Freight 360
Transform Your Sales Conversations & Handle Payment Disputes | Final Mile 49
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
- Book and Podcast Recommendations for Freight Brokers
- Handling Objections
- Reefer LTL
- Hostage Loads
Support Our Sponsors:
QuikSkope - Get a Free Trial: Click Here
Levity: Click Here
Bluebook Services: Click Here
DAT Freight & Analytics - Get 10% off your first year!
DAT Power - Brokers & Carriers: Click Here
DAT Express - Brokers: Click Here
Truckers Edge - Carriers: Click Here
Recommended Products: Click Here
Freight Broker Basics Course: Click Here
Join Our Facebook Group: Click Here
Check out all of our content online: Click Here
Nate Cross & Ben Kowalski answer your freight brokering questions and discuss:
- Book and Podcast Recommendations for Freight Brokers
- Handling Objections
- Reefer LTL
- Hostage Loads
Support Our Sponsors:
QuikSkope - Get a Free Trial: Click Here
Levity: Click Here
Bluebook Services: Click Here
DAT Freight & Analytics - Get 10% off your first year!
DAT Power - Brokers & Carriers: Click Here
DAT Express - Brokers: Click Here
Truckers Edge - Carriers: Click Here
Recommended Products: Click Here
Freight Broker Basics Course: Click Here
Join Our Facebook Group: Click Here
Check out all of our content online: Click Here
Welcome back for the final mile. We are on final mile 49. Almost at 50.
Speaker 2:Wow, round on the corner. Yeah, man, that's like almost a whole year. I'm surprised we've been doing this that long. It seems like fairly recently. It feels recent, I guess, but it's in comparison to how long we've been doing the long form show.
Speaker 1:Yeah it makes sense, though, because I remember last summer, when I was out for like Army or something and I was talking to, the three of us were on the phone me and Steven's idea.
Speaker 1:He's like you should do, like you should do another segment where it's just Q and A. We're like, yeah, and we've actually gotten really good response. Like so everyone. Youtube comments. Thank you very much. This is literally the episode every week where we get the opportunity to serve you guys by answering the questions that you're sending directly to us, and sometimes, like today, we're going to bring in a YouTube comment that may be controversial and I'm going to. I'm going to roast. I'm going to roast a listener today. We'll have fun.
Speaker 2:For sure I wanted to kick off rather than doing news or sports. A couple of people responded wanted more books that I was just coming across that I think are helpful that's one of our questions today.
Speaker 1:Well, that's gonna be our first one. Cool. I summarize it what books or podcasts are good for pay brokers?
Speaker 2:so we can do that one first, if you want, and that'll segue right into it.
Speaker 1:That's perfect and this again. This is like literally youtube comment, right, we, we answer. We try to either answer YouTube, answer via email or answer on the show every single question you guys send in. So, uh, before we get into it really quick, share this with our friends, coworkers, colleagues. Check out free broker basics course on our website, if you're looking for an educational option, um, and check out the sponsors and the description box. It's because of them that we can continue to give you guys all these services and podcasts for free Quickscope, levity, blue Book Services and DAT our current sponsors there. So, all right, ben, this is all you man. So did you mention a book or something?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I was talking about the book I was reading recently. I I think it's called super communicators, the one.
Speaker 1:Yes, we did talk about that one, yeah um, really good practical insight in that book.
Speaker 2:It's a really good read the one I referenced before, but this one I came across. Actually, there was someone referenced this book and in a podcast it's called 59 seconds but it was good enough that I not only have listened to all of it, but I immediately bought the hard copy and I'll just read you some of the blurbs to get an idea. It's like, at last, a self help guide that is based on real research. Perfect for busy, curious, smart people. Secrets. It said 59 seconds Think a little change a lot.
Speaker 2:These are some of the interesting ones and some of these you've probably heard me say on the show, which is why one I kind of gravitated towards it, like there are things I've picked up and learned in other books, but this is a great book because it summarizes what works and what doesn't work in popular, like coaching and self-help or like however you want to categorize it growth type books. It breaks down and then reads you and tells you why these studies show that these things are effective and why these things are kind of bullshit in some ways. Right and why, and what works and what doesn't right. Um, and just a couple right like discover why even thinking about going to the gym can help you keep in shape. Find out why retail therapy doesn't really improve your mood, but what it actually does. These are my two favorite ones.
