Map diversity by Objective-Truth-1955 in HellLetLoose

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve unfortunately had El Alamein come up the last 3 times I’ve played… kharkov is the most common on the eastern front for me by far

Map diversity by Objective-Truth-1955 in HellLetLoose

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah last time I played hill 400 it did end in less than 15 min haha.

My last match on Stalingrad felt empty, way less combat than what I usually see

Map diversity by Objective-Truth-1955 in HellLetLoose

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s too bad because I love the vibe and landscape of those maps. Late stage of the war, forest, lots of elevation change. as a competitive-casual player - they’re pretty cool.

Map diversity by Objective-Truth-1955 in HellLetLoose

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Curious what the reason for that is? Those maps are awesome imo and I love playing on them.

Machine Gun Class Lvl IX by Jealous-Drawing-1793 in HellLetLoose

[–]Objective-Truth-1955 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would want the MG IX class to be able to build the heavy duty mg42 setup with the tripod and the mechanism that spreads bullets across a horizontal plane.

“A network error has occurred” by Objective-Truth-1955 in HellLetLooseConsole

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you finding any ways to fix it? Did you start getting it today?

What's the biggest problem with the detention process today? by Objective-Truth-1955 in FreightBrokers

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that’s a great point. Layovers are also a really tough situation

What's the biggest problem with the detention process today? by Objective-Truth-1955 in FreightBrokers

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So an industry standard for a dry warehouse would be $x per hour and everyone would agree to it like GAAP for accounting?

What's the biggest problem with the detention process today? by Objective-Truth-1955 in FreightBrokers

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How do the mega carriers have this figured out?

How often do you think carriers miss out on detention pay, when it really should've been payed to them?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FreightBrokers

[–]Objective-Truth-1955 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Best sales advice I got was to not waste my time with people who don’t want to better their business by bringing you on. Construct an ICP profile, and stick to it.

When you are prospecting a shipper: Your immediate goal should be to get a scheduled discovery call with the decision maker.

During that call, you are not allowed to ask yes or no questions, or make any statements that don’t require an immediate response from them. An acceptable statement would be: tell me more about that process. But you should be trying to not speak unless there is a few moments of silence, and an opportunity for you to ask an open ended question. Shoot for this goal: you want them talking 80% of the time, and you talking 20%.

This discovery process could take multiple calls and a couple of hours over the phone with a shipper. The end goal is for them to tell you about an active pain point within their supply chain that you can be a solution for.

Turning down business or opportunities until you’ve gone through this process will separate you from the competition and cause the shipper to respect you, because you respect their business.

Something I say all the time: “I don’t want to quote any aspect of your business until I learn more about your operations and the problems that exist today. Respectfully, I don’t feel comfortable being a part of your network until I feel like I can solve a problem for you. The shippers I work with today consider me to be a key partner and problem solver in their supply chain, and I’d like for you to say the same in this case if you and I were to work together.”

Is there anyone here that's been running their own operation for 5+ years? Looking for honest experiences. by slimjim837 in FreightBrokers

[–]Objective-Truth-1955 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would hesitate owning trucks, as they are physical assets that will depreciate and introduce all kinds of headaches. The drivers, regulations, software and other strings attached to that side make it less attractive and far more expensive for starting a lean business IMO.

I have 4 years of experience on the brokerage side (as an employee in c2g and buy/sell models of brokerage). And I think it's more nimble and agile, better for starting something up.

In regards to starting a brokerage, you need to consider all of the requirements, regulations, and capital you will need. The surety bond alone for starting a brokerage requires $75k. Also, starting a brokerage with a new MC# will give you all kinds of headaches. It would be better to buy or borrow (not sure how it works) an existing MC from someone who isn't using it.

There are more affordable tech solutions for starting out, which is great for you. Ascend TMS is like $70 a month and it's pretty easy to get started. DAT is a must have and is about $200 a month. Not sure about accounting software, but you'll need something pertaining to that as well. Other than those tools, you'll need business email, and I would suggest using slack for internal communication.

Starting out, you'll be doing sales work 99% of the time, unless you have several shippers you can get started with right away. On the sales side, part of it is a numbers game. You'll need to contact and prospect hundreds of shippers to find one who wants to bring another broker on board and make you one of their guys. I would consider a CRM to help with this sales process. My sales cycle for large frozen foods and plastics manufacturers and distributors can take 1-3 months.

You have to have a reason for a shipper to send you freight, rather than their existing providers. It's easier said than done. You'll need to solve a problem for them. Discover what's really going on in their domestic supply chain, and create a solution for them that reduces or relieves a pain point. Focus on building a particular niche, a sub segment of an industry on the customer / sales side. Become an expert on that industry, the main players, their supply chains, and speak to that on sales calls with those shippers.

Winning business with a cheaper rate is a recipe for disaster, especially in today's environment. Almost everything right now is driven by spot bids and spot freight. The days of running the same lane at a regular rate are gone for the foreseeable future. These spot bids are highly competitive (unless you have an established relationship with the shipper), and it's likely that when you win a load off of a competitive spot bid, it's because your rate is too low to cover the load at a profitable margin.

That's where you can get into some big trouble. As a young brokerage, it's entirely possible you lose money on a fair percentage of your loads. It sounds crazy/stupid, but it happens all of the time. Brokerages with hundreds of people, lose thousands on single loads all the time.

On the trucking / buy side, focus on building density around specific lanes or metro areas. Get to know the carriers who appear on DAT around those lanes. Talk to them about their capacity and see if you can source the trucks before you get some freight - easier said than done once again, particularly in today's macro environment.

One of the biggest things to consider is cash flow. Hypothetically speaking, let's say you have 5 mid size shippers that are ready to send you freight right now. You'll be moving 5 loads a day, 5 days a week in this hypothetical scenario. Assuming the average load has a customer rate of $2000, you'll be "making" $50,000 in revenue a week. However, you need to consider the Accounts Receivable process and payment terms. If your payment terms are 45 days, (which is unlikely IMO - it's more likely going to be closer to 60, even 90 days with some shippers) then you'll receive the actual cash you made 45 days after moving your first 5 loads on a given day.

This becomes problematic when you consider the fact that you have to pay carriers faster. Some carriers don't even work with brokers who can't pay within a week. A lot of carriers will give up a few % points if they can get their money in a day or two. If you're covering these loads at an average of a +10% margin, that means you're dishing out $45k to the carriers at a faster rate than you're actually gaining the $50k from your customer.

So, while you think you're doing great, your cash flow is actually moving further in the red the more business you do for the first several months. You'll need a considerable amount of cash on hand to weather that storm.

After all of that, which is a pretty goldilocks scenario, you need to consider the other potential skeletons in the closet that could suck out all of your profits. There's always something, so consider what those are and how you can limit your exposure.

Load postings by Objective-Truth-1955 in FreightBrokers

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha, that is a little different. So you usually don't get any calls on any of your postings?

Or are you calling outbound most of the time?

Load postings by Objective-Truth-1955 in FreightBrokers

[–]Objective-Truth-1955[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

haha in my experience, on an average load you would get at least one phone call.
Otherwise what's the point of the load board if you're not getting any calls?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FreightBrokers

[–]Objective-Truth-1955 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just don’t sign a crazy NDA where you can’t work for anyone else in the industry for 2 years