Freight Shipping Stories & Case Studies
Freight: What is it and where does it come from?
When I was completing my undergrad at Western –
20 something years ago – a few older guys
recruited me to play on their ball team in the
summer. One of the guys on the team owned his
own freight brokerage called MSM Transportation
– his nickname was ACE.
I remember on the bench one game he asked me
what I was planning to do after I graduated. I
said I wanted to be a lawyer and was going to
write my LSATS and apply to Law School. He said
“You don’t want to be lawyer, believe me I know
a lot of them”. He also told me that if my plan
didn’t work out to come and see him and he’d put
me in sales. Great, I thought – an ACE in my
back pocket.
In the meantime, I had another buddy who was
already in the trucking industry and I asked him
about it at a party one night. I remember my
first question…
“WHAT IS FREIGHT ANYWAY?”
It’s actually a little embarrassing that I asked
such a stupid question, but in reality, I didn’t
quite know what freight was. I guess I was book
smart back then but not street smart – half book
smart if you ask my wife.
His answer was simple he said “FREIGHT IS
EVERYTHING”. Then I asked if it was a good
industry to get into and he had another
memorable answer for me on that one. He said
“MIKE, LOOK AT ALL THE TRUCKS ON THE ROAD”… he
could have put “DUH” after that but was kind
enough not to.
Guess what? Law school went the way of the dodo
bird and I got real familiar with the
Mid-Continental Truck Terminal in Etobicoke and
the offices of MSM Transportation. The rest is
history as my dad would say.
Over the next two and a half decades, I would
answer my own question as to what FREIGHT
actually was. I remember my first customer and
my first “pound of freight” as they call it in
the industry. A cosmetic company located in
Mississauga – named Bonne Bell – tendered us 2
pallets of lipstick to haul from Westlake
Village, Ohio. The best part of it is somehow I
managed to endear myself to the traffic manager
that I was put on the routing to handle the lane
full time, not just a one shot deal. A good
start for a 22 year old right out of College.
That was the beginning of my bountiful and
tumultuous relationship with freight.
One thing about it is that it’s always been
challenging to explain exactly what I do for a
living. I still look for people’s faces when I
mention I’m in the freight business. I swear
some people look back at me and I can tell they
don’t know what freight is either – just like me
25 years ago. Throw the term brokerage in there
and they get totally mixed up. I have to break
it down a little further and explain I’m in the
trucking business. “Are you a truck driver?” is
usually the next follow up question. After I
answer “no” then it’s “Do you sell trucks? You
said you were a broker, right?” – nope to that
one too!
Chances are if you are reading this blog you
already know what Freight is but in case you
don’t,
According the FREE dictionary online:
Freight
(frāt)
n.
1. Goods carried by a vessel or vehicle,
especially by a commercial carrier;
cargo.
2. A burden; a load.
For some strange reason after 25 years of it, I
get a kick out of # 2