They die of cash, of scaling a process that was never written down, of cycle bets nobody knew they were making, and of concentration. All four are internal, all four are visible in advance, and this is the system for catching them.
Find the money your brokerage is already losing.
That is why so much of it contradicts other advice that is equally sincere. Build deep carrier relationships, or shop every load. Chase volume, or hold margin. Hire aggressively, or protect cash. Both halves of each pair are correct — in different phases.
Follow the wrong half at the wrong time and a brokerage that was doing everything right suddenly is not. Nothing else you can read tells you which half applies right now.
Not a book about strategy. An operating system — how each department runs, what each role is measured on, how the numbers connect, and what to do differently in each phase of the market.
Operating ratios move with mode, automation, freight complexity, service expectations and support structure. Most books hand you a target anyway, because a number feels like an answer.
This one teaches you to build your own from your own data, then gives you the model that does it. Where a figure does appear it is either sourced to a public filing and cited, or it is the author's judgment and says so. Nothing is presented as an industry standard that isn't one.
Every model is a real spreadsheet. Formula-driven, shipped blank with one illustrative row, and paired with a guide covering the theory, when to use it, how to read the output and the mistakes people make with it.
Plus twenty more: ramp curve, revenue growth, churn and erosion, seat economics, carrier scorecard, lane density and backhaul map, hiring plan, tracking compliance, claims log and the rest. The Dashboard Pack shows how they come together on a screen — twelve layouts, one per function, with what every number decides.
Answer honestly — not what you intend to do, what is actually true this month.
You'll get the complete diagnostic and the carrier vetting checklist. No list sharing, unsubscribe any time.
Most people buy one workbook, use it, and come back for the rest. That is the intended path — you should not have to spend real money to find out whether this is any good.
Buying for a team of five or more? Seats are discounted. Get in touch.
Both, but you start in different places. The diagnostic sorts that out in three minutes — a small operation is pointed at data, cadence and vetting, while a larger one goes to the scaling economics and the department depth.
The market cycle playbooks and the models. Most experienced operators know what to do and have never written down what to do differently in each phase, and almost nobody has built a ramp curve from their own data.
Working Excel files, formula-driven, that ship blank with one illustrative sample row and a guide covering the theory, when to use it, how to read the output and the mistakes. You put your own data in.
Every chapter ends with questions you answer yourself — mostly scenario and diagnostic, with applied ones that ask you to produce a number from your own business. They exist to test whether you can do the work, not whether you read the pages. No question tests a memorised benchmark.
Because they are different purchases. A workbook is one department and one model, read and used in an evening. The full system is twenty-eight workbooks, twenty-five working models and the dashboard specifications — what an owner uses to rebuild how the business runs. Start at $39 and decide for yourself whether the rest is worth it.
No. Backhaul HQ builds operating systems, training and tools for the people who run brokerages. We do not move freight and we are not competing with our customers for it.
Fourteen days. If a workbook is not useful to you, email contact@backhaulhq.com and we will refund it. No form to fill in and no reason required.
Backhaul HQ makes operating systems, training and tools for freight brokerages. Everything we publish comes from running the job rather than observing it, and everything is built so the person using it can check the reasoning.