thecargo.
But he's like I'm telling youright now, like we know who your
brokerage is, we obviously haveyour MC, we know who this
customer is.
He's like I've got at least ahandful of other legitimate
(06:09):
carrier MCs right now that haveno freight guards, that are
running freight legitimately.
That I absolutely can, whetherit's next week, two weeks or
three weeks from now, I willtake another load from you and I
will take one of thiscustomer's loads and I will let
that customer know that you knewthis was getting stolen and you
(06:30):
won't get it back.
So basically he was telling usthat, hey, you don't pay this
other four grand, I will use oneof my other clean MCs,
absolutely steal another loadand I will make it very clear
and apparent to your customerthat you didn't do what you were
supposed to and you knew thiswas going to get stolen.
And it was like you could tellin the guy's tone of voice.
(06:51):
It did not seem like a bluff,Like he absolutely knew what he
was doing.
He absolutely understood thesystem and clearly was doing
this more than a one-offscenario.
Like these are sophisticatedcriminals that operate like
legitimate brokerages.
They just steal the thingsinstead of actually moving them.
(07:12):
And to me, like, if you're thatsophisticated and you see what
the FMCSA is doing, there'sstill so many MCs out there that
are legitimate.
There's so many carriers thatare going to go out of business
or are in financial hardshipthat, like they'll probably sell
their MCs to some of these inthe meantime and if they got a
two year window before they'regoing to get verified, to lose
(07:32):
that MC they only need three orfour days to steal a lot of
freight under a legitimate MC.
So like hey, kudos, I'm gladthey're starting to do these
things.
I'm surprised they did them asfast as they have, but I think
it's still going to be a longwhile before we see a reduction
in crime or fraud.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, I agree and I think, kind of going to what you
said.
During COVID, I mean, we alltalked about it we saw the rise
in authorities A lot of that wasjust people applying for these
burner MCs because they couldjust get 30, 40, 50 of them at a
time.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So at least it's not.
That's not going to continue tohappen.
Agreed Again.
Hey, I don't want to criticizemaking steps towards the goal
that we all want them to have,right, not trying to be
overcritical.
I'm mostly pointing this outbecause I think everyone needs
to be super diligent still andnot expect this to go away just
because the FMCSA is finallydoing something.
The other thing this was inFreight Caviar this morning and
(08:37):
this just astounds me is thatthe FMCSA is cutting their staff
.
At the same time, they'resupposedly combating fraud by 7%
.
Like to me, that is absolutelyabsurd.
Yeah, I know that they don'thave the ability to determine
how much funding they get.
That comes from DC and Congress.
(08:58):
But when you are reading what isgoing into the budget the
amount that they're adding tothe deficit within weeks of
being all over the news sayingwe have this huge problem, the
government is over leveraged,we're spending too much money,
doge is going to cut $2 trillionWithin weeks, you don't hear
(09:18):
anything about Doge.
I've seen articles that itmight've cost more money to
implement Doge than theyactually saved.
So it was basically a net zero.
And then, when it came time forall of Congress to decide, hey,
we actually do need to makesome of these cuts permanent or
reduce our spending.
They're spending more money andin addition to that, they're on
(09:41):
the news talking about driversafety because people were
getting killed by unsafe drivers, unlicensed cdl drivers what
was the number like?
Four percent on dot blitz weekthat just had no driver's
license whatsoever yeah, it was.
Uh, I think it was one in one infive, right it was one in 20,
but one in five are below thesafety standard.
(10:01):
So one out of five trucks arenot meeting the safety standards
and it was like 4% of thedrivers pulled over during Blitz
week had no CDL whatsoever.
We're just driving without alicense and when you look, and
on top of that, like there is abacklog of years of inspections,
they're behind on the safetystandard.
Safety is literally in thatorganization's name Federal
(10:26):
Motor Carrier Safety Associationand they haven't been caught up
.
I don't even know when the lasttime they were actually
upholding the safety standardsthat they're supposed to be
holding.
And now they're going to cutthe budget.
So you've got government sayinghey, this is a big issue for us
, yelling about people notspeaking English, when one in 20
(10:48):
drivers has no CDL.
One in five trucks is below thesafety standard and they're
like you know what, we're goingto give you less money, but hey,
we need more money foreverything else that we want to
spend it on.
Like, to me, it's just suchhorseshit.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Well, did you?
I don't know if you saw thestuff about the Blitz week and
that carrier that got the mostinspections?
That was a Prada, I think PradaLLC.
I didn't see that.
So Garrett made a system calledsearch carriers and during
Blitz week he collected all thedata and there was this carrier
and everyone thought his datawas wrong.
It was two trucks and they hadlike 200 inspections or
(11:27):
something, just during BlitzWeek.
And then when you look intotheir company profile, they got
started in February of this yearand they've had 1,128
inspections.
I think the last time I lookedat since February of this year
for two trucks and everyone waslike no, this isn't right, this
isn't right.
So then Ryan at Genlogs lookedat it and then he confirmed with
(11:48):
their system that oh, it'sactually multiple trucks.
They're just putting like paperMCs on it.
