Work at Home as a Transportation Broker

This is a unique work from home opportunity. Unlike so many others out there, this can truly become a full time income for you and your family. This is also a great team opportunity for a husband and wife.

Imagine as you look around you, everything you see was delivered by truck somewhere. Every piece of metal, timber in the walls, the sheetrock and paint covering the walls, down to the carpet on the floor and the light fixtures on the ceiling. Even the furniture and accessories in the room were all delivered by truck from the manufacturer to the store that sold it to you. Even the manufacturer had deliveries.

Suppose you made just a few dollars off of each of those shipments, now you start to comprehend the nature of what it is to be a transportation broker.

Everyday, out on our highways are truckers looking for shipments to pick up. There are even more companies looking to have things shipped from their warehouse to the next stop on the way to your home or office. A Transportation Broker makes those connections happen by hooking up a trucker with a shipment.

Becoming a Transportation Broker can be a big step if you are not familiar with the industry. Brokers often specialize in certain types of materials, trucks or merchandise. To break into the Transportation Broker industry, it is best to become an Agent for an established Transportation Broker.

Depending on where you live, you might be able to find a job as an agent with a Transportation Broker that maintains an office in your city. Or search for a smaller broker on-line and request to become their agent. Many Brokers offer training, and will accept you as their agent. This is often the best opportunity to explore a new industry without a large investment.

To begin as an agent from home, the initial investment for equipment is quite small. You need a dedicated fax line and fax machine, a phone line with unlimited long distance and hi-speed internet. For convenience it is nice to have a headset that plugs into your phone as you will spend quite a bit of time on the phone and need your hands free for your computer keyboard.

Depending on your Broker, you may or may not have to pay for a membership to one of the trucking boards on the internet. Some Brokers will pay for this service for you, while others will require you to pay for it.

Now you are ready to start searching for clients. This process is often called "mining". Data mining the internet for potential customers is the easy part. For example, let's assume your Broker tends to work with companies shipping steel. You would do searches on the web for steel, mines, metal works, etc... After creating a list of companies, look at each company website for a contact person to find out when they need to ship out their material.

Usually a company will use a dozen brokers, and send out an email to them as a group looking for a truck to ship their item. The email will contain basics about the shipment: what type of truck, does it need tie downs on the truck, the location of the item(s), and how much they are willing to pay. From that point it becomes a race to see who can fill the order first!

When you get the order, you will input the basic information on one of the trucker websites and then wait for your phone to ring. As truckers view the website and see an opportunity that works with their location and rig they will call you and ask for the assignment. You will negotiate a price with the trucker and keep the difference for your broker. You will have an agreement with your broker as to what percent you will receive from each deal.

Three of these websites that interface truckers with brokers are: www.MIFreightBroker.com, www.GetLoaded.com and www.InternetTruckStop.com.

If you choose to take that extra step and become a Transportation Broker yourself you will want to look at some of the expenses involved. Usually you will need a Tax ID Number, Cargo Insurance, Bonding, and a Federal License. For a small Broker, this would be about $20,000.

As a Transportation Broker, you might also consider utilizing a Factoring service that purchases your invoices and fronts you the money due from your customers. Using a Factoring service has a number of advantages. They will pay all of your carriers within 30 days, and will monitor the credit of your customers and will pay you even if funds are not collected. For this particular service you want to look for a non-recourse factor.

Now that you have a basic idea of what a Transportation Broker is and what a Broker and Agent both do. Consider that you could easily make several thousand a month working from your home as an Agent, and over $10,000 per month after expenses as a Broker.