A slow start to 2017

Despite a big push from the recent election and even stocks in the transportation sector doing well, auto transport is lingering a bit so far. When this happens companies tend to get scared and drop lead providers or the amount of leads they get. My biggest advice is keep with it (if you can) because all those customers will eventually ship their cars and your posted orders will eventually dispatch.

Weather is the number one factor this time of year and it (as always) is unpredictable. Hang in their because I belive 2017 will be the strongest year in the last decade.

Why PayPerClick (PPC) does not Pay for brokers?

So you want to try PayPerClick (PPC).

pay-per-click

noun

1. (on the Internet) a strategic business model where companies place an advertisement on their site pays a sum of money to the host website when a user clicks on said advertisement.

Lets break it down for brokers in 4 factors.

1. Cost per "key word" 

Costs can range substantially any where from $12-$15 per click for a key word that is competitive such as "auto transport" to $5-$10 per click for a longer tailed keywords with less traffic and impressions. The key here is LESS, a lot less, so its not Realistic to believe you will get tons of clicks at $5-$8 even if you set your daily budget to the moon.

2. Experience.

Google has certain algorithms to extrapolate as much money as possible from new companies and individuals with newer accounts. I recently set up my 3rd managed account and remember we did not break even on cost until we paid over $50,000 through the account. So if you don't have $50k-$100k to play with I would be very careful.

3. Conversion (Lead)

One of the biggest things is your conversion rate, basically how many "clicks" it takes to aquire a real lead. Most sites I see brokers using are poor at best. In fact, a recent study claims that the average lead converting site performs at 20%. This would mean it would take about 9 clicks to get a lead. Times that by $8.00 (conservatively speaking) and that is $40.00 for anyone starting out. 

4. Conversion (Sale)

Now how many leads must you generate to get an actual sale. Say you close these exclusive leads at 33.33% . That would mean you would have to spend $120.00 as your CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) Then pay a sales commission of lets say 30%, again conservatively speaking, to your sales rep. Even if you closed the deal at $200.00 which is on the high side, the company would make $20.00.

Conclusion

Believe it or not, many of my numbers above are fair and conservative. The main reason why it doesn't work out so well for brokers is because the majority of consumers like to get multiple prices online. so even after you spend all this money getting a actual lead, that customer shops on other sites and gets multiple quotes from other companies as well. The best bet is still aggressive sales reps and a good quality lead source(s).

Things are looking up!

Do you think 2017 will bring a better season and overall a better year?

Yes, With the recent positive market fluctuations due to the new incoming president I believe 2017 will be a strong overall year. 2016 brought too much uncertainty and was very flat to say the least. Election years have always proven (as of recent) to prove strong, solid growth in many sectors.

 

Industry Experiences a weak summer season...

Industry Experiences a weak summer season...

Central dispatch listings at an all time low.

Fluctuating in the low 20k's, Centraldispatch.com, The monopoly of all load boards is at a 3 year low, some will blame a slower than normal car sales market due to ride-sharing platforms such as uber and lyft. If the growth trend for ride-sharing keeps continuing as it has been, we are all in some deep trouble.

Do Snowbirds still exist?

Of course, but again, with a soft car market and Uber around, Why does granny need a car when she gets to florida? She can simply hitch a low cost ride, you do the math:

1.) Transport car to and from florida: $1400
2.) gas / parking / maintenance while in Florida for 5 months: $600

That's two grand, My grandparents could spend $300.00 a month on Uber and and be well under that number, not to mention riding in style. We may see our beloved snowbird routes fizzle out in the next year or so. HINT: Its already happening.

So whats left?

Well, lets see... IT'S NOT GOOD! We have pretty much have taken our bread and butter out, so the occasional specialty car move or military relocation.... Again, not looking good.

Whats Next?

Autonomous cars, the death of car sales and most transport as we know it. Autonomous trucks carrying autonomous cars, check out this 30K retrofit: https://www.wired.com/2016/05/otto-retrofit-autonomous-self-driving-trucks/

I'm sure when perfected (and legal) carriers will be buying these things up like candy, at least prices will go even lower to transport what we got left.

AUTO TRANSPORT APPS

Auto Transport Apps, The future, or a nightmare you can't even begin to imagine...

In this day an age one would expect their to be a plethora of car shipping apps similar to uber and lyft except for consumers that need to ship vehicles. While this technology has already arrived already in the freight shipping sector, it has yet come to ours. Companies such as Convoy and Cargomatic have jumped into this both claiming that they are the "uber" of freight shipping. One can only assume this means auto transport is next.

Not So Fast.

Not so easy though, this requires money, not the kind of money that daddy gave you to open your brokerage, real money. The kind of money to hire a real (non commissioned) work staff. Then advertising, lots of it, I'm talking top of google money to get the word out, it would be 10 to 100 times more capital then uber to get the word out. This industry is not so "word of mouth" as ride sharing apps. so you can imagine that we got a while to go but the basic apps and infrastructure is in place already.

TIP FOR JUNE 2016

One helpful tip I can recommend for you is to make sure that your office number (800) is in your metatag, this will increase your monthly website calls by 200%. An old friend of mine shared that tip with me many years ago.