And then the kicker that noone's talked about that I
noticed is that this carrierwith two trucks, 1,100
inspections, more than Swift andall these large mega carriers
is still unrated.
They have never been looked at.
(12:08):
Nope, although I mean they haveall the red flags.
They're obviously doing thingscompletely wrong, but the FMCSA
still has never looked at them.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, and the two things that bother me the most,
I would say like fraud isprobably number two to safety
for me.
Like I have a family, like Idrive on the road with my kids
in the car.
Like and when you see theseincidents and you see how much
more carriers that are operatingthat way have more incidents,
(12:39):
more accidents, more fatalitiesrelated to it, like everybody in
the country is likely on theroad at some point in time,
maybe on a given week or a givenmonth, right, and like these
are huge things for justsocietal safety that this agency
is just absolutely not doinganything about and they're
(12:59):
cutting their budget to me, likeI am, I'm not not surprised,
but it makes me want to throw up, to be honest right and like
when you look at so, uh, one infive pieces of equipment are,
you know, unsafe at any speed.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And then you do the licensing and I did the the math
on it a couple weeks ago.
So if you don't weight it atall right with the, the illegal
or the invalid license and thesafety equipment, there's a 1%
chance that someone without alicense is operating unsafe
equipment.
It's like 0.7 or something likethat and I'll bet if you
(13:34):
weighted it.
It's very high.
Well, yeah, you obviously haveto weight it because the unsafe
drivers are going to be using.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah because I don't have a driver's license and I'm
willing to cut, make that gamblelike I'm probably not on top of
my maintenance either and I'mprobably driving a truck that
absolutely has some issues withit, right, I mean right.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So then you have to think OK, so if then, maybe if
you wait, what is it then?
Is it 10 percent, Is it 15percent?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
You know it's it's just crazy that, yeah, like
driving on the highway over thelast, like this year,
specifically with all the amazonrelay issues and stuff like
that, like it makes me thinktwice before, like putting all
my kids in the car and drivinganywhere and I'll tell you this
again, it's anecdotal, but mynext door neighbor is a fireman
(14:25):
and like, so he's constantly atthese scenes, right, I mean,
you're on that side of the world, like on that side of things
I'm sure you have friends thatare in the paramedics and the
you know emergency services andlike he we talk about dude, like
so often he's like, yeah, likeI don't like taking road trips
to go anywhere anymore, like Itry to minimize driving at any
(14:48):
point in time and like again, Iprobably think Florida probably
is one of the states where yousee more instances of this for
sure, like the insurance ratesjust to drive a normal car here
are obscene.
Because I remember when I firstmoved here, my insurance and I
had no accidents, no speedingtickets, nothing, right, in
(15:08):
Pennsylvania where I lived untilI was 32 or 33, like my
insurance was like 80 bucks,maybe 110 bucks a month,
something like that Give or take.
When I moved to Florida and gotmy license in Florida and
bought my first car in Florida,I was quoted at like five to six
hundred dollars a month forinsurance, with nothing on my
(15:29):
record at all.
And I remember asking him I'mlike this is more than the car
payments I was looking at, I'mlike how in the world one does
anybody afford this and why isthis so high?
And the insurance agent wastelling me he's like, oh,
something like 43% of drivers onthe road in Florida were
considered underinsured orcompletely uninsured.
(15:52):
So most of my premium was myinsurance company making me
insure myself against peoplethat could hit me that had no
insurance, because like roughlyone in two cars just don't have
insurance or not enoughinsurance.
And I got hit by a car on mybike and it was somebody that
had $10,000 in insurance.
I had like $200,000 in medicalbills from this car accident.
(16:14):
I got hit as basically apedestrian on my bike and had an
attorney like yeah, there'slike basically 10 grand that
they're going to be able to getfrom this company's insurance.
Like the whole scenario is justabsolutely ridiculous and I
don't think anybody realizes howbad this is for just regular
vehicles, let alone a vehicledriving 90,000 miles, 90,000
(16:35):
pounds or 85,000 pounds rightdown the road going 80 miles an
hour three feet away from you,driving 70 miles an hour in the
other direction.
Like it's terrifying when youthink about it.
Yeah, yeah, it definitely is.
Anything else in the newsworking.
Oh, tariffs went up 50% onsteel and aluminum, seemingly
(16:57):
out of nowhere.
Ironically, I think it wasrelated to Trump's Also
seemingly out of the blue.
Tariffs on steel went from 25to 50 percent, according to
Jason Miller.
It's worth emphasizing how muchbroader in scope the 25 tariffs
(17:17):
are relative to the 2018.
Based on the Federal Registerof Documents, 2018 tariffs and
the 25 tariffs the HTC couldsubject to these two sets of
tariffs obtained.
To be honest, it just lookslike they're going to have a
much larger impact than they did.
(17:38):
I mean, who really knows itsays how can this be?
I mean, who really knows itsays how can this be?
You'll see that China is themost affected country because
the derivative products in 25tariffs are much more expansive
and they include computer parts,exercise equipment, metal
furniture, air conditioner partsand cookware.
