How to Build Strong Carrier Relationships 🔥💰 [Free Cheat Sheet]

Welcome to the Freight Broker Bootcamp audio experience, and I'm your host, Dennis Brown. In today's freight broker training, I'm going to share with you eight, yes, eight ways to develop stronger carrier relationships. So that's we're going to go over in today's freight broker training. Thank you for being here. Listen, here's the key, guys. You have to understand something up front. As a freight broker, as a freight agent, you really have two different customers, okay? You have the shipper who gives you loads and pays you for those shipments. That's your customer, your client. Okay? But on the other side of the coin, you have carriers, motor carriers, owner operators, small trucking companies, large fleets. And those are the companies that actually move the freight for you. Right? So. So there are two sides to the same coin. What you have to understand is that you have to learn that you have to treat your carriers as good as you would treat your best customers. So when you learn how to develop strong relationships with your carriers, it is going to boost your business, it's going to make you more profitable, it's going to make your job less stressful and a lot more fun. Okay? So I'm going to dive into eight ways that you can develop strong carrier relationships. Number one, and this goes without saying, and just so you guys know, some of these are kind, common sense, but if you stick around to the end, number eight on this list is a game changer. Matter of fact, number seven and number eight are game changers. If you stick around to this list and if you stick around to the end, I'm going to give you a link where you can download a free cheat sheet with all the details so you don't have to feverishly take notes. Okay? So number one is pay your carriers on time should go without saying, right? Don't delay payment. Pay them as quick as you can handle it financially. Typically, carrier credit terms are 30 days. That's kind of standard. If you can pay them in three weeks, pay them in three weeks. If you can pay them in two weeks, pay them in two weeks. But make sure that you pay them on time. Here's the thing you have to understand about the trucking industry. Last stat that I read, 90 plus percent of trucking companies own less than 10 trucks. That's crazy. So they're small businesses. These are not JB Hunt, and these aren't Warner, and these aren't these big carriers, right, that have hundreds or thousands of trucks. These are small businesses that cash flow is critical, even more so than many other businesses, because they have tolls and they have fuel and they have drivers and they have insurance and they have all these, this fixed overhead. So make sure, number one, you pay your carriers on time. Okay? Number two, pay detention without making your carriers beg and plead. Okay? If detention is due on the pickup or the delivery or a combination of the two, if there is a delay, unreasonable delay above and beyond what you've agreed to upfront, whether that be one hour or two hours or whatever it is, pay them a detention rate. That means your shipper should pay that detention, right? Your shipper should actually finance and pay that detention. But if not, and the carrier does everything they're told, then you as the broker should pay the detention regardless of whether you get paid by the shipper. Number three, make booking loads fast and easy. Now, I know that again, we have to do the due diligence on new carriers, and I understand that you need to slow things down in that process to avoid any fraud, to avoid any issues, right? So I get that. I totally get that. After the initial load, your job should be to make it easy and fast for carriers to be able to do business with you. For example, don't delay in sending them a rate confirmation. Don't delay in sending over your setup packet. Don't delay in communicating details that are critical to the shipment. Okay? So make it easy and fast for carriers to do business with you, and they will want to do more business with you than other brokers that don't. Okay? So that's number three. Number four on the list. Listen to carrier feedback. There are going to be times when dispatchers and drivers give you feedback. Now, sometimes that may not be the most constructive feedback. We've all heard that. But when they're taking time out of their day, their busy day, to give you some honest feedback, you should be listening. You have to listen. You have to be willing and open enough to realize that you're not perfect and that you can improve your business. And then you can improve that relationship by actually listening and, and then taking that feedback and trying to use it constructively to improve your business. All right, so that's number four. Number five, clearly communicate the load details. Okay, perfect example. Or if it's a Hazmat van load and you posted is just a van load, well, then that's an issue. Right? Because they have to have Hazmat. If you need tarps, because it's a flatbed load, you need to make sure that they understand that the driver has to have tarps on his truck, otherwise he could show up without tarps. The devil's in the details, right? From an operational perspective, whenever you're tendering a load, whenever you're negotiating with a carrier, whenever you're communicating or sourcing a truck, you have to understand the devil's in the details. When does it pick up? When does it deliver the specific details? Does it need a lift gate? Does it need pads and straps? Whatever it needs, right? You need to make sure that you are very clear with the details of every load before