What Questions To Ask Potential Broker Employer?

What is the best way to determine if the Freight Broker is the right one to work for? Someone has decided to train me and take me under their wing. I'm excited of this opportunity, but I want to know some key questions I should ask them to determine if they are the right company to work for.

Thanks.

Agent & Broker Information
Selecting Broker & Non Payment
Price: $ 0.00

Transportation Broker:

Operating Authority

The name of the registered agent for the company.

The federal tax identification number of the company.

Additional supplementary insurance, if they have.

A Financial Profile

A history of the business, including the key people of the business and their background.

A copy of the broker/shipper contract with special attention given to essential negotiated terms.

A copy of a broker/shipper contract.

Pull copy of D & B, or similar document.

Get a credit check form signed, and call references.

Make a management decision on the amount of credit to be extended and then manage that! Also allow the contract to address the term of payment policy.
WHEN BROKER DOES NOT PAY OR IS LATE, BEYOND THE TERMS:

30 days from invoice date should be the maximum credit extended to any company, third party or otherwise at any time. Good reason should support terms beyond. If late, call the Broker and use the following tactics.

Ask politely when payment will be made, make good notes of dates, who you talked to and responses.

If response is not satisfactory, report that you will send a demand payment record to the Shipper, the Consignee and the Insurance Company within (X) days. Then do it!

Tell the bonding company you are making demand for payment per attached invoice. Include particulars. This must be done quickly to be first in line to make claim.
Create an invoice for the transportation charges to the shipper. Put on the invoice, as per CFR 49 you are making demand for payment. I suggest also a call to the shipper, asking him for future business direct. You may not get paid, but could gain a shipper

Thank you for responding, but is this information I need to ask the Broker that wants to train me in the business? I don't want to offend them if need be.

This is information that I will DEFINITELY want to know because time is crucial and I surely wouldn't want to be trained poorly. My goal is to go into business as a Broker and proper training and a great experience will surely help me when I venture out on my own.

If the broker is on the up and up he will be happy to give you the answers ....If he is offended find another broker !!!!

90 % of the brokers have no idea how to train agents !!!!!

most will give you a script and tell you to make 100 cold calls a day ..that is your training .....

Why should a broker train his competition?

also most in fact all brokers and agent work on commission
how much time are they going to give you? time is money only so much time in a day ......train you or call shippers ?
call shippers make money train new agent no money

most are going to call shippers

95 % of the business is salesmanship you have the skills or you do not .......you must be able to sell yourself

Maybe you will work real hard get shippers than not be able to find trucks ....due to bad broker credit !!!!! so you wasted your time ......you will save time money and headaches finding out all you can before you start working for any broker......Educating yourself is never a waste of time

I do agree with you there. Thanks! VERY helpful!

Can you explain what "Agent & Broker Information
Selecting Broker & Non Payment
Price: $ 0.00" means?

lenise........I cut and pasted the info from my website some info is free other info I charge for I just did not delete the priceline ....

We are a family-owned brokerage, who used to be Owner-Operators. We try very hard to get the trucks a fair amount for their dedication and good service. We also have a clause in our contract, as most brokerages do, that you cannot contact the Shipper for payment. This is in there because the Shippers will be leary of loading if they are going to have to deal with a demanding carrier. In our case, we have a surety bond, references, insurance, and are operating with a legal authority from the DOT. All of these things can be checked. We additionally have a web site wherein all of our papers and documents are online, for download...anyone can look at them. If the brokerage you want to work with has full disclosure (as we do) along with references, insurance, bonds, etc. then you can probably feel safe about working with them. If they don't want to answer questions, won't show you paperwork, or are cagey about disclosing information, then DON'T work with them. Lastly, we often work for several hours putting together a good load for a Carrier, only to find that they bailed out on us at the last minute, and we are left with a load for the Shipper that we can't assign. This makes us look bad to our customer after we told them we could take the load, based on a Carrier's "word." It is not easy in this business...for trucks, brokers, and everyone else. It is VERY competative. However, if you find good people, that run their business with integrity, stick with them!!