(17:59):
Mexico is next on the list withauto parts.
Canada is third due to importsof steel and aluminum.
So, yeah, that's going to havean effect for sure on load
volume, freight, what everybodyis paying for cost of goods sold
.
So things certainly aren'tgoing to get cheaper.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
No, yeah, and I saw Brian Peterson over at Flexport,
I think it was yesterday, maybetwo days ago.
They put out, they made acalculator, so like people can
go and put in what their productis or whatever, and it'll spit
out like, hey, this is what wethink your tariffs will be based
on the most in it, and I guessthey set it up in a way that, as
(18:40):
news breaks Based on thismorning or an hour ago Right, I
mean, that's the only way youcan do it the tariffs change
like with the wind, it seems.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, I mean there's a lot of pushback now where
basically not just the press butI mean they're picking up on
the fact that like yeah, this,oh the art of the deal, this
super great negotiator, right.
They're like it's kind of thesame playbook.
You throw out some crazy numbernobody thinks is going to play
(19:10):
out, then the market reacts, itfalls, and then you walk it back
and they're like yeah, how longdo you think that's going to
continue to work?
Like people have kind of pickedup on the whole strategy at
this point.
So I don't know.
And then I hear defenders,people that are supporting it,
basically saying well, at leasteverybody's talking about it.
I'm like, yeah, that doesn'tmean it's a good thing.
(19:33):
Just because he's drawnattention to it doesn't mean
there's not entirely more damagethan there is good coming out
of this.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's just, yeah, it'll be interesting to see,
like once we're through, likewhat the end result finally
becomes.
It's just one of these thingsthat other people, like your
manager, would tell you oh,trust the process, trust the
process.
And then you get to the enddate and you're like this
(20:02):
process sucked.
Well, here's the thing.
Or it could be vice versa.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
But that assumes that the ends justifies the means.
Let's just give the wholesituation the benefit of the
doubt and say, hey, at the endthis would be a net good.
That doesn't mean that theprocess doesn't do more damage
in the meantime than the benefityou get at the end.
Right like, right, hey.
Just because you make it to thefinish line doesn't mean like
you don't have two broken legsand you have permanent damage
(20:33):
for the rest of your life justbecause you finished this thing.
That was important to you, liketo me.
That is the biggest piece ofthis that is being overlooked,
that every company is makingarguments for like we can't plan
.
We can't plan.
We can't buy things, we don'tknow how to predict inventory.
We don't know what our salesare going to look like.
We don't know what our cost ofgoods sold looks like we don't
know what our prices are goingto be this company.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I hit the wrong button.
There was somebody talking.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Where the like I mean Walmart announced they're going
to start passing through priceincreases.
Where the like I mean Walmartannounced they're going to start
passing through price increases.
I mean there's only so longcompanies can hold price
increases in their cost of goodssold before they've got to
increase what they're selling itto consumers.
Anyway, we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I don't even think it's worth digging into because
nobody knows what the hell isgoing to happen.
Yeah, I think the oneinteresting thing that kind of
pairs with it and Unusual Whalesis an account on X that puts
out breaking news and they hadput out a stat I think it was
three days ago that there wasmore inventory in real estate
than in any other time inhistory.
(21:41):
Like on sale right now, yes,history.
Like on sale right now, yes, uh, and so pairing that with like
the steel imports and stuff,it's like what's that?
What's the real estate marketgonna look like over the?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
years.
Here's the thing the biggestindicator of what's gonna happen
really is consumer sentiment.
If people are scared and theyfeel there's uncertainty,
businesses clearly are voicingthat concern right.
But when people like households, your family, my family start
going well, I don't know if I'llhave a job, I don't know if
(22:13):
things are going to get super,super expensive, so I'm going to
spend less money.
That is the bellwether.
That is the thing that startsindicating that things will go
into a recession, because thefirst thing that people stop
doing is making large purchasesautomobiles, homes.
It's not a coincidence thathomes to your point, inventory
(22:34):
is up at its highest level sincelike 2008 or 2009,.
Where people are like I'm notbuying a new home right now.
I have no idea.
And then couple that with allof the fear related to AI and
what everyone's job or industryis going to look like, and
whether or not people will havea job if they're going to get
laid off.
Nobody has any idea.
Like I don't know that there'sever been a point in time in my
(22:56):
life where there's been thismuch economic uncertainty as to
what the future looks like inthe next year, even to three
years, or even six months, orhell, tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Right, yeah, and that's.
That's one thing like me and my, my wife, have talked about.
Quite a lot is not only that,but like, so we're one of like
in that group of people thatbought new houses in 2021.
So, like, my interest rate is2.4 or 5%.
Why would I give that up?
Yeah, Like, and we want, wewant to buy land, we want to
(23:28):
build a house, but for what?
Five percent interest rate.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Even if you can, you just keep your house
indefinitely and wait till youcan save enough to buy a second
one.
My buddy who I used to workwith at TQI I had this
conversation with him he boughtlike a six hundred thousand
dollar house then in Coloradoand, like I was asking, I was
like, oh, what are you doing?
He's like dude, like I would, Ican't ever give up my mortgage.
