Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/963441
Voices 10 | Overdrive | April 2018 At a time when most his age are starting to wind things down, spe- cialized freight hauler Randy "Ke- mosabbi" Cunha appears to be just getting warmed up. Having recently reactivated Tonto Express' operating authority, which had been dormant for well over a decade, the septuagenarian step-decker was gracious enough to sit down with this old reefer dog and talk trucking. Kemosabbi, whom regular listeners to the Road Dog Network on Sirius XM may recognize as a frequent call-in guest, recently recounted an il- luminating encounter with a high-val- ue freight broker who had emailed an oer of an oersied load paying $10,000. Cunha, cut from the cloth of independents who still do most of their own maintenance, had been in his shop untethered to his device, so he was late in calling the agent, with whom he frequently works. "I believe that one is covered" was the response, so the Conroe, Texas- based owner-operator began canvass- ing the load boards. He discovered a posting that he was certain had to be the exact same load, but with another broker. It paid $4,500. In specialized hauling, Cunha ex- plains, the loads are fewer and farther between, and more recognizable. I gathered this to be a little dierent than scoring a load of turnip greens out of South Georgia. "There could only be one load with those exact dimensions from that same town," he explained. So he called the agent back. "Do you really want a $4,500 truck hauling your $10,000 load? Or do you want me on it?" The agent was blindsided by the fact that he was being double-brokered. Fifteen minutes later, the load was tendered to Cunha's Tonto Express. The incident speaks to larger questions. Do shippers and in-house brokers have an interest in seeing to it that their freight bill isn't nancing someone's Maserati? "Shippers need to become more educated about what happens to these loads once they're given to the brokers," Cunha says. "One simple solution would be to require that the original freight rate be posted on the bills." Failing that, there's always good old-fashioned business sense. "You have to pick and choose what loads you take," he says. "Once you start taking the cheap ones, they never let up. You become a garbage disposal." Find more about Cunha via the March 13 post on the Overdrive Extra blog. A single case of double-brokering Courtesy of Randy Cunha An extension of Overdrive's presence on Facebook, the new Overdrive's Truck- ing Pro Facebook group invites independents and leased owner-ops, as well as retired truckers with long experience, to share business tips, tricks and thoughts on trucking issues with like-minded professionals in a closed set- ting. Visit Overdrive's Facebook page at Facebook.com/OverdriveTrucking, and naigate to the groups section to nd it. New Facebook group for business discussions Open-deck specialized hauler Randy Cunha, right, with trucking radio personality Dave Nemo. By LONG HAUL PAUL "Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer, after a long career as an owner-op- erator, now drives for Moeller Trucking. He is among contributors to the group Overdrive Extra blog at OverdriveOnline. com/overdrive-extra.