by Jimmy Dean | Jul 13, 2015 | Info and stories
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by Jimmy Dean | Jul 1, 2015 | Tools and Tips
1) Freight Broker Authority Broker authority is a license provided by the FMCSA authorizing individuals or companies to act as freight brokers. Broker authority is applied for by filling out MFCSA form OP-1 and selecting the “broker of property” option. Form OP-1 requires individual or company contact information, the company name filed on a doing business as form (if applicable), and the applicant’s USDOT number. A $300 fee must accompany the application. Go to – www.fmcsa.dot.gov 2) Surety Bond Or Trust Fund A surety bond or trust fund acts as insurance to guarantee that the shipping companies will be paid for their cargo space. If the shipper does not pay for the shipping service, the freight brokerage must absorb the cost; should they not be able to, the bond company or trust fund will cover the expense. A freight broker must have a surety bond or trust fund worth $10,000 or more. Proof of the surety bond or trust fund is filed with the FMCSA using form BMC-84 or BMC-85. Many surety bond companies could be set up with monthly payments to lower the initial cost. Go to – www.freightbonds.com/ for more information. 3) Legal Process Agent Freight brokerage businesses must register legal process agents for each state they operate in with the FMCSA. The process agent provides legal representation within their state, though law firms which have members in multiple states may be retained for use in each of these states. Process agents are registered with the FMCSA using form BOC-3, with spaces provided on the form for every state. A filing fee of $50 is required with...
by Jimmy Dean | Jul 1, 2015 | Tools and Tips
So you have some freight, found a carrier….Now what? First thing is to know you have the freight and confirm time it needs to load or unload. Qualifying the carriers – When a dispatcher or truck calls in asking for information on a particular load need to make sure you ask a few questions 1) Where is the Truck? Could be 200 miles away and take hours to get to the pick up 2) Is the truck empty now? If truck is waiting to be unloaded then this could be a long time. need to ask about when the appointment is and how long he has been waiting. 3) What is your MC Number? You will need to verify information and review safety records with this number. 4) What is your name and call back number? If you don’t have this written down it will get lost. Even if you have their number on the caller ID, write it down. Check the FMCSA Licensing Site – www.safersys.org/CompanySnapshot.aspx From this site you are able to enter the MC number of the carrier. You will need to verify the licensing and insurance on file for the carrier. Make sure their authority is active and they have insurance on file of at least 1,000,000 liability and 100,000 in cargo. You will also see that they are an active carrier. Call the insurance Company and request a certificte of Insurance. it is also a good idea to call and speak the insurance comany and find out if there are any cliams pending right now. We had an instance where everything checks out but...
by Jimmy Dean | Jul 1, 2015 | Tools and Tips
Truckload and Freight load boards are a great way to find carriers. There are a lot of different load boards out there and there are services available that enable you to post to more then one at a time. some of the ones that we have experience with are. Transcore DAT Express 360 – “Access the TransCore DAT Network, the safest, largest and fastest truck load board with over 60 million loads & trucks annually, 42 million found here first or nowhere else.” Our experience has been very positive with this site. It is a little more expensive but it seems that the carriers available are professional and have been around for a while. The have a great rating tool that helps sell freight to customers and negotiate with carriers Trulos Transportation – This is the largest free load board on the internet and very easy to sign up and use. We have received a lot of success from this service Post Everywhere – “PostEverywhere freight posting service streamlines the process of posting to the Internet which will save you time and increase efficiency. If you use Internet freight matching sites to find trucks for your loads, or to find freight for empty trucks, Post Everywhere truck and load posting service is an essential tool for your company.” How to Find Truckload Carriers A lot of times when you post a load you will not receive the call back in time. This is generally due to a shortage of trucks and a high amount of loads in the area. Since freight transport pricing is effected by the supply and...
by Jimmy Dean | Jul 1, 2015 | Tools and Tips
Freight Brokers are constantly negotiating with carriers. Unless there are rates in place with a carrier already each load will have to be negotiated. Some times there are rating tools available that will give the freight broker an idea on where to start but many times any past rates are out the window because of supply and demand of trucks and the cost of fuel. Last year we saw freight moving east to west for around 1.25 per mile. This summer it is up to about 2.50. Obviously customers are going nuts and trying to figure out how to move there products for less. Even with higher fuel costs there are some ways to negotiate a good rate with a carrier. Know where the freight is going – Freight moving east to west is less then west to east. Most of this is driven by product and importing of products. There is a huge demand for trucks ont he west coast and this drives freight costs up. When shipping to the west coast if you keep this in mind you can usually get the carrier to move lower on the freight rate. Know how mush it costs to run a truck. Fuel Cost 0.60 Maintenance 0.25 Truck Payment 0.35 Driver Costs 0.35 Per mile total 1.55 Based on this info the company has not yet made a profit on the truck at 1.55 per mile. But keep in mound that costs go down with companies that travel longer distances. This information can be used to negotiate with the truckload carrier when you have a long haul and need the...
