Brought to you by: Gold River Insurance Brokerage

Whether you’re just starting out and need to get your foot in the door or you already have experience getting loads and just need to get more reliable contacts, one of the very best ways of getting loads to pull is through a load board. A Load Board is basically an online bulletin board where shippers or brokers can post their shipments for motor carriers to see. The carrier simply chooses a shipment they’re interested in hauling, calls the shipper to negotiate rates, agrees on a deal with the shipper, and starts hauling. 

When broken down, it’s actually very simple, but there’s so much value you can get out of a load board. 

Tip: When a load catches your eye, get on the phone. There may be dozens of people interested in that same load and it’s first come, first serve. 

You don’t have the time to wait around for the rate to go up. If it looks like a load you may want to haul, make the call and start negotiating. 

From a load board, the carrier can see all kind of information about the shipment such as, pickup & drop off location, distance, weight of shipment, radius, type of freight, date of shipment, shipper information, and of course the rate or price for delivering the shipment. 

It’ll look something like this, depending on the load board you use:

Now before you start thinking you need to sift through pages of irrelevant shipments, you’ll be happy to know that Load boards allow you to fine tune and filter your results. Hauling reefer only? Turn on the filter for Reefer and you’ll see nothing but Reefer loads. Want Dry Van loads within a route less than 500 miles, under 42,000lbs, is LTL (less than truckload), and in your state? Turn on the filters and get exactly what you’re looking for.

Tip: When you start using a load board you want to make sure to learn the ins and outs of your specific load board. Go through the dashboard, settings, preferences, filters, etc. to learn what you can and can’t do with your load board. This will allow you to get as much value from your load board as possible from day one. 

Saving time with filters is definitely such a great benefit and convenience to your business especially if you plan on being on the road most of the time, but if you still need to save a bit more time, you’re going to love this feature of load boards. With load boards, you can actually post your truck(s) and wait for the freight brokers or dispatchers to call YOU. All you need to do is input the type of vehicle, the length, weight, contact info, origin (where the truck is located), and destination (where you’re willing to go). Once you have the basic info filled out your truck will be posted and if the freight brokers like what they see, they will call you and you can begin negotiating rates and acquiring more details.

Tip: When listing your truck on a load board, make sure to be as specific as possible. Apart from using the fields provided, you’re going to want to use the comments section to let the broker or dispatcher know exactly what you prefer as far as distance, if you’re willing to haul LTL (Less Than Truckload) or TL/FTL (Truckload/Full Truckload), etc. This is a great way to set additional filters for your loads even when you’re not the one searching the load boards.

Whether you called a shipper or they called you, you’ll need a bit more information about the shipment to see if it’s worth your time. 

Here are a few things you’ll need to know.

1) What is the commodity being hauled?

– Depending on the commodity you’re hauling, it can take much longer than expected to load onto the trailer and strap the commodity down. Knowing the answer to this question can save you a lot of time.

2) What is the pickup time? 

 – You’ll want to ask this simply to know if the shipment coincides with your schedule.

3) What is the delivery time?

 – Knowing this will help to determine how long you’ll be on the road for which lets you know how much you’ll be paying for fuel.

4) Who is going to be receiving the shipment?

– You want to know all the details of the shipment to keep track of the whole process. 

5) What is the weight of the shipment?

– You need to know if the load is worth it as the weight of the load can affect the fuel expense.

During your phone call, make sure you’re continually vetting the shipment to know whether or not to move on to the next one. Don’t be afraid to decline a load if it’s not beneficial for your business to take on. Just keep in mind, if you’re dealing with a tough or troublesome load, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad load. You can use the difficulty of the load as leverage in negotiating your rate because chances are if the load seems “bad” others have already declined. 

If you want to be as profitable as you can, you’ll need to learn to negotiate your rates. As with many things, negotiating a good rate is going to take practice and experience and with time you’ll learn the average rates and what leverage you have in your negotiating tactics. Once you come to an agreement on the rate, you’ll fill out the forms and documents required by the shipper and you’re ready to haul. 

Pick up the shipment on time, deliver the shipment on time, and of course, drive safely. Don’t risk your safety or your business trying to meet a deadline or time frame. Not to mention that unsafe driving can also cause damage to the freight being hauled which is definitely not good for your business and will quickly earn you a bad reputation with the shipper. 

Getting shipments to haul can seem pretty overwhelming, especially if you’re just starting out and likely have no connections with shippers or brokers in the industry. As you can see, a load board is a powerful tool for building the foundation of a good and profitable trucking company.

Bonus Tip: 

If you’re going to be using load boards, we recommend not relying solely on one load board for your business as you’re going to want a backup on the off chance one of the sites are down or you decide to stop using a certain load board for one reason or another. Using more than one gives you more load options as well. 

Either way, it’s good practice not to keep all your eggs in one basket.

If you need to learn more about load boards or how to use them, check out the links below

Truckstop.com Article – https://truckstop.com/blog/what-is-a-load-board/

DAT TruckersEdge Video – How to use a load board: DAT TruckersEdge