Industry Update

It would appear that the broker boom of 2011 is all but gone, you just done see an influx of car shipping companies like you have in days past. The larger ones remain and the smaller ones seem to eek by. 1-2 man owner/sales reps have recently proved to be a popular business model due to rising overhead.

Some companies buy leads, some use Uship and a few try to market small car dealerships. I know one thing, right now does not seem like a good time to open one of these businesses. Lead prices will continue to rise and smaller companies will trickle away slowly but the big 20 will remain, hammering it out day by day.

Industry booming!

Seems like this is going to be a record summer as far as transport moves, Centrals numbers is at the highest in years. Large retail brokerages are still on the rise despite the bond increase to 75k, but the most surprising thing is postings for large trucking companies such as DAS and UNITED are down 12% and brokerages are up 8% year over year showing the power of the broker. As long as fuel prices plateau and do not increase, this summer will break records!

Record winter season as Oil prices continue to fall

With the price of oil screaming below $62.00 a barrel, the transport industry benifits tremendously. Both brokers and Carriers profits are on the rise this winter season for what is turning out to be a record Year. Top research analists are calling for oil to go as low as $50.00 per barrel. With all this positvity the future looks bright for 2015, for now.

Tim

Bond Prices Raised from 10,000 to 75,000

The broker bond has been raised from $10,000 to $75,000. Transport companies are required to be more transparent in the payment of claims by bonds and trusts. All motor carriers, freight forwarders and brokers must register for each function performed. What Does this Mean? Less creation of transport companies and Most "Mom and Pops" will be out of business in no time. theirs one people do not have right now Cold hard Cash or impeccable Credit. Bad for Lead Providers. bad for brokers. bad for business...

Buying Leads the right way

I'm so sick and tired of people (Brokers) complaining about leads, with in 5 minutes of receiving them and then there happy 2 days later, as well as companies that buy only 500 leads, cancel, and then want to start up again 1 week later, because the closing ratio has went up!

Brokers,

Grow up and realize your closing ratio is not going to be high within the first few days. It needs time to average out and 500 leads is such a small quantity, that it is near impossible to figure out if the Leads work for You or not.

Ive sold leads to companies who crawl back to Me a week later and say sorry, the leads ended up working out. what happens is, deals close days and weeks after you received the physical Lead. so stop complaining, chances are You will be okay!

Click to Call explained in Depth

Google's Click to Call explained in Depth in this YouTube Video (SEE BELOW)

That's Right!, Now YOU can figure out how the magic is Done. What all the other guys are Doing, how to generate Your own leads VIA Click 2 Call AKA ..... Inbound phone Calls to Your Business.

The Closing rate on these calls are generally 45-65% Depending on your sales skill. and Deposits.....

anywhere from $300.00 - $900.00 THIS IS THE NEW GOLD MINE!!!

Central Dispatch Jacks Prices through the roof!

Shortly after Being acquired by DealerTrak, Central Dispatch raises it's prices for all of its users to a new much higher amount (tier table below)

Tier 1-2 Cars Dispatched
$59.95

Tier 2
3-30 Cars Dispatched
$79.95

Tier 3
31-250 Cars Dispatched
$149.95

Tier 4
251-500 Cars Dispatched
$249.95

Tier 5
501+ Cars Dispatched
$499.95










Users used to Pay $59.95 for the whole enchilada, now brokers can expect to pay a 30% to 550% increase.

JTracker / Central Acquired For $74,000,000

1st Auto Transport Bought by DealerTrack

DealerTrack, a Lake Success, N.Y. software firm, Reported it has acquired San Diego based 1st Auto Transport Directory Inc., an online vehicle transportation network for $74 Million in cash.
Founded in 1997, 1st Auto Transport Directory delivers transport services to brokers, Car Dealerships, carriers and Shippers in the United States and Canada.

Among its websites, CentralDispatch.com, a B2B network for arranging Auto transport with more than 13,000 subscribers...  JTracker.com, a customer relations management (CRM) tool for Auto transport brokers and MoveCars.com, an online advertising directory for the car shipping industry.
Mark O’Neil, C.E.O. for DealerTrack, said 1st Auto Transport helps dealers source and dispatch vehicles in a more timely and cost Friendly manner.

Wayne Harris, founder and president of 1st Auto Transport Directory, said “By joining DealerTrack we will be able to extend our network into more automotive dealerships than ever before, and it will make it easier for dealers to ship vehicles anywhere, coast-to-coast.”

How to get rid of Transport Reviews

Transport Reviews like any reviews site has the good intention of helping customers make educated decisions on who they do business with. However it's open to malicious abuse, and illegitimate negative reviews can harm your business. Even 5 star companies know that all it takes is one bad review at the top to harm your business.

In order to get special treatment (like getting bad reviews manually taken down), some companies have enrolled in their various sponsorship programs.

At the end of the day these reviews sites were created to financially benefit by exploiting the industry.

So how can everyone get rid of Transport Reviews?

It's simple. Stop being part of the problem that the industry unknowingly created. REMOVE ANY LINKS FROM YOUR WEBSITE TO TRANSPORT REVIEWS.