Speaker 2:Discover why writing down your goals is far more effective than visualizing them. In fact, actually they talk about like just visualizing your goals can make it less likely to achieve them actually. But writing them down and the steps to achieve them has far higher effective, rather than just dreaming and thinking about it. You're actually far less likely to do the work. And they say the studies show that you're also not only less likely to do the work to get to your dream when you just daydream about being rich or what you're going to do with the money you're going to make. You're also unintentionally underestimating the steps it takes to get there. So as soon as something hard comes up, you just quit. There's another study, too, that shows like if you tell someone else your goals, you actually get a little reward because you kind of feel a little bit of the accomplishment, because you're sharing what you're about to do, and that also makes you less likely to actually do the thing that you said you were going to do, which is interesting.
Speaker 1:That reminds me of Atomic Habits, too Like they talk about you know, really good book partner et cetera.
Speaker 2:Yep, and the last one. We talk about this on sales a lot, but they explain why in this book too. But it's finding out why putting a pencil between your teeth instantly makes you happier. So when we talk about sales right and we say you should smile, get your energy up or stand up right now, do this put a pen with just the end in your mouth, Like it's like a cigar, and just hold it there like that, that hold it with your lips. That will literally make you less happy, because you use the same muscles to frown that you do to hold a pen in your mouth.
Speaker 1:That's what it felt like.
Speaker 2:Yep. Now if you hold it with your teeth clenched and do that for like I think it's like 10 or 15 seconds Before you start to dial, your brain works in both ways. It will allow your face muscles to smile when you laugh and hear something funny. So it clearly works that way, which everyone knows about. But it works in reverse, meaning that your body is so used to smiling once it's heard something that makes you happy that if you use those muscles without hearing anything, you're literally just sitting in a quiet room by yourself. When you do that, your brain triggers a response that actually fires endorphins and makes you happier and the tone of your voice changes. And what I learned this when I was getting my like coaching certifications is if you do this before you make prospecting calls, your tone of voice goes up, is more pleasant and is more likely to engage with the person you're talking to. So that is one great takeaway before you make any prospecting calls, just throw a pen in your mouth, clench it with your teeth, count to 15, and then dial.
Speaker 1:So what's here? And I've actually have done something similar. So I read Jordan Belford's book the Way of the Wolf. He's the guy from Wolf of Wall Street. I read this.
Speaker 1:This is probably like seven years ago or something, but he talks, he hits on that same thing. It's like if you can find some sort of action that can be easily done to trigger an emotion, and his example he used like a scent. Basically, there's these things you can smell, that is very distinct. And he's like when you have a really good sales call, as soon as you hang up he goes, do that thing and do it every time after a good call and your body is going to like, like it instantly, like boom, it's going to, you know, associate with that. So then if you have a difficult call or a difficult meeting coming up, do that action right before you have that call and it's going to. And it's very, very similar, it's trying to get your body to think like no, this is that awesome motivation, that great mentality I had Boom, here's how I get to it.
Speaker 1:So the way of the wolf. That's where I heard that one from Yep. So they also asked about podcasts you can listen to. I mean Freight 360, obviously, but any other podcasts you'd recommend for freight brokers?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the ones that I tend to listen to regularly, like I listen to DAT's podcast, because Ken Adamo is on there regularly with Dean. Dean always puts out great information on what commodities are moving, what's going on in the market, which lanes are picking up, which lanes are slowing down, so he'll give you literally categories to prospect that are going right now and then he'll tell you what was moving last week, what the lanes were right Like. It's very actionable information, not just a conversation. Ken provides a lot of good insight into rates and then their guy from, chris Kaplis, who I believe is from MIT, who does he's like their head of their analytics or works very closely with ken and he always does a really good insightful discussion on, like, the economics and even what's happening in the industry. Those are like one of my go-to.
Speaker 2:I listed all three of them. Free caviar, I think. Paul over there does some really good interviews great interview, very poignant, that are really good takeaways where you can learn some things, actionable stuff you can use. Um, everything in logistics place, product podcasts, um, there's some really great stuff over there. Kevin hills um, which was put the coffee down, but I believe that he changed the name of it, yes, and I.
