Growing Your Book of Business & Hostage Loads | Final Mile 105

Speaker 1: 0:19

Welcome back for another edition of the final mile. It's a Q&A session where every question we answer comes from you guys. So these these came from YouTube comments and our I believe our Facebook page to this week, so we'll get right into it. But first please check out the sponsors down below to help support the channel and check out all of our other content, including the freight broker basics course for a full-length educational option. Ben, why don't you I feel like I always read the questions why don't you take it away with the first one here? First Q&A what?

Speaker 2: 0:51

they want your voice. I'm a freight agent for Landstar and need a professional opinion. I've worked with a customer for several years who regularly emails me for quotes on lanes they're bidding on. However, they never actually use me to move those loads. This has been happening for over a year. What should I say to them? I'm getting tired of just quoting without getting any freight. What?

Speaker 1: 1:14

do you think, nate? I mean you can apply this to a number of different scenarios in sales and in freight brokering? This could be the trucking side too, if you're talking with a broker or directly with a shipper. So I'll try to answer it in a way that's as applicable as possible to everybody. But there's a spectrum here.

Speaker 1: 1:37

So I'm usually just all about being a straight shooter and I'd probably be like hey, I've been quoting these for you for a year now. We haven't been awarded anything. Um, can you give me any idea as to why that is? Are we coming in? Um, are the rates not good? Is there something about our rating? Um, I usually just would try to keep it an open question, like, just ask for general feedback. I do the same thing with a bid, like, if a bid comes back and nothing's awarded, I usually want to get on the phone and be like hey, can you just let me know, like, what happened there? What's some general feedback so we can do a better job to service you in the future, and then just see what they're going to say Another side to it too and then we'll take your opinion on it. Another side is like you get some of these shippers that they literally like send it out to 200 people, right 200.

Speaker 1: 2:26

And it might be. You know we're telling you the price and the first one that can get a truck there wins, and it's just like those folks just aren't worth your time. So it could be. It could just be that like, move on to the next one is another option to it just depends on the situation. But what's your take on it?

Speaker 2: 2:45

Yeah, mine is the advice. The same guy I was talking about in the episode told me this when I was learning the industry and he, when this was happening to somebody, he'd go well, listen, like, do you just want to be a free piece of market insight or like just a free rating tool? Because that's what that shipper's using you for? It's just you're just giving them your opinion on what it should cost every day and then they pick the cheapest one, like that's not earning you money and you're just going to work for free. He's like you know you want to be able to nip that in the bud as fast as possible. So, like the habit I would always get in is like if you're sending me lanes to quote, I'm going to try to call you like honestly, sometimes before I quote, it is preferable you send me a bunch of lanes, I'm going to give you a buzz, but like, hey man, are any of these lanes you want me to focus on that are higher priority, that need to go out sooner today than later? Any of these like must moves, which ones do you really need me to focus on? Why I ask that first is that gives me some ideas to which ones I can quote service versus just the cheapest truck. And if they go, hey, these are three hot loads. The other five can go today, tomorrow or Friday. I'm going to focus on the three that got to go out today because those are the ones that got to move. The other three I might throw a number on, but, like I know, they care more about price than service for those. So it's first trying to understand any feedback. Then the second question I was asked is like well, hey, out of these three that you're saying you got to get out today, do you got a target rate in mind and do you have a time of day you ideally would like this picked up on? So sometimes I go look, hey, man, we don't give feedback, we don't give target rates, but these got to pick up by 11 in the morning. Well then I got at least some idea on where I need to price this if that load has to pick up at 11. Now here's the thing that happens once it goes is, let's say, I price a little higher in the market because they're telling me it needs a load by 10 in the morning, but I don't get that load today.

Speaker 2: 4:32

One of two things happens. Somebody might have been able to get a truck that happened to be empty at below market, and that's possible, but that's not possible every time. So maybe they got it picked up by 11, but it's also more likely that the cheaper guy told them he'd get a truck in by 11 and got it there at one or two in the afternoon. Now the customer's a little upset. So next week when I do the exact same thing again and I go, hey, you know, the one you said had to get picked up by 11, I thought I put a pretty good rate on it. I think I might even had a truck that was empty that could have made it by 10. Did you get that load picked up when you expected to?

