just wondered what peoples opinions are? a usefull set up linking big firms to small hauliers or just people poncing a living?
my own experience and opinion is they’re killing the job for a lot of o/d’s offering ridiculousely low rates to firms for loads and then trying to sell em out as backloads.
a bloke last week rang me up and offered me 3 28ton loads swansea to middlesbrough…wait for it!..£240 
our conversation didn,t go on much longer 
theres a fella in my area who’s been going quite a few years, no hgv license, no o’license but he’s well known to local firms including what was my main costomer in worksop who i did a regular run to birmingham for, i got £180 for the load which was barely enough to make it pay, one day i’m due to go in and pick up the load and the yard rings me, " you can have this job but you’ll have to drop your rate" why? because this bloke had offered to do it for £100!
when you consider the run would cost eighty quid in diesel you know what my answer was. the thing is, this forwarder can do it for a oner becuase theres plenty of wagons coming from brum to sheffield anyone of which would be happy to get eighty quid as a back load especially if that wagons got a driver on x amount an hour, that eighty bar goes a long way to paying his wages for the day and at the same time my costomer can’t ignore an extra eighty quid profit on the load and as much as i argued that i was providing a service where they had a wagon at their disspossal at the drop of a hat, at the end of the day everyones going to look at the bottom line. that was basically the final nail in the coffin as far as touting for work was concerned, i just wonder what that yard does now when they’ve got a load thats got to go at four in the morning to be on a site at eight o’clock somewhere?
Freight forwarders are the Thorn in the Hauliers side am afraid! They have very little overheads. They put in for vey low rates because they then sell the load on to people. They take their cut and all its cost them is a phone call.
I remember seeing a job on Teleroute shipping from Kent to France, and as I was about to ring the guy up when the phone went. It was from this freight forwarder asking if I wanted a load from Kent to France when I said yes, he then said I will phone you back to see if its still avaialble!! He was looking at the same load I was on Teleroute!He was taking the work on , taking his cut and putting it back out! Now how many times do companies do this ? You en d up 5/6th down the line and everyone has taken their slice out of the cake.
Its the haulier who has the outlay /costs not the forwarders.
Loook at what Rob K said in another post, Archies are paying £2100 round trip to Italy. They are getting £4000 one way for the jounrey and then that back rate on top. Yhey pay for the ferries but so what, I bet they only pay £100 tops return for the boat becaue they make that many crossings!
I used to do some work for Taylored lines from Skem down to Kent, and also Coventry reefers. I phoned Taylored lines looking for a load down to kent to help me get to France, thay had just sorted the loads out and had them covered. They normally paid £250(Crap I know). So I rang Coventry Reefers and guess what, yes they had taken some of the work from Taylored lInes and offered to me £220 for the same load!!
Now what has that cost them ? Nowt. No hassles!!
So NO freight forwarders are just leeches and all they do is sit on the fence taking their cut. Anyone with enough clout and and contacts can do it.
Undercut the rate, Get the load ( it doesnt matter to them becsause they have very little outlay) take their cut, put it back out. Some mug will do it!!
After all , they all advertise in the Mags!
routier:
They are getting £4000 one way for the jounrey and then that back rate on top. Yhey pay for the ferries but so what, I bet they only pay £100 tops return for the boat becaue they make that many crossings!
they’ll get £ 800 tops leeds area - milan area from the shipper, and around £ 1900 in opposite direction less ferries i’ll say now will cost them £ 125 each way even on sea chance (sorry france, are they still a site sponsor? 
) yep still the cream off the top but nothing like you suggest i’m have to say
i know there are now some small economies in the job but we used to get £ 930 leeds to como and £ 2700 udine to nottingham in 1987, yes 18 years ago! mind you TT or sealink did manage to charge us £ 250 each way back then! 
If you look at all these companies like teleroute, alot of the big haulage companies use them, when i was “driving” for Denholm , we used to pick up for major uk haulage companies abroad and diffrent freight forwarders, its just utilising vehicle.Save’s sitting around espically if your a owner driver. Im hoping to start with one soon , so let you know
Topcat - Yes I agree, but theres utilizing a vehicle, and then theres running for peanuts.
I was offered 2 pallets from Monza last week. Return to Wigan and Hull.
Price?
£100
That was European Road Freight.
They then asked if I would just bring back 1 pallet to Hull.
£45!!! 
I ran my vans back empty. Cheper option.
Ian do you use courier exchange?.There are some well known companies on there, who hopefully will pay good back load rates.
… which brings us full circle to my post putting potential owner drivers of becoming just that. Whilst ever there’s more drivers than work you’re going to keep on suffering this undercutting until you burn yourselves out and wind up bankrupt. The forwarder’s rates are never going to change because they know there’ll allus be some mug who will run round for 63p per mile to Italy and back like the Archies subbie does.
One day the penny will finally drop and you’ll see sense (collectively speaking), but I won’t hold my breath.
theres not more drivers than work theres to many people taking a cut out of the work for the haulier to make decent money out of it in some cases.to me the whole system needs looking at, despite what some might think it’s not easy by any means to get an o’license and even harder to get something up and running but these so called freight forwarders are beyond any rules n regulations even though they are in affect acting as transport managers! it’s the same with anything there are low rates because there’s people willing to work for low rates.