Speaker 2:It's now it's, and I was on his show like two weeks ago and it's why can't I remember that top of my mind and it's gonna bug me, um, I just did a really good episode with him so what's the rate?
Speaker 3:yes what's the right um yeah that's what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where he has it on LinkedIn that's what I'm looking at right now to try to find it. Everything logistics. We just posted this when I was on their show, like last week, so you can definitely find it there.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you one that I like is, I would say, anything like entrepreneurial, I think is really good. Entree leadership is one that I listen to every now and then. It's really good, like business owner stories. Ben, I know you're big on my first. Is it my first million right?
Speaker 2:My first million. I still listen to the ones I listen to also every day or I listen to every week. I listen to my first million. It's basically two guys that kind of have discussions, don't have time to read and research every week like what's going on, which companies are buying what, which new startups are working, um, all-in podcasts I listen to kind of every friday. That gives me a good recap on kind of what's going on in the tech world. I listen to hard fork, which is on the new york times that comes out friday. It's a great recap of everything that happened in the technology space every week. Tim Ferriss I've just been listening to for years Personal Development those are like my go-tos that I listen to every week. Nice, steven, you got any others. It is what's the Bid, by the way, brought to you by Brush Pass Research and Fairlanes Kevin, who my First Million, actually just a caveat.
Speaker 3:Airlines kevin who. So my first million, actually just a caveat. They just had craig fuller from freight waves on yes uh this past week, which is very interesting. They talked mainly about his fire crown stuff, but they got into the weeds with his dad and being fired great episode for anyone in the industry. I haven't listened to it yet I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean he did some really cool stuff with the magazine business after freight waves and what he's doing with that um town, which is basically a country club with an airport in it which is apparently doing very, very well yeah, they sold like 20 28 million up front in like 30 days and just people that were, um, like reserving a lot, but uh, the other ones I listened to.
Speaker 3:The iced coffee hour is a good one for business, um is that?
Speaker 1:um, who's the kid that runs that one? That's graham stephan. He does graham stephan's good man. I call him kid. He's like probably our age. It's probably in his thirties, Right Um or is he?
Speaker 2:is he?
Speaker 1:younger. Like am I? Am I wrong by calling him kid, Cause he got started at?
Speaker 3:like 18 or 19. Okay, um, and then Alex Hormozy is another good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, big dude Wouldn't want to get in a fight with him.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, his book's really good too.
Speaker 3:He's got the marketing and sales stuff down $100 million offer.
Speaker 2:I just read his book a few months ago Really good, really good blueprint to launch any product, because he, alex, I think, does a very good job of describing how to launch a business or a successful business, and like first principles, like, very simply, like you need to be able to answer this question before you can get to this. If you aren't thinking about it this way, you need to ask yourself these questions. This is what common mistakes are made. This is why this is how you can avoid them, very, very step-by-step, in a way that I think is very applicable and useful in any business and any sales and anything you're trying to scale or grow. So lots of great stuff that he puts out too.
Speaker 1:All right. Next question I got my broker authority about a month ago and one common issue I keep running across is getting a response of quote we're not hiring new brokers or we don't supply the shipping right off the bat and don't even get a chance to offer my services. What tips would you recommend to change those responses to a yes. So this is the common objection of my freight is customer routed, we're not onboarding any new brokers right now, etc. And so I've literally had a new agent that came to our company and one of the biggest things is like hey, hey, we got to onboard our company instead of his old brokerage with his customer and like he's you know biggest issues like customers aren't onboarding new brokers. He's like, well, he's like they will for me because they know me.
Speaker 1:Like, so the the clear takeaway there is like there is always an exception to policy. Right, there is always like if there is a need to get something done, it can get done. What would you say, like your tactical tips on how to handle that conversation, when they say you know we don't, you know it's Crescent Rout, we're not onboarding anybody, what would be yours and I'll give you a? Well, I guess both of you can take a chance, and I'll give you a couple of my thoughts too.
Speaker 2:The first is I'm going to use a pattern interrupt, meaning. Why are they saying that they're expecting you to go away? Right, they're expecting you to either argue with them or to hang up and move on. Right, I'm going to do neither of the two things they expect. I'm going to go, oh yeah for sure. I wouldn't be expecting you guys to be on board to anybody right now. Hell, I'm in the market all day, Like I got to imagine.