His mortgage, his mortgage islike on like a $600,000 house.
(23:55):
He definitely put a decent downpayment down, but I think it's
like $2,000 a month, like $1,900, on like a $600,000 house,
cause he's got like a 1.8%mortgage.
He's like, dude, I'm going tolive in this house forever.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Right, yeah, that's it.
Yeah, that's exactly how wefeel, unless I can rent it or
something and make money off it,like there's no reason to give
that up.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
My house was give or take similar to his and my
mortgage is.
It isn't more than double whathis is and I bought mine last
year.
Yeah, yeah, that's nuts Makes ahuge difference.
All right, let's jump into somebasics on like how to get more
freight, what you can do to getloads.
Let's start here.
Like, what do you think mostpeople do with their customers
(24:36):
related to like day-to-day?
Okay, let's just lay theframework.
You've got a new customer,you've onboarded them.
They send you load requestsfrom time to time.
Maybe it's every day.
Hey, here's a list of six loadswe're moving tomorrow.
Here's a list of 20 loads we'vegot this week.
Here's my 50 loads for thisweek.
Here's my 25 for tomorrow.
(24:56):
Right, some variation of thatis pretty common, right?
How do you think most brokersoperate?
You run a brokerage.
Now what do you think mostbrokers do in those scenarios?
They get that email taken fromthem.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
So most of them are going to, they're going to look
at it, they're going to findsome rates.
They're going to kick them over, maybe in a half hour, maybe in
an hour, it just it depends onhow busy they are.
Are they doing, you know, arethey working on other freight?
But in reality what they shouldbe doing is providing that rate
(25:37):
, getting it over at leastwithin the first five minutes,
and then talking, or at the veryleast talking to that.
That shipper like hey, what'sthe details on this?
Like, if you don't know already, in the context of what you
given, this is a new shipper foryou.
So I'm assuming that they'vehad the conversation.
They kind of know what therequirements are.
(25:58):
But if you don't, like thatshould be the first step get the
requirements.
What?
Like engage in a conversation,call that person.
Step get the requirements,engage in a conversation, call
that person.
But most of them are going tothrow it into whatever rating
tool they have.
Kick over a rate, maybewhenever they feel like they
have the time.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Let's go through the most common one.
Most common, I'd say, mostlikely is most people get an
email.
Get to it when they can, hour,45 minutes later, look up a rate
, email it over.
Let's look at this from thecustomer's point of view.
So you're a shipper, you got 25loads to move tomorrow, you
send it out to your brokers andyour carriers get a bunch of
(26:38):
numbers back.
What do you do?
What do you think are thevariables that shipper looks at
to determine who they're goingto go to?
I mean, let's look at thevariables that do exist.
You've got price.
You've got likelihood ofservice, like are they going to
pick up on time and deliver ontime?
And three like I would say thething they're trying to avoid is
(26:58):
booking a carrier or a brokeron a load and then finding out
from their warehouse and nobodyshowed up.
That's the thing they want toavoid the most and they want to
pay the least.
So how do you think they'remaking that decision on a daily
basis?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah.
So, whether it's intentional ornot, the rates that come over.
They're going to look at price,but then they're going to look
at, okay, who's this email from?
Do I trust them, do I know them, okay, and then that's there's.
So there's going to be thatbias that's involved in there,
and then it's going to be therate and quality and the
timeliness of how the rates cameover.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Great.
So let's look at the mostcommon scenario of I'm just
getting rates from a broker viaemail.
Ok, the thing I'm going to doif I don't speak to them,
because your other point is,most of them don't pick up the
phone and talk to these peoplebecause they're too scared to
interact with a human being,they don't want to have a
conversation, they feel likethey don't have enough time,
they're too lazy.
(27:53):
Whatever Pick your reason, it'snot happening most of the time.
So they go OK.
Well, when was the last time Ihad a problem with this company?
Oh well, the next thought iswell, I booked them on six loads
last week.
One or two trucks didn't pickup.
And here's the kicker On theone or two trucks that didn't
pick up, did that broker tell mebefore the load was supposed to
(28:15):
pick up at noon, like, did Ifind out at 11 from that broker,
or 1130 or even 1145?
Or did my warehouse email meand call me at 1230 going
where's this truck?
So when I find out from mycompany that the company I paid
to send a truck didn't knowtheir truck was showing up on
time, I look bad in my company.
(28:36):
I look like I'm not doing myjob because I booked a truck and
I didn't know that.
I didn't even tell my warehouse, hey, this guy's going to be
late.
So you've got guys that maybestaged a load, that are standing
there waiting to load thistruck, and now there's the truck
that was supposed to be there,1230 and maybe at one o'clock
already waiting, but the loadfor noon is sitting on the dock
(28:58):
and I can't load the next truckor the truck after that Cause
this load sitting there and Ididn't know that this guy was
coming or not going to be thereuntil after the fact.
So if I'm going to pick, even ifthat guy's the cheapest, every
time that happens they get alittle less likely.
They're going to get morefreight, right.