the deal is done, before the rate confirmation is signed, before the driver is dispatched into the pickup location. Okay, number six, this one drives me crazy because it is so, so simple. You have to learn two very important words. Can you guess what they are? They're very simple. Thank you. Learn how to say thank you. Saying thank you as a broker or an agent by itself will differentiate you from most brokers and agents. Why? Because they don't take the time to do it. They take it for granted. Whether it's a brand new carrier or a carrier they've been doing business with, make sure that you take time to say thank you. Trucking is a thankless job. I promise you, if you're new to this industry, you're going to learn very quickly, especially from the driver's side. It's a thankless job. Most people don't realize the value, the importance and how critical truck drivers truly are to our economy and to our lifestyle. Okay, so say thank you. It doesn't hurt. It never hurts. Right, Number seven. And I want you to hold tight for number eight because number eight, again, is a game changer. Number seven is also a very important one that I don't see people doing. And that is show your appreciation. Now, I just said in number six to say thank you, Dennis, what else do you want me to do? And number seven, what do you mean, show your appreciation? Well, it's really simple. If a carrier goes above and beyond and bails you out of a situation or does something out of the norm to make sure that you look good to your shipper, to your customer, by making sure that the product picked up and delivered on time with no damage, no issues, and they go out of their way, you need to go above and beyond for them. And what I mean by that is, for example, first you're going to say thank you, because that's glaringly obvious. But above and beyond that, things that I've done with carriers is I've bought their office pizza, I've gotten drivers Tim Hortons or Starbuck gift cards. You know, I'VE done things, little things, just to show my appreciation. I've went above and beyond. It's not the amount, it's the thought that counts. And the reason why is because most brokers don't do it. They take it for granted. So if you learn how to show appreciation, when somebody goes above and beyond, trust me, they're always going to remember you. They're always going to want to do business with you. And you'll be first on the list to call. Okay? And number eight. All right, drumroll, please. Listen. You got to listen very, very carefully. This is something that I have beat on for a very long time. It's called relationships over transactions. All right? So I normally talk about that on the shipper side, but I also want to talk about it on the carrier side, on the trucking side. And the reason being is because as a broker, you should never focus on getting all of your loads covered from the load board. Now, we all have to start somewhere. We have to post our loads, we have to call trucks that are posted on the load boards. And we got to develop that initial relationship. I get it. That's where you're going to start. Most brokers and agents are going to start there. I get it. But after you move that first load, your job as a broker or an agent is to develop a strong carrier relationship. And one of the best ways to do that is to actually learn and inquire and ask questions about the carrier. What are their needs, what are their wants, what are their desires, what are their challenges as a business, and see if there's any way you can help them. Right? So now all of a sudden, you're developing something where there's more value, just the transactions off from a load board, from broker to carrier, right? So you need to learn that the relationships you have with carriers, again, are as critically important as the relationships you have with shippers. Because without one, one hand washes the other. If you don't have carriers, you're not in business. Just the facts. You could have all the freight in the world. But if you have no strong carrier relationships, and you're always going to load board to try to find a carrier, number one, your service is going to struggle. Number two, your profit's going to struggle. Number three, you know your growth is going to struggle. Number four, you're going to have a very stressful life. And I strongly suggest again that you use these eight tips to develop strong carrier relationships. Now I'm going to share with you the link where you can download the cheat sheet here it is really simple. Just go to freightbrokerbootcamp.com carrier tips. If you go to that page, it's going to redirect you where you can download a cheat sheet. This is the actual cheat sheet that you'll get so that you can save a whole lot of time. You can review these at your convenience. Listen, I truly appreciate you guys being here. If you're curious about becoming a freight broker or a freight agent and you're just getting started and you need some help and you're looking for a system A to z, check out Freightbroker Bootcamp.com we've trained over 10,000 students. Again, we've been in business Freightbroker Bootcamp since 2009. I've personally done over $200 million as a freight broker and we offer a 60 day, 100% unconditional money back guarantee. So you can check that out@freightbrokerbootcamp.com hey, thanks for tuning in today. I'm humbled that you allowed me to be a part of your day. Now subscribe to the podcast so we can do this more often. And for those you that take the next 15 to 30 seconds to rate and review the podcast, thank you so much. I greatly appreciate it. And who knows, maybe we'll give you a shout out on a future episode.