Speaker 2: 5:05

Now I'm not asking what is their service percentage or how are their other brokers doing. I'm asking a very specific question about the one load that I thought I should have got. And if they tell me, right, like, no, like I ended up getting that moved by like the end of the day, well, I know that's a service failure from what they expected, right, so I'm going to. I am now setting the stage to get them to understand service versus price and next week I can go like hey, do you really need this by 11? Or is that kind of like a hope, Because, like I'll quote it a little cheaper but the guy might be a little delayed at his last receiver to get you that rate. He might end up either two or three. Do you want the guy at two grand or do you want the guy for 2200? That is already empty? That can be there right now.

Speaker 2: 5:54

Now I'm giving them a choice to pick between rate and service. There's always a little bit of both, but I'm giving them two options. Now I'm not just sending rates with no feedback. I always feel like now it's more like I'm playing poker with somebody face-to-face. I'm giving them feedback. They saw what I was able to do, and then the next time I'm able to give them some more options. Then, as you do this week over week or day over day, you can really start to gauge, like, is this somebody that is ever going to work with me? Or is this somebody that says they want service but like they're always just going to pick the cheapest one anyway and if I'm not the cheapest I don't win it? Now I can make an easier decision. Do I want to keep wasting my time quoting or do I want to go spend more time prospecting to get a customer that is willing to pay for what they actually say they need?

Speaker 1: 6:31

Yeah, I'll add in there too. One of the one of the things that I've seen in the past is like we had a broker on our team that, just like the, they hired a new traffic manager and we were still onboarded and got their emails manager. And we were still onboarded and got their emails and, um, you know, he had a couple calls with the new traffic manager and like, no matter what he quoted, like even if it was a good rate, like they just would never use them eventually it was like we just found out like you just didn't like the guy, like he just didn't like our broker for whatever personality reason, and it was like that just kind of happens sometimes too. So, yep, it's a people business, yep, but no, that's a really good breakdown. Next question I'm a freight broker agent with one and a half years of experience and I have built a strong relationship with one customer. Now I'd like to diversify and bring on new shippers. What are some effective strategies for expanding my customer base and growing my business? Effective strategies for expanding my customer base and growing my business? I'm glad to know that this person is thinking diversifying, because you oftentimes get someone who's got one customer and when they lose that one customer, they lose everything.

Speaker 1: 7:38

I just gave you that situation about one of my brokers in the past who the person didn't like them. I had another broker that had one big customer and we're talking like it was a very solid customer. There'd be months where he he would do 50 or 60 K and and profit for them. Um, his, his like guy over there got promoted and they hired some kid to come in and the kid just didn't like him. It's same thing but with a different broker, a different customer, different you know situation. He went from like broker a different customer, different you know situation. He went from like he went from riches to regs overnight like and I felt bad because the dude had just bought a new house and he bought a big truck and all that. All the things that people do, you know stupid things with their money when they think they're they're killing it. But you had one customer, all his eggs were in one basket. So all I have to say I'm glad that this, this listener is thinking long term.

Speaker 1: 8:25

So a couple of things to point out. Basics for growing your business is the the easiest low hanging fruit when you've already got a customer is going to likely be some sort of referral business, whether that is. Look at where you're delivering to look at some of the suppliers that are delivering into your customer. Have a conversation with your customer, maybe find out. Are there any other companies or people that they know that may be a good fit. So maybe you're the guy or girl you're working with runs a branch of a large company. Do they have anyone else at a different branch that they might say hey, you know Ben's been doing great for us. I would love for you to give him a shot at some of the lanes you guys are running because he's been killing it for us. Those are some of your best warm leads to have, because it's not a cold opening.

Speaker 1: 9:13

We have to start from zero when it comes to the level of trust. There's already a pre-established level of trust and it's a mutual customer in a lot of cases. That's my take. You could also just continue to go down the road of how you got your first customer right. Continue to prospect, which you should be always doing anyway. So if your customer that you're servicing is in a certain niche market and you've gotten to really understand that, lean into that right. Are there other opportunities, other areas of the country or maybe in that same area just other organizations or shippers, where you can leverage what you've learned in that carrier network and just start to grow it Like now you can actually call and say, hey, I've got a truck in your area every Tuesday and Thursday or whatever. You're not just making it up, so look at where you're delivering. You know backhaul things like that, referrals and just traditional old school prospecting. But what would be your advice here to diversify?

