“Being well organized, working efficiently, and brushing off setbacks are also traits you’ll find among the top performers,” Byrne continues. “You can’t let one issue ruin your day and distract you from the remaining tasks on your list.” More simply put: “Pressure comes with the territory.”
Honesty and attention to detail are also key to keeping customers, according to Lonnie Welch, president of H & S Freight Agents, Inc. in Yakima, WA. “That’s essentially what they’re paying us for—those are the things that keep a customer calling an individual or a business.” Moreover, he notes, if there are mistakes and problems, a broker’s shortcomings will then transfer to his/her customers and reflect poorly on their performance.
Work Ethic
Working hard is important, but working productively is more important. Efficacy is the real gold standard—and today’s technology can help.
“Productivity is key in a face-paced environment,” says Howard. “Learning what resources are available and utilizing them is a tremendous help. Having knowledge and an understanding of all roles throughout the supply chain is a great attribute as well. Being a broker of perishable commodities requires 24-hour-a-day accessibility.”
Additionally, Howard says pros will have support teams in place to handle carrier onboarding and tasks like credit checks and data entry. “A pro will know how to focus on business that will bring greater profits over a period of time; an ordinary performer may not look too far into the future and have a day-by-day business model.”
“It’s a very fast-paced environment and you’re constantly working against time. What the pros do in six hours will differ from your average transportation broker—which is why it’s important to work smarter not harder,” notes Cuevas.
Byrne concurs and says it this way: “We want to work smarter, and work hard. The ability to combine these two separates the top performers from the average.” And part of being efficient is foreknowledge. Pros are constantly thinking ahead about weather, holidays, or labor shortages—anything that can affect the market. They’re also proactively contacting customers, he says, and looking for ways to ensure shipments will stay on track.
“If you aren’t hitting your marks every day, then somebody with more ambition will,” stresses Welch. There’s no such thing as a “complacent, successful truck broker” in his opinion. “You put yourself in the game, every day,” he says, “then you’ll have success.”
Problem Solving
Problem solving is handling issues as they come up and anticipating what may come next. “Things change by the hour and sometimes even by the minute,” points out Rubini. “No solution is necessarily the right solution at any given time.