By having a link to  transport reviews, you're boosting their ranking for the main industry keywords in Google. So if you have a link on your site, remove it immediately. That goes for all review sites.

Double Brokering

 Message From A Friend:



The end of summer has finally come, and with it comes scarcity. Brokers are fighting tooth and nail for every scrap that they can get. This means that the quality of pricing and sales practices has, as expected, dropped off of a cliff. I think that it’s important for everyone involved in this industry – the brokers, the customers, the drivers, and yourselves, the lead providers – to act professionally. As of late, there has been an influx in double brokering, low-ball pricing, and every other dirty trick that one can imagine. It doesn’t look good for anyone that customers are having their vehicles double or triple brokered, leaving them without a chance for service. I think the root of the problem is low-ball pricing.

I’m not saying that brokers shouldn’t be pricing competitively; competitive pricing is how we make our daily bread. But there is a thin line between competitive pricing and aggressive low-balling.  The number of drivers dwindles every day, and the guys that remain are becoming incredibly selective about who they give their loads to.

I know that you’re limited in what you can do, but this is something that needs to be addressed. The people that are really suffering are your long-term clients and the customers that they service. Not only do low-ballers ruin good deals, but they also hurt the drivers. And without the drivers, there is no auto transport industry to speak of.  Things will only get worse unless you, as the lead provider(s), address the issue with brokers DIRECTLY through emails or some other form of communication. Just let some of the other guys out there know that this low-balling business needs to stop. I think that this would be a step in the right direction for now.

Thank you for your time and please help us out!

A Successful State of Mind, A Successful Business

No one ever gets to the real potential person they could be if that person is not 100% confident in themselves.

People who are 100% comfortable in themselves are:

Celebrities
Millionaires
Successful

They seem (appear) to other people, who are not successful.

Cocky
Arrogant
Weird (different)

Well they appear to be like this because they are different

If you be 100% confident while following the golden rule you are perfect.

And I have never met a perfect person, don't get me wrong I've seen 99% but that 1% flaw I find, then I judge the other person as:

Cocky
Arrogant
Weird (different)

Enter Jealousy ?!?!

I'm not perfect Yet...

Because I judge?!?!

I'm sure there Judging people too who view them as " different" so that means there jealous as well, jealous of being "normal"

So no one can be perfect.

But if You can find the right BALANCE, You will be close, not 100% but close.

THE POINT...

 

In this industry, The two killing mentalities are Greed (wanting as much money as fast as possible to become bigger, better and more successful then Your peers)

and Jealousy (envious of Your peers kicking in the Greed)

HOW SHOULD I RUN MY COMPANY?

You Should Treat all Your Employees and Customers as if they were Family, and I mean immediate Family. Grow Your company nice and Slow. Ive seen companies grow to 20 employees and 150,000 their first month. This is bad. You should grow at max 10% a Month. Otherwise the Growing Pains Might certainly Kill You.

How Much Money Can an Auto Transport Company Make?

Good Question...

The Simple Answer is, an Auto transport Company can only Be as Big as the Number of Leads Available. (This is a good Thing)

Right now there are 30,000 - 35,000 Leads available for Purchase each Month in this Field. if Your Company closed 3% of 30,000 leads at an average of $150.00 a ticket, You would have a $135,000.00 (not bad, considering the cost of start up) You now have million and a half dollar business a Year.

NOTE: You will need a large office and 25-30 people to handle this.

The Profit

Now lets look at the Numbers...


MONTHLY TOTAL                                  135,000.00

Lead Cost                                                   30,000.00
Commission (30%)                                      40,500.00
C.R.M, Merchant fee's Phones and Rent    10,000.00
2 dispatchers @ 750 a week                         6,000.00
2 customer service @ 750 a week                6,000.00
1 Manager @ 1000 a week                           4,000.00
1 Asst. Manager @ 750 a week                    3,000.00
Office Supplies                                             3,000.00
Misc.                                                             5,000.00
____________________________________________
PROFIT:                                                      27,500.00

The Bottom Line

This really is a special business that is Truly unregulated as of now, but there is a ton of speculation that the bond price is increasing to $100,000.00 soon. But then again, I have heard this line of malarkey every week for the last 10 years.


Making over $300,000.00 a Year does not come easy, 100's of brokerages go out of business in the first Year due to one thing and one thing only......

Enter - CHARGE BACKS.

You Guessed it, so just one thing to stay afloat, Don' t be Greedy. Charge back's will kill You every time, They are the all too familiar noose in the wild west of Car Shipping.

Auto Central Transport

Craig Giganti Owner of Auto Central Trasnport
Booked 14th Jun 2010 at 12:00am
Broward County, Florida Mug Shot
DOB: 12/06/1980 Age: 29
Charges: VIOL OF PROB – FEL, VOP-POSSESSION OF COCAINE

Craig is Notorious for Chargeback's on Lead Providers

This has happened to My Company and Numerous Others Lead Generators.
Everything on this Man is bad in a simple search. Exept his TR. HMMMM?
Just goes to show again with TR. If you Pay, You can Play.