Speaker 2: 10:11

Pretty much everything you said. I mean the one strategy is like I'm for sure going to create a list of every other company that does the same type of business in that niche and I'm going to name drop my existing company when I call them. Like hey, you know, I've been doing a lot of work with Acme Tomatoes and I know you guys move a lot of tomatoes. I've got a lot of good, reliable carriers that have been working with me with them. I know they're in your area pretty often. What I know if it might be a fit at some point for us to like look at working together, right, I would call every other company in the same niche that I'm already doing well in Because you've got, like you said, experience. You understand the issues that are likely to come up. You'll understand the problems they're likely facing because you're solving them currently. Like, that is one of them.

Speaker 2: 10:55

The second is the other you pointed out I am prospecting every place I deliver to or pick up that isn't my customer name dropping my customer and seeing if I can go and leverage those like referrals, basically that I'm creating just by calling my customer's customer or vendor.

Speaker 2: 11:10

Right, and I mean the other one, you could just pick random companies or the places your trucks are already delivering to, because you literally have trucks delivering there. You know when they're there. I'm like, hey, I got guys that are in your area Tuesday and Thursday every week delivering for this company. Thought maybe it could be a fit If you guys are looking for, you know, trucks that are already in your area and empty. They get empty like seven in the morning every day. They could be over there by 10 to you know load if you guys got anything out of there and Genlogs is a great tool for that Like, if you have access to Genlogs or reach out to them, because, like, you can just put that lane in there and get a list of all the shippers that are shipping out of the place that you're delivering to already, that are shipping out of the place that you're delivering to already?

Speaker 1: 11:49

Yep, a hundred percent, absolutely Final question here who do you report a hostage load to, where a carrier is refusing to deliver the load and won't disclose his exact location?

Speaker 2: 12:01

Short answer no one.

Speaker 1: 12:02

Sadly a common question lately and we did talk a little bit about this. I think actually the question was probably related to our, our episode that we did last week or two weeks ago. Um, so I would recommend to. We did a, an episode, I think, a year ago with cargo net right. Does that sound right, where we? Um, anyway, we talked a bit about how, how, like the process of like, what you're supposed to do when, when a load is is taken hostage. I'll tell you what. What I've done in in real application in like this year right is local law enforcement. You have to get a police report for the sake of like. If there's going to be a claim at any point in time like, you need to have it documented and that's a. That's a solid first or early on step to do so.

Speaker 2: 12:55

Ok, further, local law enforcement. For anyone out there, does that mean local to where the broker is, or where you think the truck is, or where the truck?

Speaker 1: 13:02

is is how I've always done it, because it's like if if somebody picked up and so, for example, I don't know if I remember I told you about a load, like a impersonated broker used our company's name and had like a load of apparel, basically like stolen and taken to a warehouse in California, I called the district attorney's office of LA County or whatever county LA is in, like that's who I contacted about that and I'm like you know it's worth $400,000. They didn't care, it wasn't big enough for them. Like that that area is dealing with multimillion dollar freight theft with like the the rail yards and stuff like that. So and that's the reality, that's some of the stuff you're going to run into is like it's just not a big enough deal for some of these law enforcement agencies. Like if you're like, yeah, they stole a load of ping pong balls, it's like, no, we don't care if If you stole a load of like high end electronics you might get on someone's radar. So local law enforcement and I mean you said you know, is it where it's located or where you are? I would recommend where it's located, but it never hurts to like over report.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Like I remember years ago there was a case of fraud that we dealt with, and it wasn't. It wasn't um, it wasn't stolen cargo. It's basically like someone was like fraudulently trying to like move, like move fake loads and like scam the company I used to work for, and we we contacted like the fbi's office in buffalo, um, and the crime wasn't happening here, but that office like happily took it on. I think it just depends on because, I mean, fbi is a national-level organization. They saw what was going on and they were like I'm sure that field rep was probably like this is a pretty easy one to handle, I'm going to take credit for it and look good, I don't want it to go to somebody else in some other area. So there's that.

