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Do legacy brokers still have the juice?

Photo credit: Jim Allen/FreightWaves at Edge Logistics

This week, Kevin and Andrew sit down with Ryan Schreiber from CarrierDirect to discuss the future of technology in freight brokerage and how it will impact compensation for brokers.

They also dive into earnings season, and whether or not Amazon will spin off AWS in 2020.

3 Comments

  1. Noble1= Shamash (Shemesh/Utu) the Babylonian God of the Sun(god of justice, morality, and truth-(enforcer of divine justice )

    Legacy brokers will become extinct . Carriers as we know them today will become extinct except for a few due to autonomous trucks . All this technology will make people realize that the “middleman” is no longer needed in this industry and this will soon include drivers . Extinction won’t happen over night . However, it’s heading in that direction . First some will come up with a different way of doing things and improve efficiency in the process . This we are currently witnessing .

    Eventually , due to this technology most drivers will realize that they don’t need the middleman either . They can be the whole process in transport . They already cover most of it . The driver is the one that interacts with clients and dock labourers etc . Drivers haul the load(s) . Drivers are the “skilled” haulers . Drivers at are the heart of the industry .

    Take an ambitious genuine O/O as an example . The O/O owns the truck and some even own the trailer . The O/O goes directly to clients(shippers) and offers to transport their goods . The O/O needs to be efficient otherwise the O/O won’t last . The O/O runs the service well . Keeps costs at a minimum and earns a good profit . The O/O decides to expand and buys another truck or plural .

    Now the O/O is starting to grow into a carrier . More trucks and trailers , more drivers , more runs . If the O/O manages and coordinates the runs and time well along with costs , the O/O aka “carrier” remains profitable . The O/O by all means must assure that the operation remains highly efficient due to its nature of being a high cost low margin business . The O/O needs to be on the ball due to fierce competition too . The O/O must be one step ahead of completion . Always looking for ways to be extremely efficient .

    The wise O/O then realizes time can be saved by including technology in the business . Now rather than call a driver to know where that driver is and if all is well , the O/O looks at a computer screen that indicates where the truck is through a tracking device . Technology can also indicate the rpm’s of the vehicle etc . Within a moment the O/O knows where that truck is and how its running .

    That O/O who became a carrier is dependant upon drivers . Why drive and or work for the O/O aka carrier when you can bypass that carrier and become the carrier yourselves collectively ? You’re already doing most of the work .

    This road transportation industry isn’t sorcery . It’s actually quite simple . By working together collectively , you simplify it even more AND you reap all the profits equally collectively . If it were difficult then competition wouldn’t be so intense . The only advantage a few major carriers have over drivers currently , are the autonomous trucks coming down the road .

    That being said , anyone can come up with a better and more efficient way and raise the bar . Anyone . These techs through their innovative and creative thinking are disrupting the industry . Just like Bezos did with his bookstore , or like Bill Gates did with computer software , and Steve jobs did with computers and mobile phones , etc .

    Drivers can disrupt the trucking industry even more , raise the bar and prosper tremendously in the process . The O/O that became a carrier did . So could you on a much larger scale .

    Most carriers all do the same thing . Not many are innovative .

    In my humble opinion …………

  2. Dave

    Of course they do. Legacy brokers still have 99% of the customers along with deep established relationships and they are adapting fast with new technology like Ascend TMS, Hubtran, Smart Capacity, Triumph Pay and other super affordable “new tech” that didn’t even exist 3 or 4 years ago. Armed with new tech most smaller brokers can move fast and they usually have a lot more real world experience than the typical “new” digital broker that pretends to automate everything but really is just a regular broker in the back room using magical deception to pretend to be more automated than they really are. Just ask them. They are all full of it.

    In 2 or 3 years the term “digital broker” won’t even exist. We will all be digital brokers and technology is getting us there and my clients tell me they aint going anywhere. They love us lol.

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Kevin Hill

Kevin Hill is the executive publisher at FreightWaves, where he formerly served as director of editorial and research. Kevin is also the host of Put That Coffee Down, the popular freight sales podcast, a former freight broker and the founder of CarrierLists. Kevin holds an MBA from the University of Oklahoma.