I called a transport broker a ripoff for 2 years, then my cousin in Tampa showed me his paperwork
Three years ago I paid a broker $150 deposit to move my Civic from Columbus to Austin and the carrier never showed, so I wrote off the whole industry and started telling people to only deal direct with truckers. Last month my cousin in Tampa was moving to Seattle for work and he used a broker for his Tacoma, and I gave him a hard time about it over the phone. He sent me screenshots of what he actually paid, $1,150 door to door, and then showed me the same route quoted at $1,890 by two carriers he called himself. His point was simple, the broker had 40 trucks bidding on his route in a day while he was still waiting on hold with dispatch. The deposit was only $75 and it was refundable if no carrier picked it up in 5 days, which is nothing like the $150 I lost back then. I still think the industry has bad actors, but I was blaming the whole setup for one shady outfit in 2022. Has anyone actually had a broker beat a direct carrier quote on a long route, or was my cousin just lucky with timing?