Speaker 1: 14:50

There's also a variety of places you can report it online. So, like the FMCSA does have a place to report cargo theft, double brokering, identity theft, all that stuff Right, whether or not they monitor it. Like we talked about the stats, though, there was like 80,000 reports and nothing was done with it. You've got reviews on DAT, you've got watchdog reports, you've got freight guards, you've got highway Google. I mean you could just go on, blast about you know, at any reporting place. I think what's more important, though, is like if a load is being held hostage, that's different than a stolen load, like they might just be saying, like hey, I'm holding it hostage until you agree to give me, you know, a thousand dollars more or whatever. And if that's the case, I'm just going to agree to it and do it under duress and not pay the full amount, like that's just what we're going to do.

Speaker 2: 15:47

And explain what that means. Right, because, like I've had that happen right and at a large company and when somebody is just holding it hostage and asking for like a crazy amount like mine was, like it was like a thirty five hundred dollar load, then they wanted seven grand and they wanted twelve. Well, listen, you're going to agree to it because your first objective is to get the cargo to the receiver Right and to make sure it doesn't disappear, get damaged or actually stolen. So, like, the objective, first principle is get it to where you need it, to where you need it to. And they said in doing so, if you are agreeing to somebody, like you said, literally holding it, to ask you for a ransom to get it delivered, get that in writing and get it on a recorded call, preferably both. Right, you need that in writing because if you send the carrier a rate con for, theoretically, 12 grand on a $3,000 load, you need in writing that they're basically saying I won't deliver this unless you give me 12 grand. So when they go to invoice you and you go to pay them the three grand and they try to file on your bond, you have in writing to show what happened and why it happened which prevents you from having to pay the 12 grand instead of the three. Right Even before that right, like I think first step is, like you said, notify law enforcement so you have a document in case something does go wrong.

Speaker 2: 17:17

But you really want to try to deescalate it, avoid conflict, get them to talk to you about why it's happening in the first place and really try to just find a solution that makes everybody happy. Like that, honestly, is probably like the best way to go about it. Like hey, if they're arguing over something like I don't know, I guess it wouldn't even beat attention. But like they just think you misled them. You said the load was 35,000 pounds, it was actually 45 and they want an extra 500 bucks and they're saying I'm not going to deliver the load unless you pay me what this would actually cost to run.

Speaker 2: 17:51

Like try to understand where they're coming from and work towards a reasonable solution.

Speaker 2: 17:56

Maybe it's not 500, maybe it's 350. And you're probably in the wrong if they're in the right and you've got to be willing to admit that in some of these scenarios, if you made a mistake that caused this to happen. Like work towards a reasonable solution so that you don't have to escalate it and do because, by the way, it is a lot of extra work to do all these things. If you could just get it delivered for the extra few hundred bucks, that is way better than spending hours and dealing with a bond and then sending a rate con that you won't pay and then writing reviews everywhere and like that just creates so much more work for everybody.

Speaker 2: 18:27

If you're at fault, I feel like the first step is work towards a reasonable, fair solution and your first objective is to get the load delivered, because if it's gone you're never recovering it. And now you've got to work through a claim your customer's not going to want to pay their other bills. You're going to have hours of work and risk related to the situation to sometimes save 300 bucks or whatever the number is.

Speaker 1: 18:47

Yeah, this is another reason why it's so important to track, when you can right Whether it's uh, end to end tracking through a cell phone, through a telematics device in the cab, like an ELD, um, your one time, um, you know, take a picture like a like a quick scope, or even like the text locate Um. Gen logs is another thing that came to my mind too. So, like, if you remember, we had Ryan on. I don't know if it was last year or maybe six months ago, but they released the free find lost assets tool on their website, where they have a form you can fill out and it's just like here's what's missing and they'll like they do it to combat fraud, right, no-transcript. It's definitely important to make sure that you're thoroughly vetting your carriers and having clear conversation with them about what the pay is going to be to try and prevent this stuff from happening. Good questions, keep them coming our way and we'll keep answering them, ben. Any final thoughts?

Speaker 2: 20:14

Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right.

Speaker 1: 20:17

And until next time.