A question for carriers out there...

M

Mike1710

Active Member
Jun 16, 2017
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Do you view a freight broker as...

1) Your customer.

2) A sales arm of your company.

3) A necessary evil to fill your trucks in a pinch.

I ask only because I got to thinking about our company (a very reputable broker) and the fact that I can count on one or two hands the amount of times I have seen a carrier visit us in 16+ years. Tens of millions paid out to carriers, always on time, and only a handful of visits.

Not looking for visits here either (or sympathy) as I'm too busy anyway. LOL! But it is more out of curiosity as to how brokers are viewed by carriers. I can't imagine going 6 months without paying a visit to a customer so it got me thinking that maybe, just maybe, we aren't looked at as a customer to our carrier base - which is OK. :)

Thoughts and votes welcomed here.

Cheers!
 
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Also forgot to answer your question, in my mind most consider brokers as the necessary evil, another good reason to get out and meet them at their locations to show your interest and care of their succus. But, like you can not change how some brokers use and abuse carriers, some will never think of us as an extension of their sales force.
 
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Pre covid there used to be a lot more visits, or goodies sent over.

Now there is just one carrier who sends samosas every 6 months-ish lol. Nothing else for anyone else.
 
my thoughts.

1. If I invoice you, then you are a customer / client.
2. if I invoice and you pay your bill on time, you are an excellent customer / client
3. Reputable brokers that take time to listen, learn and understand our services and operations, and thus are indeed a "sales arm" per say, they speak with 100's of clients, make their pitch, and secure the work, based party on pricing, partly on the relationship between the broker and his client, and the relationship the broker will be utilizing with the carrier to move the brokers clients goods. The carrier treats the broker like a sales team, provides sales support, accurate timely invoicing, thus ensuring the broker is presenting accurate data to his client. I have no issues servicing 100's of shippers, and only having to invoice 1 brokers for the work. Beats the hell out of invoicing 100 different clients and the associated admin cots. Good brokers have an solid

We prefer to make courtesy calls on a regular basis to our clients to follow up and keep in touch. We will entertain onsite meetings when required. Seems like in-person meetings are requested more often with new ventures, clients, or companies who aren't familiar with the carrier. If your decently established carrier, you will probably have less potential clients request meetings as they already kind of know who you are.

A lot of new business comes from existing client referrals or employees who have moved firms and onboard us at their new employer. We find these types of new accounts rarely require an initial onsite meet and greet etc.


"Goodies sent over" bottles, golf sessions, sports tickets etc... We know a lot of this happens in the freight industry, however that "model" doesn't work for us... we prefer providing our clients with excellent rates and service as a thank you for their loyalty. No one ever complains about getting fair pricing, top notch on-time service and clear concise communication...

just my 1.5 cents
 
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1) & 3) with 3) being the closest to our business model.

Here's why 2) will never apply to a broker: If I say I need detention for making my truck sit for 4 hours and the response is "My customer won't approve it" then its obvious you are not my "customer".

We'ev worked with about 300+ "brokers" since we started, and I can honestly say there's about 3 or 4 that we continually work with and are happy with the relationship. That says something about the Broker/Carrier relationship in our eyes. We work with 4 direct shippers/Customers and I can say those are life long partnerships.
 
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"we prefer providing our clients with excellent rates and service as a thank you for their loyalty. No one ever complains about getting fair pricing, top notch on-time service and clear concise communication"

But shouldn't that be what we all strive to do anyway. To try and make that the norm?
 
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1) For those brokers who give us every load from shipper XYZ to a destination that we service we consider them a customer. XYZ might ship to other locations, but we get all of the ones that fit our model. These brokers and our staff usually call and chat often about issues, pricing concerns and other issues. We don't feel threatened about losing the lane if 'stuff' happens and we let them know. There is a mutual opportunity to grow each of our businesses with these brokers. These brokers seldom have concerns about us reaching out to the shipper for information.

2) For those regular brokers who are setup and call us to get a rate and sometimes come back to us with a load we consider them a distant part of our sales team. We call them when we have availability, and they try and fit us with something. They'll give us a load before posting it and if they post it and see us, they call us to check our availability.

3) Brokers we call off the link who ask for the price and rarely get back to you - they are a necessary evil. These brokers always tell you your price is higher than the 'best' rate they found so far and you wonder if they're lying or embellishing the price because for some reason they want to keep you on the phone. With these brokers you know you're getting used and you feel like it when you're done.


The trick is to have a lot more of number one and very few of number three. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to start with the number threes to move them to number twos.
Lately the number threes outnumber the number twos by a mile.

The visit to a broker is highly overrated. There is just not enough time to visit each and every broker that you match up with. For those brokers that I consider customers we have a number of great chats over the phone to understand how this person works and one day, if all lines up properly, there may be a visit. On the other hand, I'm surprised that there are not more brokers coming around my offices to ensure that I actually have trucks and staff.
 
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