And then from the broker'spoint of view they think, well,
maybe he'll get there on timeand I don't really want to have
(29:20):
that conversation, so like I'lljust hope they don't notice,
right.
And then they wonder oh, I wasdoing 10 loads a week with this
customer last month, now I'mdoing seven and now I'm only
getting like one or two quotes.
They must not be shipping thatmuch.
Or the other thing they'll tellthemselves is oh, they must be
just too cheap and they justdon't like my rates.
(29:42):
Then they go oh man, this marketis killing me.
Then they blame something else.
Well, it's the market, it'sthis, this is their manager goes
.
Why is your load volume down,jimmy?
Well, you know, it must be therates.
This customer's just supercheap and they just don't like
me.
That's why my load volume isgoing down.
And then what do they do?
They do the same thing todaySend over rates, hope they get
(30:03):
more freight, nothing changes.
And they blame everybody else.
Right, I'd say that's your mostcommon scenario.
Now let's look at the completelyother end of the spectrum.
Right, and I do think incentiveplays a big part in this,
because when you have brokersthat are more salary and have
guaranteed paychecks, thisbecomes more common.
Why?
(30:24):
Because it takes sorry, Ithought someone said my door.
Because it takes energy and youhave to overcome some fear to
actually have theseconversations when things go
wrong, which most people avoid.
And two right Like let's justbe honest, most people are going
to revert to the least amountof effort they've got to do to
perform the work they've got todo.
Right, you see things similar.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, definitely, and it's just what.
It's funny, you mentioned thesalary Cause.
You know, I've had a couple ofpeople that are like oh, you
know, I'd like to have a, I'dlike to have a raise, or or
maybe we can do something withthe commission split.
You know, I just need to makemore money.
And the first response I alwaysgive them is have you tried
getting more freight Cause?
That's how you make more money,because you earn commission.
(31:06):
And they always are just likeoh yeah, no, I guess you know
it's always the same thing.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
It's always an excuse and the thing is right, like
the thing that I always think ofsimply is right, like even long
before I owned businesses.
It's like if you aren'tcreating more value for the
business you work for, how canyou expect to take more value or
(31:34):
money out of it?
Right, like there's nothingthat bugs me more than people
that are like I need to bemaking more money while their
book of business is shrinkingand they're doing less to
increase it or take initiativeto do more things.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Right, initiative to do more things.
Right, right, yeah it.
I never understood that.
And then there's always thiswell, if I you know, xyz, I can
make more.
They're just trying to find moreways to split a dollar, and
it's like just just do the work,bring in more freight, just do
the work.
That's the take, the initiative, that's it's.
(32:03):
The beauty of this industry is,the more you put into it, the
more you will get out of it.
Yep and it's all.
Your success is dependent onhow much you want to work, so
couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It's something I've always been good at.
Now let's look at the other endof the spectrum Brokers that I
think I've met, that I'velearned from that, that trained
me, that did really well good orbad markets, right.
What are they doing?
And this was a guy.
He was like a regional manager,but like when he was telling me
(32:37):
how he ran his book before Iwas even in the industry, right.
And this story just kind ofalways stuck with me because I
could literally picture him inthe front of the room, kind of
like giving this speech.
But he's like listen, like everyday.
He's like here's the way my daystarted.
I have 15 customers that areactive right Every morning.
I'm calling all 15 of them,regardless of whether or not
they sent me any loads or not.
Hey, want to see how your daywas going, how'd your day play
(33:00):
out yesterday?
Do anything last night?
You have a little bit of aconversation and the way I
always described is like yourcustomers.
You should be interacting withthem like they're your coworkers
, not like the people that arephysically sitting next to you.
You don't make any money fromthem.
Like hey, it's great that youI'm not saying you shouldn't be
friends with your coworkers.
I've enjoyed the people I'veworked with too.
(33:21):
But like if I looked at my daylike when I'm just a broker, I
spent way more time talking tomy customers every day than I
ever did talking to peoplephysically in my office.
Right, Because that's the job,first of all.
So it's every morning he wouldcall all 15 of his customers to
see how their loads wentyesterday.
Did anything come up?
Did any orders come inovernight?
(33:43):
Usually a little bit of chitchat hey, how was your morning?
He cause he knew them wellenough.
Like hey, I know your kid had asoftball game last night or
baseball or a dance recital, howdid that go?
Like genuinely talking to themthe same way he would any
coworkers sitting next to them.
And hey, anything coming uptoday.
You might need a hand onanything on the horizon later
this week or you're worriedabout.
Just let me know, give me aheads up so I can try to plan
(34:04):
and help if you need something.
Right.
And what would happen when youtalk to them every day is like
there's always more loads thatwould come in out of those 15
customers.
Between the end of the dayyesterday and the next morning
there were always loads thatwere supposed to pick up that
night.
That didn't get picked up, thatneeded recovered in the morning
.
So guess what?
By being there and talking tothem every morning, that
customer did not send all thoseloads to eight other brokers and
(34:27):
10 other carriers because he'son the phone with them.
He's making a point to know hey, I'm here, I'm ready to work
with you today.
What do you need help with?
So they're going.
Yeah, I got three loads lastnight.