Speaker 2:You guys got no issue, probably coming across capacity and getting trucks to pick up your loads, because that's going to make them one. It takes them, puts them off guard because they're not expecting it. And what happens is when you respond with something they don't expect, they almost always have to just answer honestly because they have nothing prepared. It's oh, almost always have to just answer honestly because they have nothing prepared. It's oh well, yeah, that, yeah, that's the case.
Speaker 2:And then I'm going to pivot to why I reached out. Like you, I always have that in my pocket, Like cause, if I'm calling them, there's a reason why they're on my prospecting list, right? Maybe they're in an area geographically, Maybe they are literally located next to a place I deliver to for another customer, Maybe a carrier of mine has said hey, I'd really like to pick up these shippers in this area. We're there a lot. Whatever, that reason is right.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm going to go to next. Hey, like I said, the reason I was reaching out is like a couple of my drivers are by your facility, honestly, like weekly, and I had told them you guys aren't likely to be looking for any new carriers or brokers. But at the very least I said I'd give you guys a ring, see how things were going and see if maybe somewhere down the road we might be able to work something out Again, taking the pressure out, letting them know that I'm calling for a purpose, not to just sell them on working with me for no reason, and I'm really just trying to get a conversation initiated and getting them talking to me. That's really my only objective at that stage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think too like and you made it this is exactly what I was going to point out and you kind of did is like to take the pressure off of the conversation and make it relax. You could, you can, reference the past or the future, and so it doesn't feel like right now. It's like, hey, how did you got? You know, I understand you guys aren't doing anything new right now. Obviously, the market shifts a lot. How did you guys handle it? You know, during the peak of the, the 2022, 2021 boom, where you know, was the onboarding different, what's that process look like? Or, vice versa, look to the future, like, oh, you know when, when, the, when the market gets tighter and you guys have a different need, what does that process look like?
Speaker 2:Well, pressure, it's a pressure release, right. And to the second one, I did the one if we're not hiring new brokers or adding carriers, right. If it's hey, we don't supply the shipping, my response is almost always the same that's fantastic. And I say nothing and I hold silence and I just wait for them to respond because they're not expecting that. And then, based on their tone of voice, right, I'd be like, yeah, that's great, like you guys don't have to worry about or coordinate or arrange or deal with any trucks showing up or not showing up for any of your outbound freight. And then I say nothing because usually they'll go. Yeah, most of it is handled by our customers. That's my click.
Speaker 3:Oh, most of it, huh.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you this how often do you guys ever have to arrange it? Is it like specific circumstances or is that? And then, once I'm done with that topic, I'm going to swing right over to inbound, because just because you don't supply the shipping to your customer, you got to ship the product out of your building. It had to get there somehow. I mean, maybe their vendors also include shipping and that does happen. But I would say the thing that almost never happens is that a hundred percent of inbound and a hundred percent of outbound is handled by their vendors and their customers. Like that is just the most unlikely thing that you'll ever come across. That if you ask enough questions, you'll find out that 10%, 20%, 30%. I've had people tell me they're FOB and only 25% of their loads are actually handled by their customers, which means they're still handling and arranging 75% of those loads, and that will tell you this is more of a blow-off than it's usually ever. The truth is the reality.
Speaker 1:Yep, Steven, how about you? You got anything to add there?
Speaker 3:Yeah actually I just did this yesterday. Yesterday I had a customer, I was calling on a prospect, and they gave me the same spiel just we don't, we're not bringing on any new brokers. And I told him I was like you know, I I understand that I'm not actually looking to bring on new customers. I'm just trying to field some of the information, fill the gaps that I already have in your company and see if you would fit for what I'm currently doing. So I know you have locations X, y and Z and, based on your products, you're probably hauling with reefers, maybe dry bands. Do you have anything that you can add that maybe I can put into our system? So then, when you are bringing on customers, we can talk about this at a later date.
Speaker 1:That's an interesting way to do it too, yeah. It's funny for me to hear a freight broker say I'm not looking to add new customers right now. But it's also a huge the tactic. There is a big pressure release it takes the stress level down You've got.
Speaker 3:I mean, these people are getting 20, 30 calls a day a week right now, and even more emails To hear somebody say we're not bringing on customers. It's a tactic, yes, but it'll make you stand out nobody else.
