Freight Brokers need 75K?

The following is a guest blog from Sandy Miller, JW Surety Bonds, a business contact of mine. 

How to Get the $75K BMC-84 Bond

The increased financial security requirement for freight brokers and forwarders remains a big concern when it comes to staying in business.  Whether you need to increase from your current $10K bond to the $75K bond, or you’re entering the business for the first time, this article will explain how to get a $75K BMC-84 bond.

Find the Right Bonding Agency

Agencies can be found online or by referral, but it is crucial to research and locate an agency that handles a large volume of BMC-84 bonds. Only the bond agencies with the highest business volume are able to provide the most competitive bond programs and understand the intricacies of freight broker bonds.  This translates into the lowest rates and no need to post collateral.  

How to Find the Best Bond Program

Bond providers who offer the $75K bonds usually require personal and business financials, experience in the industry and collateral.  Even if you can qualify for the new bond, the premium and collateral required are likely to be unaffordable.

Because of JW Surety Bonds’ volume and experience with freight broker bonds, they are able to offer the most competitive program in the country: 

·       No collateral

·       No financials required

·       No experience needed

·       Approvals with good or bad credit

·       Lowest rates

·       99.9% approval rate

Get the $75K Bond Now to Stay in Business 

Now is the time to shop for quotes and be prepared for the October 1^st deadline. At JW Surety Bonds, incoming requests are already the highest ever seen.  It is highly recommended you act now to avoid the inevitable last minute rush of bond applications.  JW Surety Bonds offers online approvals, but applications still must be handled on a first-come, first-served basis. Apply now to get an instant online quote.

Any questions about bonds, call JW Surety.  Any questions about the adventures of being a freight broker call me 214- 206-1169.  

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach

www.transportationtraining.com

It’s great to be a Freight Broker Agent

With the passing of the most recent transportation bill some new regulations have been put on freight brokers.  A weighty one is the $75,000.00 surety bond required to be carried by freight brokers. 

That is a big reason why being a freight broker agent is great. 

A freight broker and a freight broker agent are entrepreneurs but in a different way.  As a freight broker you own your own freight brokerage and all that entails.  As an agent you work under a larger freight broker.  It is similar to being an insurance agent for State farm or a realtor for ReMax.  An agent is their own boss but they have support from the company they work under.  So as a freight broker agent you would not be required to have the $75K bond but the brokerage you worked under would.

In my freight broker class we discuss both avenues of being in freight brokerage.  I have owned my own freight brokerage and I have worked in many freight brokerages.  Early in my career I worked for some very large freight brokerages in nearly every capacity.  Since I am a salesman at heart being a freight broker agent was a great fit for me.  I can go out and get business for the brokerage…which I enjoy and thus do well.  The brokerage then handles much of the after the sale logistics. 

As an agent it is critical to find a brokerage to work for who is fair and supportive in ways you need.  The relationship between a brokerage and the independent freight broker will be different with different brokerages.  Our freight brokerage class finishes up on Fridays with an opportunity day.  Brokerages come and discuss their agency with the graduates and offer opportunities within their company for the graduates.  It’s a great deal. The new graduates may walk out of class with a job and the brokerages walk out with well trained freight broker agents. 

Want to know more?  Give me a call.  214-206-1169 Transportation is a great industry, always expanding as the economy changes.   

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach

www.transportationtraining.com

Freight Broker Compliance Deadline

Here's an article from Trucking Info about the compliance deadline for the $75,000 bond requirement for brokers and freight forwarders.

FMCSA Posts Guidance on New Broker, Freight Forwarder Requirements

September 5, 2013

By Truckinginfo Staff

 

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is setting an Oct. 1 deadline for compliance with new requirements for brokers and freight forwarders.
In a Federal Register notice Thursday, the agency laid out its plan for implementing the terms of last year’s highway law, including a $75,000 bond requirement.
By Oct. 1, all regulated brokers and freight forwarders will have to have a $75,000 surety bond or trust fund agreement, the agency said.
The law requires brokers, freight forwarders and carriers that provide these services to register with the agency, which also has to be done by Oct. 1.
A broker or freight forwarder that operates without registering could be fined as much as $10,000.
The agency said it still is considering the possibility of allowing group surety bonds or trust funds to meet the $75,000 requirement, but for the time being they will not be allowed.
The agency set a 60-day grace period starting Oct. 1 for implementing the new requirements. It said that on Nov. 1 it will start mailing notices to companies that have not met the bond requirement.
The agency acknowledged that it does not know how many motor carriers engage in occasional brokerage that now must register as brokers. For that reason it will phase-in registration for carriers that also offer brokerage, using its consumer complaint line to gather information about these carriers.
“FMCSA strongly encourages all motor carriers not to accept loads from unregistered brokers or freight forwarders,” the agency said.

