Truck brokering has great potential for making a good living. After getting thorough training (and some experience), to start a new truck brokering business is a challenge. Like starting all new businesses, the key to starting well is by getting organized. Three major categories need immediate and constant attention in a new company.
Freight Brokerage Clients – Shippers and Drivers
Getting clients when starting a brokerage company is a huge challenge. People do business with suppliers they know, like, and trust. One of the keys to building trust is communication. Not only when things are going well – it’s far more important to be in contact when things are not going right. Delays due to weather, detours, illness – whatever the problem – need to be communicated quickly and honestly.
That goes for drivers as well. Far too often, we hear about truck drivers who make multiple calls to brokers about problems with deliveries or pickups – and the broker doesn’t respond for hours – or days.
As a broker, the job isn’t just matching a driver to a load. It’s about keeping the lines of communication open and honest between all the parties.
Keeping these relationships organized isn’t about saving phone numbers in a smartphone or a customer management program. It’s about managing the contacts for future work. It may seem like a small matter to forget to return a call. That’s the start of breaking a relationship.
Truckers talk to each other. A broker’s reputation can be made or broken over a cup of coffee at a truck stop.
How to stay organized? When you start a new trucking brokering business, use a good brokerage software that tracks both shippers and drivers.
Load Management
Post-It notes won’t do it. Loads may only last for a few hours on a load board, and take days for delivery, and net-30 when the payments are made. But a sticky note management system is a mistake. Depending on temporary adhesive is dangerous.
Tracking the location and status of a load requires little attention. Tracking many loads? Too many things can fall through the cracks.
Some new brokers plan to use a spreadsheet to organize their business. That sounds like it would work, except spreadsheets aren’t as flexible as a database. But a free relational database program will require time to program and more time to keep updated. One mistake in one location in a spreadsheet can be missed for weeks.
A good brokerage software will track a load from the shipper’s first contact to final payment. That’s organization for a successful broker. Depending on small pieces of paper that can shift or fall behind a desk is a date with disaster.
Business Accounting
No one wants to work for free. Billing shipping clients and paying drivers is only part of the accounting when you start your new truck brokering business. The commission you’re paid has to cover
- office rent
- insurance and bonds
- equipment and services to run the company – computers, internet, software
And those are just the business expenses. Everyone works to make money to cover their living expenses. If a brokerage isn’t making enough money to pay for food, clothing, and shelter, is it worth the work?
Startups often depend on cutting corners and supportive family members to cover the costs. Cutting corners by using free software or working out of the basement may look like good decisions at the start. But those might not be the best choices.
The basement might be a good choice, but free software rarely is. Even if it’s Google Sheets, finding help when formulas go awry is tough, if not impossible. And under pressure, those malfunctions can start a cascade of problems. You want to be a broker, not a programmer.
Some brokers use one brokerage software and an accounting package for business accounting , like QuickBooks. That’s certainly an option, but it’s paying for two software programs. A program that handles both brokerage and business accounting is a better bargain.
That’s why we offer a brokerage software package that handles all shippers and truck drivers, the load management, and the business accounting that you need to organize your new truck brokering business.
TruckingOffice Brokerage Software
When you start your new truck brokering business, an advanced freight brokerage program might be more than you need and more than you want to pay. TruckingOffice Brokerage Software can be an investment to start a freight brokerage business without breaking the bank. The low monthly fee gives a new broker the tools they need to be organized from the very start.
Try it for free! TruckingOffice Brokerage Software offers a free 30-day trial to discover what the organization will do for a new truck brokering business! By producing professional rate cons, managing communication between shippers and truckers, and handling the complicated finances of a brokerage business, TruckingOffice will organize your business efficiently and easily.
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