It weren't supposed to pick up.
If you can get a truck firstthing, let me know before I send
these out.
So he's got first dibs.
Now his rates aren't getting,compared to everyone else's, to
be cheaper, which is the firstadvantage.
He's getting them before theygo out to the market to see
(34:51):
who's going to.
Just let this shipper pick.
The second thing it does is itsaves that shipper time.
The shipper doesn't have toemail those loads out because he
just talked to somebody heknows and trusts and says hey,
see what you can do, here's mytargets, get me as close to it.
I got other stuff to do anyway.
I don't want to worry aboutthese.
So now he's adding value tothat person's day to day work
(35:15):
life.
Because he freed their time up.
They don't have to read allthose emails, they don't have to
pick and choose later and he'sworking on them first thing.
So like long before, thisperson could send emails out to
everybody else, get responses,then respond, then they work on
it.
That's like an hour this guy'sliterally on
it already got these loadsposted first thing.
It's 7 30 in the morning.
(35:35):
These loads are posted firsttrucks.
He's going hey, I get this guyin there in 20 minutes.
I got another truck be there in45 minutes.
He's genuinely helping increasetheir efficiency, their supply
chain.
And you know what, when theytrust him and they know he's
going to do what he said, he'sgenuinely helping increase their
efficiency, their supply chain.
And you know what, when theytrust him and they know he's
going to do what he said he'sgoing to do, they don't usually
mind paying an extra 50 bucks or100 bucks on those loads.
Doesn't seem like a ton, butthat adds up.
(35:56):
I got four more loads from mycustomer and they gave me an
extra 75 on each one because Isaved them time and allowed them
to do more other work whichcreates value for their company.
I get paid for my time, I savethem time and the warehouse is
able to get the things out.
They were supposed to get outlast night.
So everybody wins in thesescenarios the trucks that are
empty that want to get theirwheels turning sooner.
He's getting the loads to thoseguys that need it, so they're
(36:18):
not waiting until nine, 30, 10o'clock in the morning to get
loaded.
They're getting loaded at eight30 because they're empty last
night and everybody wins inthese scenarios.
And then the third thing islike when you're talking to your
customers every day, like theytrust you and also you need to
do the thing we talked about amoment ago.
It's like if the truck youbooked is not going to be there
at nine, you've got to be checkcalling or at the very least on
(36:41):
top of your tracking to see hey,are my trucks that are supposed
to be at your place, steven, inan hour?
Are they where they're supposedto be?
Meaning like, did they have anissue?
Maybe they broke down, maybethere was traffic, maybe there
was something that happened,maybe they got stuck at their
receiver and letting you know,hey, guy that's supposed to load
at nine, he was stuck at hisreceiver way late, ran out of
(37:03):
hours, he's not going to bethere till 11, but I can get my
guy that's supposed to be thereat 10 and a little early because
he got empty early.
Can we switch these POs?
Get this truck loaded first Now.
The warehouse wins, the shipperwins, the driver gets loaded
early, the guy who had an issuegets a better appointment.
He's not waiting for detention,he doesn't get because he's late
(37:32):
, and you're able to configureall of these things more
effectively and efficiently.
And again, the shipper doesn'tmind paying me an extra 75 bucks
a load because I'm doing thesethings for them.
With them, I'm proactivelyreaching out, I'm proactively
knowing where my trucks aresupposed to be.
When the ones can't be wherethey're supposed to be, I'm
reworking these schedules withthem to be able to help manage
my shipper's supply chain moreefficiently, so that they spend
less money on warehouse labor,that the guy sending the loads
(37:52):
has less headaches, can get morework done than he needs to do
for his boss.
And I'm adding value to thecarriers because I'm getting the
ones loaded that are therefirst without them having to
wait, and the ones that will belate they don't have to wait and
not get paid detention becauseof something that wasn't their
fault.
Right, these are the thingsthat happen when you are
actively engaged, havingconversations, proactively
(38:14):
reaching out to your customers,having these conversations and
being on top of the thing you'regetting paid to.
You get paid to hire drivers tobe where they're supposed to be
.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
You need to know where they are, otherwise you're
not doing all of your job,either, right right, exactly,
and and one of the things likeyou can, you can kind of take
that into the prospect, likeeven if you don't have a
customer yet and you're justprospecting, like you're not
going to touch the same peopleevery day, but you should be
making these contacts withpeople every single day.
(38:44):
So, whether it's you know,you've got a list of 200
prospects that you're working.
You're going to stagger themthrough and as you add people to
that pipeline right to get thatphrase so the people you call
on Monday, maybe you'll callthem on Tuesday next week or
Thursday and you just kind ofstagger that through so that
(39:07):
you're always calling oremailing.
But it's multiple touches andsame thing with your active
customers.
Just because you got a customerand they're sending you freight
doesn't mean you shouldn't behaving those same conversations
and constantly reaching out andtalking to them, right?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Because there's sayings or cliches like the
money is made on the margins.
Right, it sounds fancy, butlike what does that mean?
Margins are like the smallestpercentage on the outside, like,
think of a paper, or think oflike Microsoft Word.
