Middleman helps solve transportation worries

By Mark Pedersen Sales Manager Attaway, Trucking Division

patching departments that can handle all of these situations. Belonging to these large companies has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of always having a load is good, but when a load is found, these large companies take 20 - 3090 of the total revenue. This leaves the trucker with 68 - 850 per mile, which is below the I.C.C. guideline.

What about the independent driver who has no company to drive for? How does he find a load?

In almost every city you will find truck brokers or transportation middlemen. These transportation professionals provide profitable loads for the independent driver through their constant scanning of the national marketplace. This service saves an independent driver literally thousands of dollars each year.

Being an independent driver, you would spend at least 50 - 75s/o of your time calling mills, distribution yards, wholesalers, and manufacturers for material to haul. After having spent much money in phone bills calling blindly and wasting days in valuable time, you may have a load. But if you are in an area that is not familiar, a load may never be found. Imagine how long truckers would be in business if they wasted time and money to find freight.

This is where the transportation middleman fits in. Saving truckers money and creating a valuable service is what these individuals do. They put the customer and the trucker together, when both parties may be thousands of miles apart. Taking only 5 - 120/o and leaving over a dollar a mile for

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Truck Broker

(Continued from page 40) the trucker, the transportation middleman provides service that is necessary and valuable.

Since he acts as the custodian of the material being shipped, the responsibility of any freight claims that may arise is certainly the duty of the truck broker. He also carries substantial cargo and liability insurance, as well as being licensed by the Interstate Commerce Commission, to insure the security of the load for the customer as well as the prompt payment to the driver.

In 1929,75s/o of dl the distribution in our country was done by the railroad. With the help of the truck broker and the recent deregulation in the industry, trucks have been successfully competing with railroad. Presently, rail and truck are hauling nearly equal percentages.

With more and more freight being distributed by truck the role of the truck broker goes beyond the truckers and into the realm of the consumer and shipper. Instead of calling numerous trucking companies each day to pick-up their loads, a mill or wholesaler now has the convenience of making only one phone call to the transportation professionals. This saves the customer time and money along with creating a variety of loads for the trucker.

There has been much talk that certain wholesalers do not particularly care to use the services of these truck brokers, for the simple reason many do not own their own trucks. However, if all the retail yards across the country felt the sa.me way about the role of the wholesaler, who owns no mills or manufacturing facilities of his own, a key link of distribution and sales in the lumber industry, or any industry, would be lost. The forest products industry would quickly come to a frightful halt.

Transportation middlemen are important in many channels of distribution. Putting the trucker and the customer together while saving both money and time turns this inexpensive transportation service for truckers and customers into a priceless resource.

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