I will try to stay on top of the latest news as it pertains to our industry.  I, like many, are frustrated with the strain this legislation puts on the "little guy".  

Stay positive, stay focused and keep moving.

Moving forward,

Jeff

www.transportationtraining.com

Give It Up

I really wish our nation could go back to the days when brother helped brother.  In the depression, my grandmother told me, the down and out would come to the backdoor for scraps.  My grandparents didn’t have much but they would give the leftovers from dinner.  Today I fear that too often we just let government take care of brother.  Here is an opportunity to help our hard working families in my community of North Texas who find themselves in a financial bind:

Get Up and Give 2013!  North Texas Giving Day - September 19th Communities Foundation of Texas

Wouldn't it be great if every time you made a deposit into your bank account, someone else matched a portion of it?    On Thursday, September 19th, all of your donations to MakeAWay Charities will experience just that! The process is simple:  Log on to www.DonorBridgeTX.org between 7am and midnight, search for MakeAWay Charities and click on "Give Now".  Every donation of $25 or more will receive a portion of $1 million in bonus funds for MakeAWay Charities! Help us spread the word by sharing our post on your Facebook newsfeed, so that all of your friends will know the POWER IN THIS ONE DAY!  Together we CAN make a difference on September 19th.  Thank you for helping hard-working families out of a financial crisis!

 Moving forward,

Jeff Roach

www.transportationtraining.com

 

Freight Broker Experts

I enjoy teaching sections of our course, but when I can’t I’m incredibly happy to step aside because we have the absolute best instructors.  Having been in the business for decades I have made many contacts along the way.  I’ve met few who match the dedication and integrity of Ron and Susie Moore (father and daughter) who teach our Florida classes. 

Here are their biographies.  To read more on Moore and our other instuctors, click on over to our website.

Ron Moore,
School Director (Jacksonville, FL)

Ron Moore director of the Freight Broker Training course in Florida has a resume a mile long of experience in Transportation. He knows how to do everything in the field, because he’s done it. In his 40+ years he has earned the nickname: O Wise One. “It was always my desire to help other people become successful.” He began his career as a union dock worker/yard jockey/driver. Within a decade he was supervising a fleet of union drivers as the Operations Manager. His journey took him through large and small trucking operations expanding his understanding of the entire industry. He is expert at bettering any operation he touches. For example, he became president of a struggling 62 truck flat bed and specialized operation. 17 of the trucks were unmanned. He filled all those trucks, acquired 20 additional trucks thus turning the company into a very profitable venture. As a recruiter of agents and owner/operators at Pacer the business grew 78%. At Landstar he earned numerous awards for top revenue producer including the Jeffry Crowe/Bob Zonnville Lifetime Achievement award.

He is anxious to guide others into becoming top revenue producers. He remembers how it was just starting out, and the exhilaration of the rewards of hard work. He is a great encourager and is greatly anticipating being a part of this new beginning of the Florida division of Brooke Training.

Click here to read his entire bio and achievements

Susie Moore,
Instructor (Jacksonville, FL)

Susie is imminently qualified to teach freight brokering.  She’s the daughter of one of the most highly respected 40-year veterans of the freight industry and a highly skilled communicator. 

Susie’s whole career has revolved around leadership development, teaching and encouraging students to achieve all they can.  She’s worked as a training specialist, a  human resources professional, as an instructor, recruiter and consultant.  Her enthusiasm, creativity, and high-energy professionalism make her a natural and captivating trainer. 

To continually improve her abilities, Susie has received a variety of certifications in personality, communication and leadership training.   Her style is motivational, instructional and inspirational.  She will keep your interest as you learn how to change your future by training for a bright new career.

Click here to read her entire bio and achievements

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach

www.transportationtraining.com

BIG Business

What is your BIG motivation to work?  Do you get up every morning excited about the amount of money you will make so you can buy more stuff for you?  Or are you excited because you work for a bigger cause.  I just read on article by David Solomon from Forbes about the owner billionaire of Hobby Lobby, David Green.  His big motivation in building his hobby super enterprise is God, now that’s a big cause.  I believe with a big motivation you will build something bigger than yourself.  Take your focus off of profit and onto how many you can help through your work and you will be more enthusiastic about your day.

