You are correct Levi. The people who work behind the scenes do a lot of work, but the driver is still the hardest working link in the chain. The profit margins are low right now i'm not going to argue that, but there are instances where a company can get a good 40 percent mark-up on some loads. It all depends on the customer, time of day, and whether or not the shipper is desperate to get their freight moved.
I wasn't trying to insinuate that the carrier has an easy job. The carrier is taking most of the financial risks. The carrier pays for the load boards, the tracking devices, the recruiting adds, the phone lines, the computers, the banking fees, and a whole array of other fees that are associated with the day to day carrier operations. But the drivers also take on risks of their own while working with their carrier to promote the company name and build up a solid reputation for the carrier.
Also, when I was talking about the 40 percent mark-up I am talking about smaller loads, or longer loads going into sparce areas of the country, and loads that cross the Canadian border. I'm not sure if you go into Canada or not, but not a lot of people like to fool with Canada so it stands to reason that shippers and brokers have to pay more money to get those loads covered! Like I said it's all in who you deal with. I get some loads directly through the broker which cuts out the middle man and it gives me a higher mark-up than a load that I get off of a bid board that has been taken from the broker and re-brokered!
