How does Carrier Sales work with Brokers?

As a Trucking Company (a Carrier), you are going to be running loads with hundreds of different people (Brokers). 50% of the people that you are going to be talking to on the phone are going to be Carrier Sales Reps. So what is a Carrier Sales Rep?

"A Carrier Sales Rep is responsible for developing Carrier relationships with Trucking Companies (Carriers). The goal of a Carrier Sales Rep is to understand a Carrier's Equipment, the number of Trucks they have, and help them move the Broker's loads with their Truck(s). A.K.A. booking and scheduling shipments with Carriers that they can partner with to run loads regularly for customers."

Again, these are the people who work for Brokerages that report directly to Brokers, their Bosses, that sell Carriers' loads.

It's important that you know how Brokerages work and who you need to be networking with within the Brokerages seeing that these Brokerages are going to be giving you 90% off all the loads you run on a yearly basis; it's pretty important that you know how their business works. Let's look at the hierarchy of how a Brokerage and their personnel is structured.

First, at the top you have BROKERS. These are the people who do business development and find customers that need help moving their loads. Brokers are the people forming a relationship with companies like U.S. Foods, Publix, Walmart, etc. and asking those customers to give them 500 loads a year to outsource to Carriers. Second, underneath the Brokers you have CARRIER SALES REPS. These people are the foot soldiers that sell the loads directly to the Carriers and negotiate the price of loads, and email you the rate confirmations. 

It's the Carrier Sales Reps that are the people you need to be building relationships with because their job is to build relationships with YOU the Carrier/Trucking Company. These are the people you want to become friends with ASAP. Some small Brokerages won’t have a specific Carrier Sales Department, but you should still network with everyone you can, especially people handling great-paying loads because they probably get that load regularly and you need to stay in touch with them to run it as many times as you can. That's what Brokers want to see from Carriers: Trucks running regular lanes consistently. Now, regarding some of the big brokerages out there like LandStar, C.H. Robinson, Nolan Transportation, J.B. Hunt, XPO Logistics, Coyote, and TQL; when you book your first load with these big-name Brokers, you need to tell whoever is selling you the load "Hey, I would like a Carrier Sales Rep assigned to me, ABC Trucking, so I can have one point of contact with your Brokerage." They will gladly say YES and will assign you a Carrier Sales Rep. Now you'll have one point of contact to help you find loads within that Brokerage. You're working smarter and not harder.