hiwaykw05, I did read your post and I understood your jist.
My point is, if I say to the broker I want $1000.00 to do your load, and he agrees and sends in the confirmation for $1000.00, then what do I care what he is charging his customer? He has agreed to the rate that I wanted, that's all that matters to me.
Too many carriers spend too much time "thinking" about how much the broker "might" be making, and not enough time refusing cheap freight.
On the other hand, if you said you wanted $1000.00 and the broker says he can only pay $750.00, then you find out he had 45% on it, I could see you being upset, but you had the option of saying no to the $750.00 in the first place.
But I do like boss's analogy of it all, that makes more sense than 45% of gross.