The 10 Commandments of Successful Freight Partnerships

By: Dan Lindsey

Building

relationships is critical for sustained success in the logistics and transportation industry. The best business relationships foster trust, incentivize reliability, and celebrate operational efficiency while reducing uncertainties and “calming the waters” in this often volatile industry. Relationships correctly built benefit carriers by providing consistent, fairly compensated freight opportunities. Freight brokers (and shippers) benefit by acquiring dependable capacity and high-quality service.

But how are these relationships built?

At the first Broker Carrier Summit, I gave a talk on “10 Rules for Partnership”, and over the past 2 years I’ve expanded on this topic; writing and developing thoughts gathered from individuals throughout the BCS Network. I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and listen to hundreds of people tell their stories and have had conversations with the Drivers, Owner Operators, Fleet Managers, Freight Brokers, and Operations Managers who are leading their organizations toward establishing and maintaining these critically important relationships.

During these conversations, the same themes kept coming up. It got to the point that – when I would ask questions, like “What do you wish your brokers (or carriers) did more of?” or “What do you wish your brokers (or carriers) would stop doing?”- the answers were almost entirely predictable; almost like everyone was reading from the same script. Except they weren't.

What people and companies look for in relationships and partnerships is

complicated. The answer to the question, "What should I do to be a good business partner?" is

rocket science. It doesn't require an IQ of 160. What it does require, however, are 2 things; things we continually work to infuse into everything the BCS does:

.

In that spirit, I will be rolling out these 10 Rules For Freight Partnerships over the next few months, and the rules and behaviors described should be understood to be equally applicable to brokers, carriers, drivers, and dispatchers. Each post will dive deeper into how these rules apply to each segment over the course of the next few months.

I hope you find them valuable.

Stay tuned!