What is car shipping? Car shipping is a huge, constantly growing industry that refers to trucking transportation of motor vehicles to and from any given point. Both operable and inoperable vehicles can be transported.
What is a Car Shipping broker? The middle person between the clients in need of transportation and trucking carrier companies which transport vehicles on certain routes. Truck drivers don’t acquire their loads by directly communicating with the customers; the customers can’t contact the drivers directly, so they need a brokerage system and a broker to schedule the shipment on the customers’ behalf.
Therefore, customers hire brokers to find a transportation company and schedule the shipment of their vehicles. Brokers do so using a network of carrier companies and a booking system where loads are placed as orders for transporting a specific vehicle on a specific route. Truck drivers and dispatchers have access to this system and use it to search for loads. The truck driver who is able and willing to take a certain load (vehicle) then contacts the broker who posted the shipping order. If they both agree to the terms regarding pricing and dates, the vehicle is dispatched to that particular driver.
What is the actual job of a broker? Brokers receive online requests for vehicle transportation (leads) through an online booking system (JTracker or JT) with a specific request for a price on a specific route (defined by origin and destination zip codes) for a specific vehicle (defined by the year make and model in the request itself) and for specific dates. The broker’s job is to set an optimal price for the specified vehicle on the specified route for the given dates, then contact the customer and present our offer. If the customer is interested in cooperation, the broker creates the order and posts it to the booking system board for the drivers to see. Setting the right price is the most important part of the entire process, because good pricing determines whether the particular vehicle will actually be transported or accepted by a carrier operating on the given route. The price should never be too low towards the carriers because no driver would accept and underpriced load, and it should never be too high towards the customers, so they don’t end up giving their business to a different broker with a better price. Determining an optimal price is the crucial factor in this industry. The broker is also in charge of customer care, which refers to any possible additional information or questions the customer might have, any changes in the booking arrangements as well as keeping the customer updated on whether a driver has been assigned.
How is the price determined? Pricing depends on a number of factors, all of which must be taken into consideration: