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6 Things Freight Brokers Love and Hate

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By Mark Montague, Industry Rate Analyst, DAT Solutions

Every call you make about a load is a potential negotiation. Knowing what brokers love and hate goes a long way in determining how successful those negotiations will be. I’ve worked in transportation and logistics for more than 30 years as a broker, a dispatcher and a pricing analyst, and I’ve been on both sides of those phone calls more times than I can count. Here are some observations that may help you to be even more successful in your dealings with freight brokers: 

What Brokers Love

  • Drivers and dispatchers who inspire confidence– You’re a professional who can be trusted with the broker’s business reputation and their customers’ freight, so let them know that.
  • Good communication– Share your needs with the broker and learn theirs.
  • Be direct but respectful– You aren’t just negotiating for one load, but potential future business as well.


The Hot Market Map in DAT Load Boards offer a snapshot of freight demand across the country, with the darker colors showing where there’s higher demand for trucks.

What Brokers Hate

  • “Is that all you have in the rate?”– If you know your lanes, you won’t need to ask this. Rates are set, to a great degree, by market conditions. With DAT Load Boards, you can research the market rates for the lanes you’re searching. You also get Hot Market Maps like the one above, which shows you where demand for trucks is highest. If there are a lot of trucks available in that lane right now, the rate may not meet your expectations. But if you know the range of market rates in that lane, you might be able to negotiate for the high end of that range.
  • Long-winded explanations– Time is money for both you and the broker, so keep it brief. For brokers, they’re usually in a rush in the mornings to assign the entire day’s loads in a short period of time.
  • Indecisiveness– If your goals are clear, you’ll know immediately whether or not you can cover the load. Plus, being decisive inspires confidence. Worst case: just say “Thank, but no thanks,” and move on. You can do business with that broker another time.

In a future blog post, I’ll go over what to research before you call on a load.

Shorepower Technologies partners with DAT to offer a special on the TruckersEdge load board to its members. Sign up for TruckersEdge today and get your first 30 days free by signing up at www.truckersedge.net/promo731 or entering “promo731” during sign up.

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About TruckersEdge®, powered by DAT®

TruckersEdge® Load Board is part of the trusted DAT® Load Board Network. DAT offers more than 68 million live loads and trucks per year. Tens of thousands of loads per day are found first or exclusively on the DAT Network through TruckersEdge.

Note: This article was adapted from DAT’s blog post on www.DAT.com. It was first published in May 2015

1 comment

  1. Good communication is very important if you are a freight broker. You have to talk in a nice manner because that is the way you are expected to do. It’s one of the secrets on how to keep customer’s loyalty to you as well.

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