Freight Brokers are all about the Money

1. Freight Brokers are all about the Money Published March 1, 2016– Connect with us on LinkedIn for more articles and information. We are an online Freight Broker and Freight Agent Training School that can be found at LogisticsAcademy.org. You can make a lot of money as a skilled Freight Broker and now is just as good of a time to start as any! Why just the Money? A Freight Broker works as an intermediary between shippers and carriers. They contact shippers who need loads moved from one city to another, they provide the shipper with a quote, and then they go find a carrier who is willing to move the shipment for less than the broker quoted their customer. Therefore a Freight Broker’s primary incentive is to make money. Which means there are 2 possible outcomes agents and brokers face when deciding whether or not to take the entrepreneurial leap as a supply chain management professional, they will simply either make a lot of money or they won’t. But what separates the successful broker from the broker who can’t manage to move one load every week? There are a number

2. of factors including the individuals telephone sales skills, their attention to customer care and organizational details, their book of business (or professional network), and their ability to delegate others. Fortunately, these are skills that can be learned if you are willing to put forth the effort required. Telephone Sales Skills A freight broker must be able to pick up the phone on any given day of the week and be able to make a connection with the person on the other end of the call. If you cannot manage to do this, you will have a harder time building a reputable book of business for yourself. Not only do you have to be charismatic, you must also know you stuff. What stuff? It honestly almost seems like there is an entire language that belongs to the shipping and transportation industry in the United States. If you don’t even know what a LANE is, you need professional training to bring you up to speed, AND THAT IS OKAY! This probably isn’t stuff that any of us learned in high school. If a potential customer is asking you questions that you can’t answer they will be less likely to trust your abilities as a reliable transportation provider. Thankfully becoming a supply chain management professional is not rocket science; it requires knowledge about different types of equipment, the seasonal value of different lanes (transportation routes, origin to destination), and knowing how to solve problems when they do arise. Attention to detail and excellent customer service Being a Freight Broker can be very competitive. In fact Brokers and Agents are constantly competing for customers with other brokers and

3. trucking companies, there are about 500,000 trucking companies in the United States and more than 14,000 licensed brokerages. One small mistake or typo can lead to another company deciding never do business with you again. The best way to keep your customers is to prove yourself to them as fast as possible and as frequently as possible by moving a good portion of their freight in a timely and effective manner. Never give a load back because you can’t cover it, KEEP THE CUSTOMER, even if that means losing money on a load. If you can manage to get more of their freight in the future you will pay for your mistake in due time. Reading and writing rate confirmations and contracts all day can become very tedious work, but it is important to keep your focus because small mistakes can become costly. Simply not labeling your customers specified requirements (ex: if you need a team, make sure it says so on the rate confirmation) on your rate confirmations can lead to delays in transit time which forces you to face an unhappy customer who might just fine you for it, or worse – you could lose their trust. If you can keep your word you can usually keep your customers and carriers happy! Building a Book of Business In a Freight Brokers database they retain information about shippers/customers and carriers who they are “set up” with. Not only do successful brokers build a list of shippers who have freight that needs to be moved year round, they must also build a list of reliable carriers who trust that they will get paid in a timely manner. Your eyes and ears should always be open to carriers who are looking for freight on a consistent basis that runs from one specific city to another, because when a customer tells you they have a load that matches your carrier’s desired lane – you now just

4. have to negotiate the rate for the load. You want to build a reputation of being the guy or gal who already knows what truck you’re going to use when people call you. Keep picking up the phone and calling shippers, good brokers have a long list of previously set up customers to call on a rainy day or when the going gets rough. When the going gets slow, the slow gets going! Delegating others If you can offer other companies the experience of working with true industry professionals WHILE managing other people, you might just get filthy rich doing this. What I mean is that you should try to get more people, freight agents, to work under your authority. Freight Brokers and Freight Agents have an unlimited earning potential and you can make up to 50% of your team’s profits, which is a lot if you have well trained agents working for you. A Freight Broker’s primary incentive is to make money. In order to be the best, you do have to be an expert. But your expertise does not all have to be learned via the school of hard knocks (usually on the job training takes 3-6 months, yuck) – We have professional training available for Freight Brokers, Freight Agents, Dispatchers, and Transportation Managers. Visit our website to learn more: LogsiticsAcademy.org