E98: Freight Broker vs Dispatcher

Paul and new co-host Bob Kruz are back with a new episode tackling some of the biggest topics in the business right now from PPP Loan misuse to double brokers. This episode covers some top questions from followers on what makes a good brokerage, what new owner-operators need to know about insurance, and how to navigate the complexities of both the broker and carrier worlds. Here’s a brief rundown of the biggest topics in the conversation. Who’s got it worse: Owner-Operators or Brokers? Bob: At the peak, [an owner-operator] was making like ten grand a week…like eight grand clean. Yet, now things are definitely in a slump. Right now, owner-operators are making as much as a company driver. It’s better to be a company driver, you’re going to make almost the same amount, and you’re not worried about nothing. Smaller companies are taking the biggest hit right now, to be honest. Paul: Dude, being a broker is nice and easy. All you have to do is just have a laptop and a customer. The nice thing is you don’t have the overhead that you do with a truck, right? It’s all like digital. And obviously, you have to have sales skills, but you don’t have to have a truck, and a driver, you know? Bob: Still, man, you gotta go get this load, find this customer or shipper. Then you have to find a carrier–a good carrier because you can get screwed with a bad carrier. We were talking about how [brokers] have these telegram chats with their dedicated carriers on there. So they don’t have to worry about them screwing you over, so you would rather post the load on telegram first and then post it on DAT. So I realized why all the brokers have their own load boards now. Are Double Brokers Friend or Foe? Bob: I get all these comments from people saying, “Double brokers aren’t that bad. We actually do most of the work.” I understand that, right? Because they’re just taking it from these bigger brokerages, making fifty-one hundred bucks on it, then they’re just double brokering it to somebody else. I don’t want to say double brokering is okay…but I feel like it’s better if they pay the carrier and everything is okay. What makes a good brokerage? Bob: It really depends if you have a good rep in the brokerage. Once you have a good rep in the brokerage, everything changes. That’s what happened with us and Arrive. We had a really bad rep at first, and I posted something to Instagram… Shout out to Dave. He kept hitting me up, so we started working with him, and he’s been great so far. So, yeah, I think it really depends if you have a good rep in that brokerage, then you’ll be good. If you don’t have anybody, then you’ll think the whole brokerage sucks. Paul: Especially with the big companies, it’s really dependent on who you’re dealing with. Honestly, it’s the same thing with TQL. Bob: [Favorite brokerages to work with] are C.H., Arrive. Coyote used to be really good, and XPO used to be really good. Flock Freight used to be really good before they implemented this new [inspections] thing. Be sure to tune in to the FreightCaviar Podcast to hear the full conversation on Spotify or Youtube.