The margin is that very littleline around whatever document
you create that is blank.
Right, it's the small littledistance at the very edge, right
(39:42):
, little distance at the veryedge, right.
If I know, you and me arecompeting for freight from one
shipper, right, and I knowyou're sending emails with rates
.
Maybe you're sending themquickly, maybe you send them
within two, three minutes, right, dude, we're in a commodity
business.
You're truck loading andpicking up on time and getting
there on time.
It's not much different thanmine.
So if my shipper has a choice,he's going to pick the cheaper
(40:04):
one if we both have equivalentservice, right, and most
shippers have at least a handfulof brokers, so they've got
probably one.
If not, they probably have two,if not three, where they're all
pretty much the same servicepercentage that they can pick
from.
So why do you think they pickthe cheapest one, wouldn't you?
I mean, if you could go buymilk and there's five brands
(40:24):
there, three of them are thesame quality and one's cheaper,
which one are you going to startbuying every day?
Right?
If you've got to buy gasolineand there's five gas stations,
three of them have the samequality gas but one of them's
cheaper.
Which one are you going to goload your tank up with every
time you got to fill up?
Right?
These are the things we do allthe time and everyone wants to
yell and go.
Well, this shipper is justcheap.
(40:44):
Why he always goes on rate.
He won't give me the freight.
What are you doing differently?
What are you doing to get offyour ass, to create an advantage
on the margin?
That the other people aren'tright and most of the time it's
nothing.
It's complaining about themarket, it's complaining about
the shippers, it's complainingabout the government.
It shippers, it's complainingabout the government, it's
(41:06):
complaining about the economy.
And even if any of those things, or all of those things, are
true, what can you do about anyor all of them?
Nothing.
What can you do about your ownbehavior?
You can pick up the phone andyou can make one more phone call
.
You can ask one more question.
I get an advantage over youbecause I will spend more time
trying to build rapport with mycustomer.
I want to get to know them.
I want to know what is going tomake their job easier day to
(41:29):
day.
What can I take off their plate, put on my plate that allows
them to get more work done?
We talked about asking forbonuses without moving more
freight and asking for moneywithout doing better at your job
.
That is great in your company,but the same principle holds
true with your customer.
I'm creating value for mycustomer in a way that you can't
.
How am I doing that?
(41:50):
I don't know what makes theirlife easier.
It's not like they put it ontheir Facebook posts or on X or
put it on LinkedIn.
Hey, you know what would makemy life easier If I got this
load booked at 1030 on a Tuesdayso everyone can see it?
No, you only get thatinformation if you're proactive
and you engage with them and youtalk with them enough until
they trust you and start tellingyou hey, this would be really
(42:12):
helpful if these loads I moveevery Thursday afternoon.
I could book ahead of time somy boss knows where these trucks
are.
Great, I'll try to work on adedicated carrier that works on
that lane that can pick it upevery Thursday.
I can get you that truck number, that driver info on Wednesday.
What does every other broker do?
Waits to cover that load onThursday, tells the customer
(42:32):
they booked it and then, whenthey don't book it, they go oh
sorry, that guy broke down 15minutes before the load picks up
.
Now the customer's pissed, theirboss is yelling at them and
nobody is understanding what isactually happening behind the
scenes.
Why?
Because people aren't beingproactive, right like I always
feel like the best analogy whenI think of like freight
brokering and sports is likeyou've got to actively engage.
(42:56):
You've got to go get the ball.
Like, if it's a baseballanalogy, if you're waiting for
ground balls to be hit directlyto you, you're going to be
standing there a long timewaiting and you have no control.
What you should be doing is,when that ball gets hit, get as
close to where you can and goand chase the ball down.
Get proactive about it.
Engage with it, go get it.
Sitting there waiting, sittingon your ass for freight to fall
(43:19):
in your lap and throwing ratesout via email while you're
staring at Instagram isn't goingto grow your business, isn't
going to grow your book and sureas shit ain't going to add
dollars to your paycheck.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Yep, that's absolutely correct, and one of
the things that especially thelast, like week or two that I've
been thinking a lot about is alot of the AI companies.
You know they focus especiallyin our space.
They focus on um things thatcan control an output.
So, like what was a happy robot, we'll do, you know,
negotiating on the phone and andthat kind of stuff.
(43:52):
But where people are kind oflacking with AI, especially in
relation to this, is, you know,don't use AI to do your sales
outreach, but do use AI toresearch your leads and your
prospects and I was justlistening to my first million
podcast from this I think it'sfrom Monday that they were using
(44:17):
different AI workflows to likescrape LinkedIn and scraped
YouTube and X and all thesethings.
To like find out information on,you know, potential prospects
and leads and stuff.
Then use that information tocater specifically to that
person, learn that, build thatrelationship, learn what it is
that they like and don't likeand like.
(44:39):
That's, I think, whereeventually we'll go to, but you
will get outpaced by the peoplewho are doing that now and that
is that is something that, um,our industry being 10 years
behind tech in general, uh, uh.
