Trucking Companies Vs Auto Transport Brokers

I have been seeing a lot of emphatic comments onHere's a brief breakdown of why I feel you need
the internet lately, relating to this subject. I am anboth.
auto transport broker and I cringe whenever I seeScheduling a transport with a customer and driving a
"don't ever use a broker!" plastered all over sometruck are two full time jobs. I've been a trucker and
carrier's (/broker's) website. I can see the appeal ofI've been a broker. When you're driving 10-15 hours a
wanting to bypass the broker fee by contacting theday with multiple stops, your customer service skills
carrier directly. For a lot of people the bottom line iscan start to slide down the scale a bit. As a broker I
all that matters. I realize that economic times arecan spend anywhere from ten minutes to ten days
tough and most of the people I speak with daily areworking out a customers relocation schedule with
interested in getting the best price possible. I wouldthem, I have time to do this because it's my job.
like to point out a few things to the customer lookingMost of the truckers I deal with are owner
to deal directly with the drivers as opposed to payingoperators. The cost of maintaining and operating a
a freight broker.car carrier can be very expensive. Understandably,
The first thing would be this. Most carriers are alsothey are usually happy to let a broker pay for the
brokers.cost of advertising and supply them with freight for
Imagine this...Trucking company X gets a call from afree. A good percentage of truck drivers I work with
customer looking to ship their car from point A todo not even have websites. A broker provides a
Point B. This customer wants to know if thevery valuable service to the carrier.
company owns their own trucks. Yes company XI also believe it is a misconception that you will save
owns their own trucks.a significant amount of money by bypassing the
That's good news to the customer who is looking tobroker. I had a driver who was unable to fulfill his
deal directly with the carrier, not a broker. Customerobligation to 7 of his clients in Florida and asked me
schedules transport. Well company X's trucks are all into take care of them while he dealt with a personal
point R,S & T and wont be near point A or Bissue. I was able to ship all of his client's cars for the
for at least 2-3 weeks. What are they going to do?same price he quoted them and in one instance I
Tell the customer it may be 2-3 weeks before theywas actually able to lower the quote by $100
can pick up? For some, this wouldn't be an issue at all.because I found a driver who had 1 empty spot on
However, for the majority of the clients I work with,that route and needed to fill it quickly.
most of them are on some kind of time scheduleThere are many other very good reasons to
and do not have months to wait for their cars. Soschedule your transport through a broker but I really
what if the client doesn't want to wait, do you thinkwanted to point out some obvious ones to those
trucking company X say's "I'm sorry, I guess we cantwho feel brokers are an unnecessary additional
help you." No, they won't say anything and brokerexpense and should be avoided.
out the load to a friendly company that they doSo for those of you who are still looking to save a
business with. After all, they didn't lie when they toldcouple of bucks and arrange transport yourself, best
the customer they owned their own trucks they justof luck. For those of you who would like me to
fail to mention that those trucks wouldn't behandle all the arrangements for you, we're open 6
anywhere near the location the customer's car is at.days a week.