I understand what you’re saying freight broker, but the older I get, the less I feel like playing those kind of games. Plus as we are consistently fairly busy, our dispatchers just don’t have the time for the back and forth required for your scenario. As a general rule, for quoting a new lane, we contact 2 or 3 carriers who we know from previous experience run that lane, add our percentage to that rate and pass it on to the customer. If there are extraordinary circumstances, i.e. port loads, high possibility of waiting time or other anticipated problems, we will add more to the rate before we present it to the customer. If a carrier knows that you are holding back on offering what the load should pay, I believe that leads to a bad relationship. In all my years I have never heard a carrier say....”oh, that’s OK Mr Freight Broker, it’s about time you made some extra money on these loads”. Quote a reasonable rate to your customer that most importantly, can be backed up by proper service from a good carrier who is being paid a compensatory rate.
