Needham:
Hi rikki,
reading you first model, we are not an agency and have not been approached by a haulage company who cannot get O/D or drivers, we are just a small haulage company who needs a subbie using what we have always thought was a site read and used by a large number od O/D looking at all aspects of their work i.e. other work thats out there, we are not a company looking to make money by putting person 1 in touch with person 2 for a fee
OK if you cant read the process behind scenario 1 I will put it more relevant terms-
You run a small transport business which makes you money to pay your bills- to do so you use your trucks and owner drivers to transport your customers goods - for which you get paid- your assets are your vehicles and owner drivers . - that is your business model
We are a website - that makes us money to pay our bills- to do so we provide a free discussion resource that owner drivers use -we sell advertising access to them for which we get paid- our assets are the people that use the site - that is our business model
It makes no more sense to allow a commercial enterprise to use the site to enter into business arrangements for free than its does for you as a transport company to move goods around the country for free. Surely as a business man you can see giving away our major selling point for nothing is ridiculous.
Just because ones a transport company and the other a website it doesn’t mean the business principle is different- However if you do decide to run your business as a benevolent charity, as you seem to think we should, and you move your customers goods around the country at your own expense then let me know and I may be able to make a special arrangement for you- but as a business its not something we would do in any other situation
EDIT: just read my own post again and realise it sounds unduly harsh- which wasn’t my intention- I mean merely to get over the point that this is a discussion forum, not a place for business arrangements, it also is not a charity- it is provided for free for the users- but like everyone else the people who work for it and the company that runs it have mortgages etc to pay and to do so have a business model that the sort of thing you wanted comes under