Freight Forwarders have developed from the old haulage companies who would have a presence in the industrial areas or docks! They would have 25 loads for the south and nothing back, so it made sense to them to sub contract the loads. otherwise the same haulage company would find themselves with all the trucks in the south of England.
Many companies had reciprocal agreements with distant hauliers, now the accountants run the business, these specialised forwarders have increased, but I do not believe any company can make money from them.
It is probably a time for a review of the o license system, with A B and C licences and a check on forwarding agents who only need a PC with a printer and a telephone.
Some freight forwarders should be thought of as pimps and prostitutes, and people who use them are kerbcrawlers 
Wheel Nut:
Freight Forwarders have developed from the old haulage companies who would have a presence in the industrial areas or docks! They would have 25 loads for the south and nothing back, so it made sense to them to sub contract the loads. otherwise the same haulage company would find themselves with all the trucks in the south of England.Many companies had reciprocal agreements with distant hauliers, now the accountants run the business, these specialised forwarders have increased, but I do not believe any company can make money from them.
It is probably a time for a review of the o license system, with A B and C licences and a check on forwarding agents who only need a PC with a printer and a telephone.
Some freight forwarders should be thought of as pimps and prostitutes, and people who use them are kerbcrawlers
does that mean i,ll get my name in the local paper
Topcat - Courier exchange is a little on the pricy side to join.
I will probably sign up though as they’ve got a European site as well.
chaversdad:
Wheel Nut:
Freight Forwarders have developed from the old haulage companies who would have a presence in the industrial areas or docks! They would have 25 loads for the south and nothing back, so it made sense to them to sub contract the loads. otherwise the same haulage company would find themselves with all the trucks in the south of England.Many companies had reciprocal agreements with distant hauliers, now the accountants run the business, these specialised forwarders have increased, but I do not believe any company can make money from them.
It is probably a time for a review of the o license system, with A B and C licences and a check on forwarding agents who only need a PC with a printer and a telephone.
Some freight forwarders should be thought of as pimps and prostitutes, and people who use them are kerbcrawlers
does that mean i,ll get my name in the local paper
In Middlesbrough? Certainly!
One of the freight forwarders who disgusted me so much was based near there Hopefully gone now for good!
the buck must stop with operators and the government (including the rha and fta).
i set up my own freight brokering service about 5 years ago, i took work on at a decent rate and only took a small percentage of the rate for the company, i didn’t need anything at all to do this with the exception of a phone and a fax.
there was no forms to fill out other than the usual tax and vat declaration forms and bank stuff as with any other business.
i didn’t require insurance for most of the work i undertook and i didn’t even require any money up front, i could have took on the work for 3 months and then stuck my fingers up to every haulier that had done a load and run off with all of the money - there is nothing to prevent anyone from doing this and that is wrong - so very very wrong, i even joined the rha at a very discounted rate, they didn’t check me out or anything and the next thing i’m in the rha directory and i get my own copy free of charge when it should cost £100.
it’s my opinion that the law should be altered regarding the carriage of goods and that freight brokers should be held more accountable and be licenced and operators of trucks, the companies that require goods moving by hgv’s should be forced to obtain an operator licence number and a copy of git insurance from whomever they are directly giving the work to.
there are too many freeloaders out there getting rich off the backs of honest transport operators.
if i was to get a truck tomorrow i wouldn’t touch general haulage where i rely upon freight brokers for backloads, i’d rather get less pence per mile from an established transport operator as a subbie.
by the time you’ve done chasing up your outstanding debtors to pay you the profit you would have made has gone in phone charges and faxes - it’s amazing how many freight brokers seem not to have received your pod’s but when you speak to the customer that the load originated from they have already been paid for the work that you did and are gathering interest on the money that should be sitting in your bank account.
all though it will never happen what is needed is a self governing body to represent o/d’s and small operators who would, by means of a yearly meeting determin a minimum rate for variouse types of load, everybody sticks together and freight forwarders are either approved or blacklisted, if nobody is prepared to work for em it would end this scam over night! i don’t mean public school boy goverment controlled pupets like rha or the fta i’m talking about something run by drivers or x drivers who know the crack. alas i don’t ever see that happening simply because brits have a built in indepence which, when push comes to shuv means the i’m alright jack mentality takes over.
it’s amazing how many freight brokers seem not to have received your pod’s but when you speak to the customer that the load originated from they have already been paid for the work that you did and are gathering interest on the money that should be sitting in your bank account.
How True! I found that most freight forwarders use this or there was an error on the invoice or the cheque is in the post only never to arrive. They tell you payment 6/45 days weeks from submission of POD, by the time you come to collect your first payment you have done 6 weeks work and are owed at least £9000 THEN THE AFOREMENTIOND EXCUSES COME and you lose the lot So every freight forwarder knows that in for 6 weeks work he can make a lot of money from using subbies then go pop anmd then you go pop.Difference is you lose the lot, the forwarder is quids in and starts up another business. The law needs to be changed to stop this and the sooner the better.
Scum the lot of them.