Speaker 1:Oh, it definitely make you stand out for sure.
Speaker 2:So well, yeah, and my, mine is. I say I mean the same, I just phrase it different. Like my like it's like can, now, it's just like a habit. I I'm like, yeah for sure, like I don't even know if we'd be a fit to work together, either Like I have no idea if it would even make sense, or we could even get you approved as a vendor to work with you. I just thought it was worth the conversation. Right, like, going for no, right, like hey, whether you like you're going to tell me no, well, I'm going to tell you. I don't even know if I want to work with you before you even tell me no again. Right, like, once you get to that point, the pressure is gone and you can both just have a conversation. I don't like you and you don't like me, so tell me a little bit about yourself, right, All?
Speaker 1:right. Next question how do you find reefer LTL carriers that can haul frozen commodities? I've gotten this question so many times and I've got two solutions, um, both of which re uh or involve a co-broker agreement. So number one I have found a regional brokerage that does reefer ltl um in the northeast and they I can't remember the name off the top of my head right now because I haven't used them in a while but, um, they basically built up a network of carriers reefer carriers that will put together similar temp shipments, so you can kind of have it like reefer LTL.
Speaker 1:So, they're all the experts in it. They have all the connections. You just co-broker with them. The other one co-broker as well, which I really like Expedite All. They're a brokerage based out of Chattanooga. I met these guys at TIA last year and they're really good. I think they've even been on Freight Caviar. They did an interview with the guys there. Max, who are they? Expedite All I think it's expediteallcom.
Speaker 1:They specialize in smaller equipment types, one of which being they can do refrigerated sprinter vans or box trucks, so it's LTL, but it's not consolidated onto a single Like you're going to have a dedicated van like a refrigerated sprinter van or something like that. But they got like 6,000 drivers in their network, all vetted. You get GPS on them at all times. We've used them for a few shipments. Just set up a co-broker at Driller this year. Again, I've met the guys there in person. They're great to work with. You can get real-time rates from them 24-7 through their quoting system or you can just run a quote digitally and it'll tell you what their guaranteed offer price is. That's awesome. So really, really cool Co-brokerage agreement. Check those guys out.
Speaker 2:I was having to quote some of these this week and last week, and I mean the traditional way to do it right is and it's so tedious and it's so time consuming. Steve and I you and I have talked about this Like you've had some ideas about building networks that we've talked through to make this easier, ideas about building networks that we've talked through to make this easier, and like where it gets really difficult and why it's so hard and why it's easier in dry van it's the temp right, like I had one last friday I think it was lemons or something, I don't know. The point was it was only like five pallets, like seven, eight thousand pounds, but we had to quote it dedicated because like there wasn't another shipment anyone could find on the load boards to match it up at that temp. There were plenty of other reefer loads that needed to go from, I think it was, new Jersey to Orlando, but none of them were at that right temp for that afternoon. So I was talking to every driver there.
Speaker 2:We were all looking at other brokered loads trying to match anything up, even along the way to build our own full truck load to get the rate down to work for everybody and like sometimes you just can't right, like you just gotta send a full reefer with like four or five pallets and then the shippers yell at you because they only want to pay 280 a pallet or 350 a pallet. And you're looking at, and we ran the full truck, it ended up being like 475 a pallet when you got to pay for the whole truck and that was a good rate too. And it's just like it's really hard until you've got a lot of carriers doing this for you a lot of the time and you can match up some of it internally but doing it externally, like you just post loads up and you just got to get quotes from carriers and hopefully some of them have other customers along the way to your delivery. Yeah, they put a bunch of partials together and create a full truckload.
Speaker 1:Last question so this was a comment on one of our shorts that talked about, like, what to do if a driver holds a load hostage and requests a higher rate. Yeah, we talked about what to do and the guy the guy, comments I know he says that's a lie when carrier accepts freight, he temporarily take custody via BOL till a receiver signs for it. If broker cannot pay you, if broker cannot pay you, impound the shipment and try to agree on rate. After 30 days you send a demand for payment. If broker don't pay, then sell it.
Speaker 1:Okay, first of all, bro, you need to learn how to type with proper english or grammar, whatever. Uh, but this is absolutely bs. This is not true. This is not true. This is not what you do. Please, carriers, do not do this.