If you were to take theseprocesses and start to learn how
to build workflows and likethat is what will make this
(45:02):
easier, but the end goal will bethe same You're constantly
going to be touching differentprospects, different customers,
learning more, and, instead ofit taking three or four hours,
like it did when I first started, maybe it takes 20 minutes, but
you're still getting that samequality information.
But you still have to craftthat outreach yourself.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
And the thing I think that everyone should keep in
the back of their mind, likethat I look at daily, is if you
are doing a task that isrepeatable and takes no thought,
it's pretty likely that taskwill get automated pretty
quickly, like if you were justcovering your loads by waiting
for a carrier posting a load,waiting for carriers to email
(45:44):
you, negotiating down by 25 or50 bucks, looking at the MC
through a system, then puttingthem in another system and then
sending tracking.
That job is not going to existin five years because it's
almost automatable.
Now, right, if you aren't doingadditional things to add value
picking up the phone, callingthat carrier, negotiating with
(46:06):
them, understanding if they'reempty, what their equipment is,
are they fresh on hours,building rapport with them Our
advantage over AI is human tohuman interaction and
understanding and connectingwith people.
Yes, it can talk, but it can'tdo that like a human and at
least they can't do it in thenear future.
And if you aren't doing thingslike that to create value in
(46:29):
your role, eventually someonethat owns your company is
looking at this.
I mean, it's happening everyday in larger companies.
Companies are going hey, beforeyou hire, can you see if we can
automate that.
Well, that's the first step.
The second step is who have wehired that we can automate, that
we don't need?
And then it becomes how many ofthese people do we need to pay
(46:52):
to do what they're doing?
If we can automate it anyway,right.
So even if it's not, hey, howdo I do better for my company?
Now, it's not just thisaltruistic, oh, I need to do
everything for this company Iwork for.
It's like there's self-interestthere.
The more you do, the moreindispensable you become.
The more value you create, thelonger you'll have a career in
(47:14):
that thing that you're doing,the better you'll do, the
happier you'll be.
Right, like it's built intobeing human is the fact that,
like, when you strive throughsomething difficult and achieve
it, it's rewarding and you feelbetter.
When you do the least amount ofwork and effort to achieve a
goal every day, your happinessand well-being decreases.
(47:36):
It's that it's like this cliche,right, that counterintuitive of
like I heard this best phraseis if you do what's hard today,
tomorrow gets easier.
If you do what's easier today,tomorrow gets harder, right?
Yeah, it feels better to belazy in the moment.
I'm no different than any otherhuman being that I have that
part of me there, right.
But when you can beat into yourhead and develop the habit that
(47:58):
like doing more now feels alittle shittier now makes you
feel a lot better a little bitlater, like I always reference
it in my head is like, yeah, Idon't want to do this, but
tomorrow Benjamin will be happyI did it.
Or this evening Benjamin willbe happy, I did it.
I'm like basically incentivizingmyself to do the things I don't
want to do because I know laterme will thank me for it.
(48:21):
And when I do the opposite, I'mlike, yeah, if I want to go and
have a couple drinks tonight,tomorrow morning Ben is not
going to be thankful that I didthat.
So you know what?
I'd rather make my future selfhappier than my current self.
And if you can just think aboutthat a little more frequently,
slowly you start to develop thehabit of just picking the harder
thing over and over again andthen you feel better, like you
(48:44):
have more energy.
Whether it's exercise, whetherit's running, whether it's your
job, whether it's school,whether it's learning a sport
and instrument, literallyanything and any aspect of being
human gets better when you dothe thing.
That's a little more difficultin the short run versus the long
run.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
Yep, exactly, and there's.
There's definitely um, a lot ofthat and some of what I've
learned in probably the last twoyears um, especially recently
being diagnosed with adhd andall that and like managing that.
It's uh, you know, creating the, creating the system that
benefits you the best.
(49:21):
It's going to be different fromyou to your co-worker and after
, but that ability to take thethings out of your head that you
don't need to hold on to andput them in a place where you
know to get them immediately isthe most beneficial thing to
like.
Saving time and being able to bein the moment with the people
that you're talking to whetherit's your wife or a prospect or
(49:44):
a customer and not have thislike thing in the back of your
head of I got to do this, I gotto do this.
So creating, like, whether it's, you know, a knowledge base or
a CRM or something where you canjust take all this information
that you're you're keeping inyour head and put it somewhere
that you know it's going to beand you can go back and tap into
it, take that off your mind.
(50:06):
It has a very powerful impact,especially on phone calls.
When you're cold calling, youcan hear the hesitation in
people's voices when they'recaught up with something else
and you know they're not in tunewith the conversation with
something else and you knowthey're not in tune with the
conversation, and so things likethat are definitely going to
(50:27):
help in getting a relationshipwith those customers and those
prospects and bringing in morefreight and helping you in the
long run.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Good to agree with you more.
Any final thoughts?
Speaker 2 (50:38):
That's all I got.
It's finally warm in Ohio.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Thank God, I'm happy to hear that buddy, buddy, it's
starting to get disgustingly hotdown here, so I believe it.
Oh, whether you believe you canor believe you can't, you're
right.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com