Brokers Scramble to Match Loads With Trucks

reight broker VHI Transport got a last-minute call late in the day in March from one of its regular customers, a beverage bottler. Because a motor carrier had backed out of an agreement, the shipper had a load of empty bottles that had to be delivered 200 miles away by the next morning or the manufacturer would incur extensive penalties.

A manager for the Richmond, Va., brokerage decided to give up the company’s commission — its spread between what it collects from shippers and pays to carriers — in order to solve the problem of finding a carrier that would take the load and deliver it on time. While it did not make a profit for that run, the customer was happy and perhaps will return for another day, but this time a lucrative one.

“What made the call critical was that it came in at the 12th hour,” said Don Gee, president of VHI, a non-asset-based freight brokerage. “We were able to respond and pick it up in an hour.”