My First Load

We had just had our first baby girl. Amanda Brooke Roach. She was a gift from God. I had just quit my 50k a year sales job (that was good pay back in the day) and opened my own freight broker agency. I had a mentor that told me that if I would work for him for six months he would teach me everything I needed to know about opening my own brokerage. We were living in my parents’ garage while saving money for our first house so to say money was tight is an understatement. If it took .50 cents to get around the world I could not get out of sight - I mean I was broke.

So off I went to the west cost/El Paso. That is where my mentor had his brokerage. He showed me his operation and then sent me home on a 30% commission deal. That means I would make 30% of any money I made while working as an agent for Orion. His brokerage.

I always could sell - can't explain it but selling was natural for me. I was the kid in school that won every contest for selling stuff for fund raisers. I am not a good athlete so that was my way of telling everyone in school - lookout here comes the best selling kid in elementary school. Well you can imagine how far that got me with the ladies back then.

Anyway - he gave me a manufacturers guide and a carrier guide. The internet was really not a viable business tool in 1992. So we called shippers from my small little dining room table and sure enough old Jeff had an account within 2 weeks. The deal was this - I had 5-6 trucks a day of fiber going to Amarillo and the shipper said he would not pay more than 575.00 per load. According to every carrier I called in the carrier guide that was not a good rate. I knew because of the way they laughed. We started carriers on Monday and starting with the A's and by Wed we were still calling A’s and I believe it wasn't until the next Wed we finally got to the F's.

FFE. Frozen Food Express out of Fort Worth Texas. This time he didn't laugh at me. He said,”young man what exactly do you have? Again I told him,”I have 6 loads a day of fiber coming out of Waco going to Amarillo and I could only pay 425.00. (150) profit per load.” He replied,”I am sending empty trucks from Dallas to pick up loads of meat in Amarillo.”

TA DA...I found my carrier. For six months we moved six loads a day every day from Waco to Amarillo and we made around 150.00 per load. That calculated to 300.00 a day for me and my new broke family.

Just think if we had quit after the E's and not made that next call. In our case we had no other option. They say the best employees are poor, smart and motivated. Believe you me, that was me.

90% of success in life is showing up. Doing the work. Working out of the house, I catch myself sneaking into the next room to watch ESPN. It is okay and healthy to take a break but schedule those times then get yourself back to work.

Way to grow!

JR
Jeff Roach - President
Brooke Transportation Training Solutions
jroach@transportationtraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.brooketraining.com
www.justintimefreight.com