I really wish you guys would quit calling load brokers "evil". There is no possible way to get Chinese widgets from Shanghai to Winnipeg without some kind of brokerage transaction in the pipeline somewhere. There is no transportation company in the world that has the depth and breadth on its own to make that happen without hiring someone else somewhere along the line to do part of the work.
Really, Boeing doesn't make its own air plane engines ... GE does that. GE doesn't make all the engine parts. General Dynamics, Martin-Marietta, and many others do that. Georgia-Pacific doesn't cut down its own trees. There is all sorts of "brokerage" in every facet of every industry. It would be foolish to believe that transportation can, could, or would, be any different.
The statement about transportation in general being a necessary evil is quite true. I can't imagine that anything would piss a shipper off more than knowing he is paying 35% of his cost to transportation which appears to produce zero production-added value. Forget that he can't sell his bread without transportation. The fact is that Mr. Shipper can't touch transportation. He can't feel it. He can't see it. It's not tangible. It's a waste of money, and someone else should pay for it. Keep in mind that in the minds of most people it doesn't cost anything to drive to grocery store to get a loaf of bread.
Suppose that shipper makes bread. He spends 35% of his cost on flour and makes bread. He sells the bread and makes money. The 35% transportation cost he sees as Dude rockin' up n a ridiculously expensive 360 inch wheelbase Peterbilt with an $80,000.00 paint job. Dude pops out the driver's side suicide door, adjusts his cowboy hat, dusts of his shit kickers, polishes his belt buckle, reorients his chain drive wallet, flips his cigarette but across the parking lot, hawks a luggie on the sidewalk, and strolls into the shipping office 3 hours late, reeking of too much cologne, too many cigarettes, and a waitress named Charmaine. He expects the whole world to stop just because he, Sir Dude, Driver of Truck, Waster of Time, Kicker of Shit, Defiler of Charmaine, has deigned the shipper with his regal presence ... all bow to his majesty please. Now the 15 other truck drivers in there that day were professional, courteous, top notch people, and they are forgotten about the moment they walk out the door. But Dude has left an impression that Mr. Shipper hates, and it just pisses him off that he has to give Dude money. You can substitute Captain Sweatpants for Dude ... it's all the same.
Sonny and Will didn't do us any favours boys.