Speaker 1:Um, you know you're, if you hold a load hostage and, um, you try to impound it, like you are breaking numerous laws and if, if you're going to, if you're crossing a state line, like even more laws are being broken here and if you're, if you're like demanding higher rate, like extortion, like more broken laws. So no, you, you, this is not what you do. He's not wrong. He's not wrong that they are temporarily taking custody of the freight. That is true, but they are not given an open ended time frame on when they have custody. They are contractually obligated to deliver at the desk, the destination, that this constantly on the BOL and the date and time or the window of time on that BOL, which is a legal document. So if you try to impound or sell I mean you try to sell the freight you don't own it. You just have physical possession of it, you don't own it. Yeah, I read it and it made my blood want to boil.
Speaker 1:Steven were you the one that found this and sent it over, and we're like check this idiot out, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I took a screen, it was wild that's what it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from 11 days ago.
Speaker 1:I found the original yeah 11 his comment makes the youtube algorithm help us out. So that's cool, right, for sure, it's engagement. But don't do that, do not cares, do not do that and brokers do not. Uh, do the best that you can to not create a hostile situation where a carrier is going to even think of considering stealing your customer's freight.
Speaker 2:What is the beginning of this? I can't obviously watch the short, the one minute short response.
Speaker 1:Someone asked a question and they said it was a short that was created from one of our Q&A sessions. Someone asked like hey driver is holding my load hostage because they want more money. What do you do? And what my answer was what we do is agree to the rate and then get delivered and then you'll deduct. You'll fine them for, like you know, extortion. Fine, say they want an extra $1,000. Fine, here's $1,000. Here's your Raycon. And then, boom, it gets slivered. All right, here's your new rate.
Speaker 1:Con, again deducting a thousand dollars for extortion fee. And if you want, you want to go ahead and file my bond. They're not going to pay you because you've served me. You're trying to agree to pay a thousand dollars because you try to hold my customers freight hostage if I didn't pay you. Like that's breaking on, that's breaking the law. So his response, his comment, was in response to my advice to basically like, don't make it hostile, just get the freight delivered and then deal with the backlash so, yeah, this happened to me when I worked at tql, and it's your canadian one you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I remember it was the same thing like and this was early on, like I was probably only a freight book like four or five months, and it's exactly what our legal team advises.
Speaker 2:They're like agree to whatever they're saying, document all of it it's all in a recorded call, write down everything that's happening and why and just agree to what they're asking to get the customer's freight to where it needs to be.
Speaker 2:Then you deal with it after the fact and, as long as you got it all documented to your point, if it goes to the bond company, it's a clear case of who was wrong and who wasn't Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a whole lot different, right, if a carrier is just asking for more money for no justified reason, as opposed to maybe the carrier was misled and feels like the broker didn't tell them the truth, and I think that's a different situation. Right, the broker didn't tell them the truth, and I think that's a different situation. Right, if the broker tells the carrier hey, it's a 35,000 pound load, and the driver gets there and they load his truck up to 43.5, right, and he agreed to a rate on a lighter load or, even worse, as a 20,000 pound load, and they load them out to max. That is on the broker and the carrier. If they document it would be able to file on the bond and my guess is the bond would agree with the carrier. Right? It's not just a one-way thing like these can go where the broker was wrong yes, right.
Speaker 1:And you think about anything like hey they, there was a lump ride to pay or hey, there was the tension. I want you to send me a new rate con that documents my new rate Totally. Yeah, we're not saying don't pay carriers what they're due, right, what they've earned. It's when they're saying like, hey, I'm going to hold this hostage unless you pay me an extra two grand. Yes, Like if it's nefarious, right.
Speaker 3:That's what we're referring to.
Speaker 2:to be clear, Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, steven, you ever deal with one of those fun ones.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had one a couple months ago. It was a guy wanted. I have the situation. We reached out to him because he wasn't on tracking and he wasn't answering phone calls, wasn't answering emails and finally I sent that email, said you're no longer hauling this. We found a new carrier. Whatever. Come to find out that the guy disregarded our instructions and had picked up the load already. He had it, went and parked somewhere and demanded I think it was an extra two grand. The kicker was which I thought was funny he wanted the money wired up front and I told him policy states we can only send you half, which was less than what he agreed to. So we sent him half up front. He went and got delivered, asked for the other half and, just like you said, I sent him the rate confirmation with the deducted amount that he asked for and we paid him the remainder 30 days later.
