While walking in the huge shopping malls or visiting retail outlets, have you ever wondered how these goods or products reach the place where they are stored or displayed? The goods are shipped from the manufacturing units to the retail outlets via a mode of transportation. There are a number of people involved in making these things possible.
Freight broker is an entity who co-ordinates with both shipper and carrier in order to transport goods to their destination. Brokers are responsible for checking the number of products or shipment being transported, loading and unloading place, arranging trucks, and communicating with truck drivers as well as receiver of freight being transported.
America’s transport industry has shown tremendous growth since its origin. Today, it is one of the highest revenue generating industries of the world. So, for those who want to have their share in this lucrative industry, freight brokerage training courses are the answer.
Freight Broker Training Courses – What Things Are Covered?
You can’t be a successful freight broker overnight. There are a myriad of things to learn; several things can be learned only through practical experience over a period of time. While experience makes a huge difference in being a freight broker, freight broker training programs help aspirants get the knowledge and edge in the field before they start practicing their skills.
A typical broker training programs educate the individuals about following subjects, extremely significant for their survival and success in the trucking industry:
- Learning the fundaments (including terminologies) of the industry
- Developing a powerful network including shippers and carriers
- Dispatch Procedures
- Selection of the right carrier
- Calculating travel time
- Learning to use freight broker software
- Targeting Niche Market
- Finance Management
- Creating strategies and planning operations
- Accounting details for transactions
This is just a tip of the iceberg. Freight brokerage training has much more to offer to greenhorns. Especially when you have no idea about the industry you are entering and how it works, joining a broker training program is highly recommended.
What Options Are Available for Freight Broker Training?
There are a number of freight broker training courses and programs available to choose from. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) offers a graduate-level course that covers the transportation systems fundamentals and effective operation.
There are some other courses of interest to freight brokers running at MIT. Some of them are named Air Transportation Systems Architecting, Economics of Marine Transportation Industries and Logistics Systems.
There are free resources available on the internet that can help amateur brokers in their business; Export and Import Training Videos by the U.S. Census Bureau, International Trade Basics at Radford University, Export Tutorials at Global Edge Michigan State University, and Small Entity Compliance Guide for Broker Operations by the U.S. Department of Transportation are to name a few.
Moreover, there are many private institutions that offer paid freight broker training courses both online and offline. However, in my view, the best way to begin is joining an on-the-job training program run by a logistic or freight shipping company. This will help you get real world insights and make you earn money while learning.
Enrolling for freight brokerage agent training is crucial in becoming a successful independent freight broker.