You want to become a freight broker or freight agent and move loads every day from your computer while being at home and begin to move forward to generate an income within $6 figures potential earnings a year. Or perhaps you just want to make enough money so that you can stay home and work from home and actually be able to pay the bills. Freight Brokering is a great business to be part of today and must be done the right way to succeed.
For this reason you have been involved with a proper freight broker training course, and now you are ready to take the next steps in building a solid career moving freight. If your looking for a complete and personal dispatch training, visit LFS Freight Broker Training Website Here .
Your starting point to getting there is to become the best freight dispatcher around and start building a working relationship with a few trucking companies to provide freight for. This will lead you to your next phases for later brokering loads as a freight broker agent yourself within the next few months. The ultimate goal is to become a freight broker and these next few steps are what takes you there.
Being a freight broker is only accomplished by you learning how to become a freight dispatcher and developing your skills and knowledge about the trucking industry and software for load movement.
Some key information that you must know with every load in order to book loads consistently as a freight broker or dispatcher are :
Direction of Lane and Rate.
Available Back-loads
Type of Freight Commodity and Equipment Needed
Weight
Drivers HOS time
Pick and Drop times
Shippers contact information
On-boarding
Any person wanting to be responsible of helping carriers get better freight today must be knowledgeable within logistics. Remember knowledge should be guiding you and helping you implement where to start your freight broker business. Understanding your duties and responsibility is making the right decisions now and get educated.
You are now ready to launch your first steps and where to start is the decision of making it or having a failed broker business. The biggest answer to how to start is answered in this article. You start at the bottom ! Book a load !
Below I will give you my advice on where I see new freight agents begin point and when to actually make contact with shippers and carriers to start their freight broker career. How to take the knowledge you just received and turn it into money that will sustain you as you grow your freight broker business.
I always tell anyone that a true freight broker is a person who builds trucking companies. This person is a true entrepreneur who understands the trucking industry, networking with other brokers and builds a solid social media marketing plan to connect with truck driver’s.
Here’s 4 critical starting points that anyone who wants to move freight with carriers should consider.
1st.
You will want to understand the services you have to offer to a carrier:
Knowing the right services to offer as a legal freight dispatcher and understanding how to sale your skills and services is where your business strategy needs to focus . Dont you want to know what it is you truly are wanting to become ? Its not just about being a freight broker; however working towards being a freight broker is the goal .. its about having skills and knowledge to utilize as a freight broker one day..
This starts with building your Freight Dispatch skills. After all, you are offering dispatch services, so Get training if you do not have a background in dispatching 18 wheeler trucks. Your goal is to start as a freight dispatcher for a few trucks that are all pulling the same type of freight. This will lead you into becoming an amazing freight broker with skills and the shippers will admire your skills and services to move their freight as a freight agent in the future.
2nd.
Establish a legal Dispatch Agreement in place with your carrier.
A Solid Dispatch Agreement with your carrier will allow you to do several things. You will have the legal right and honored by the FMCSA to represent this carrier for freight dispatching services.
To be a legal dispatcher working and providing freight dispatch services, you must have a signed freight agent contract with a Licensed Property Broker Firm who has an approved FMCSA Property Broker License. You can only then offer dispatch services legally under the FMCSA guidelines of moving freight and getting paid. Learn more about this rule Here
Being part of a Freight Broker Firm as a bona-fide freight agent allows you to offer a Freight Dispatch Service to carriers. You are operating legally and this will also allow you to build your trucking company clients and provide the necessary services for the trucking company as a freight dispatcher.
Getting Paid?
Positioning yourself the right way to get paid is critical with your dispatch business. If you are working with multiple trucking companies, you will need a system to get paid from. This is made available within your Dispatch Agreement for carriers that enables you working with their freight factoring company and being paid from their freight factoring companies, by each load invoiced by you. You will want to set up your services within multiple factoring companies so that you are easily paid daily. There is no need for you to bill carriers by credit card. In many cases this is considered unprofessional and asking your carrier for money weekly can be a bit annoying. When you are set up thru factoring companies, your focus is the load movement and better rates. Billing is done automatically and both parties are satisfied.
3rd.
Make the call to brokers and build your information on loads.
It's time to pick up the phone and spend two weeks calling brokers and getting load information. This is the beginning of your income. You are searching the top 30 best 3pl companies within the industry and searching for a broker who is managing freight within certain regions and is looking for several trucks to work with. This is the time in your business that you are searching for information that's going to sustain you and allow you to offer loads to carriers. You want to begin to look for information that's going to ultimately lead you into building relationships with carriers and you will have loads to offer!
Many new freight agents who start off and fail do so because they do not take the time or never have started contacting freight brokers for load information. You will want to build a relationship with more than 20 to 50 different brokers at any given time. This will allow you to have enough information that your carrier will be able to actually find loads from and benefit while you are growing your freight knowledge and freight information. Working with the right freight broker only comes by your efforts of picking up the phone and contacting them. You will want to take at least two weeks of daily doing this.
Do not get frustrated and rush by not meeting your information gathering goals and move forward to soon. You wont pick up the skills needed.
The goal is to create an income that will sustain you quickly and begin to financially support your starting point. This is where you begin to feel the income and grow more profitable as you move forward.
You will contact the right broker sooner than you thought, that will have dedicated loads coming out of specific regions that fit exactly what your trucking company need. You will also be able to find information on loads that will bring your carrier back and closer to home.
This exact point in your moving forward point is critical to your success and you should take the next couple weeks and to begin to contact at least 10 different load brokers a day.
I tell new agents all the time, that in order to be a true freight broker you must have developed the ability to dispatch trucks and make this your first focus on becoming a freight broker agent. A true freight broker agent will always offer dispatch services for owner operators. This is a part of your business services as a freight broker and that is to professionally dispatch a few trucks.
If you cannot accomplish this in your first 6 months within your logistics career, then perhaps the freight broker industry is not a good fit for you. The knowledge skills that you learn from contacting brokers and information on rates and freight lanes that you learn is priceless information gathered from hard work and determination.
Keep Moving Forward!
Contacting Freight Broker Agents who work with the larger freight broker firms is where new freight agents should begin. To gain the right knowledge is critical. If you have not entered into a freight broker training course, then this is the time to consider it. You must learn some basic knowledge to keep you moving forward. There are many good freight broker training courses. I suggest two : LFS Freight Broker Training Course , and if you want to take your time and learn on your own I suggest LFS Freight Broker Audios .
4th.
Utilize Social Media and Online Marketing to Brand Your Dispatch Services.
Working as a dedicated dispatcher should generate you about $50-$60 thousand dollars a year income. This comes by spending a few months of slowly and precisely building your freight dispatching brand and offering your services to gain more carriers and start networking. You must not forget to let others know about your services and online marketing can reach trucking companies all over America.
Building a strong social media that is geared toward your freight services and skills that you offer for carriers is a must. This is done by SEO methods and understanding social media marketing. You can find many programs online that teach you how to utilize social media for branding your business.
For anyone wanting to become a freight broker and was thinking of where to start, following these 4 points listed above will help you move forward with more consistency.
More Freight Broker Resources Here