Often times before a shipper will want a freight broker's set-up package, the shipper will want the broker to give quotes on one or more loads. In some cases, the freight broker has no idea unless they use a rate service. Other times, the freight broker will have trucks and will have no problem coming up with a quote or quotes.
When a shipper asks for quotes, the real questions are:
- Is the shipper actually wanting to offer you the load?,
- Are they using you as a "sounding board" with not much of a chance to give you the load?, or
- Are they throwing your quote into a large pool along with hundreds of other quotes?
Only time and experience will tell you.
If you are currently brokering, what is YOUR experience with giving quotes? Let's hear from you.
If I've done the same of similar load I use that as a starting place and adjust based on the current FSC or I use a load board. Sometimes I talk to trucks and get quotes from them before I give the shipper a quote.
Posted by: Margurite O'Neal | May 11, 2009 at 09:23 AM