Speaker 1:But there you go, Anything ever come of it. Like did he try to go after your bond.
Speaker 3:I feel like when that happens, they usually realize like yeah, he picked him up for the bond and, uh, we sent out everything to the bond company and they've responded with this has all been denied.
Speaker 1:Love it. I've. I've dealt with bond companies a couple of times when they're and like it's so funny, Like cause they, that's literally like that's all they deal with is like people. You know their, their, their customer service is like I would imagine it's got to be like 95, just like bs cases of someone trying to file an unjustified claim on a bond.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah speaking to unjustified claims crazy one that keeps popping up all the time is hilarious. About a year and a half ago a manager had two or three loads that he had booked with a double broker and found it prior to payment. And found the real carrier paid them up front and denied payments to the double broker and immediately afterwards they filed on our bond to get payment. We submitted all the documentation. Serity bond denied it. Two weeks ago they filed on our bond to get payment. We submitted all the documentation. Certibon denied it. Two weeks ago they filed the same claim again with our certibon trying to get paid from a year and a half ago.
Speaker 1:A certibon responded and said you've already filed this, it's been denied dude, we, we had someone I think it was last week a double broker, who we knew was a double broker. We caught him as a double broker, literally hired a lawyer to send like a demand letter for us to pay them, and I'm like how dumb are they?
Speaker 3:What was the situation? It wasn't like FLQ or something was it Double broker? What's that? It wasn't FLQ or something like that. Was it Because we got the same letter?
Speaker 1:I don't remember the name of the carrier because it was from months ago and it, like the this demand letter showed up like last week. But basically, uh, we hired a carrier, they rebrokered to another carrier, we paid the correct carrier. We found it all out because the actually the first carrier that rebrokered it um, like didn't use tracking, couldn't give us an eld down, like couldn't do anything to prove location of anything, while this other carrier could. We pay the correct carrier, the double broker fraud carrier like tries to file a bond. That's not working. They tried to demand money via email from us. That doesn't work. So they had a lawyer, like an attorney's office, send us a demand letter for payment and we're like, are you kidding? Like your client is a fraudster that committed a crime like and like it's just, oh my god, wild. But anyway, yeah, they didn't, didn't get their money, so good question what else you got?
Speaker 2:I got something. This is a funny note to end on. So this this came back from we call it a prospect for one of the guys, one of our brokers, and at the top it talks about, you know, like the standards for all their loads and their RFQ, right, like you know, reefer lanes, what's in them, typical pallet count for shipment, right, all the normal stuff. And then this is the part I love At the end, after it says what we need from carriers and again it gives you, like all the normal stuff you'd see updated rates, the timeframe this is the best.
Speaker 2:Almost all of these solicitations claim to specialize in drayage, OTR, power only oversize, hazmat, ftl, ltl, dry van, reefer, flatbed, intermodal and service all provinces and all states. If you offer everything, you specialize in nothing. What I'd like to know is what makes you different, what sets you apart from the others? Low rates are nice, but what can you offer me in terms of response time, customer service, tracking, ethics and professionalism? Please let me know if you need anything else from me and please address these last two lines in your response. And we say this all the time.
Speaker 2:That's hilarious. We're a customer, this is what we think, people think and we talk about it right, and we've interviewed shippers that say this, but like that's literally in their response right to one of the brokers who's had a conversation or two and like it looks like they're gonna onboard us, but like you could tell, like he gets so many of these and he just typed that out and sent it to everybody and I was like as soon as I read that, I was like literally laughing because I was like we say this all the time, right, like if you specialize in everything, you specialize in nothing. Yeah, he even wrote it better than we said if you offer everything, you specialize in nothing. And I'm like I couldn't have said that better.
Speaker 1:yeah no, you're, that's that dude. That's hilarious. I love it. Well, good questions, keep sending them our way. You got the contact form on our website, you? You got YouTube comments. You've got info at free360.net. Yep, the direct email line, facebook group questions, you name it. So final thoughts.
Speaker 2:Whether you believe you can or believe you can't you're right, and until next time, go Bills.