Here is the beginning of the article in Forbes by David Green, the Biblical Billionaire

Green has become the largest evangelical benefactor in the world—with plans for unprecedented gifts once he’s in heaven.

Fresh off an inspection of Hobby Lobby’s sprawling 5.5 million-square-foot distribution warehouse in Oklahoma City, the company’s CEO, David Green, retreats to his office in the adjacent executive building, where he surrounds himself with a collection of homely elephant figurines. His coffee table is draped with a bird’s-eye-view photograph of his corporate campus, annotated with scribbles in black marker that show the expansion under way.

When I ask him to walk me through the secrets to his company’s growth, which the aerial plans represent, the 70-year-old, with a full head of white hair, blue eyes and a prominent square jaw, doesn’t take any personal credit. Nor does he laud his executives or his 22,000 employees or his customers, who will gobble up more than $3 billion worth of crafts products from him this year. “If you have anything or if I have anything, it’s because it’s been given to us by our Creator,” says Green, sweeping his hand over the acres laid out before him. “So I have learned to say, ‘Look, this is yours, God. It’s all yours. I’m going to give it to you.’ ”

He means that literally. David Green has one of America’s great, little-known fortunes, having turned a makeshift manufacturing operation in his living room for arts and crafts into a retail monster, with 520 superstores in 42 states. Green and his family own 100% of the company and he ranks No. 79 on our list of the 400 richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion. Hobby Lobby’s cash spigot currently makes him the largest individual donor to evangelical causes in America.

“I don’t care if you’re in business or out of business, God owns it,” says Green. “How do I separate it? Well, it’s God’s in church and it’s mine here? I have purpose in church, but I don’t have purpose over here? You can’t have a belief system on Sunday and not live it the other six days.”

There are very few members of The Forbes 400 who bring religion to work. Most notable are Chick-fil-A’s Truett Cathy and Forever 21‘s Jin Sook and Do Won Chang, born-again Christians who keep Bibles in their office and print John 3:16 on the bottom of each shopping bag...to read more click here

I am so encouraged by businessmen who live out their convictions.  I know that they are not always popular, but when I look at who is "popular" I'm okay with not being popular.  So I purpose to live and work for a BIG cause today.  How about you?

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach

www.transportationtraining.com

Let's all Honor 9-11

I was reminded that the anniversary of 9-11 is quickly approaching.  Let us never forget the sacrifice so many gave.  A group from our industry banded together to make a unique memorial to some of the first responders.  Here's the article from TruckingInfo.com the website of Heavy Duty Trucking Magazine on this memorial.

As the nation prepares to commemorate the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks next month, some of the largest corporations in trucking and transportation have banded together to support a unique memorial effort for firefighters who gave their lives in the line of duty.  Continental Tire the Americas LLC’s Commercial Vehicle Tire group, Detroit Diesel Corp., Alcoa Wheel and Transportation Products, and Snider Fleet Solutions announced a cooperative sponsorship of the Remembrance Rescue Project.

This non-profit firefighter support organization has restored the only two surviving heavy rescue trucks to respond to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. On Sept. 11, 2001, the entire unit of nine firefighters with the Fire Department, City of New York Rescue 4 unit and 11 firefighters with the Rescue 5 unit lost their lives trying to save others at the World Trade Center complex.

The Remembrance Rescue Project acquired Rescue 4 after its removal from service and completely restored it in September 2011. It now operates from Texas. The Project acquired the last of the surviving FDNY rescues, Rescue 5, in December 2011 and operates it from Chicago.

The Remembrance Rescue Project’s volunteers are all firefighters who arrange events and travel the country with the restored engines, which serve as memorials to the fallen and help raise funds for family support. The Project’s vehicles appear at public events, auto shows, fire industry events and schools to promote fire education and support other firefighter charities.
 

To commemorate the kickoff of the sponsorship, Detroit employees will be able to see the Project’s Rescue 5 during a special visit to the Detroit headquarters in Redford, Mich. today.

In September, Rescue 5 is slated to visit the Daimler Trucks North America headquarters and the Continental Tire the Americas headquarters, both in Fort Mill, S.C., and will also appear at the Charlotte Firefighters 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb Challenge along with other local events.

For more information, a schedule of upcoming events or to donate to the Remembrance Rescue Project, visit http://remembrance.com.

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach
www.transportationtraining.com