Moglar, as we have said, after you been here awhile you will realize that isn't the case very often. It quite often seems to be the case when you are in your first. Months here. After you completely learn the system you will fully understand how little it matters, and at that time you can spot it with no trouble are all, and there isn't nearly as much of these magical special loads some make you believe are there. And special calls about special loads, it simply throws you off your game.
My issue is no matter how or where I go it's almost impossible to preplan. I mean sure you can preselect several loads but to say that you'll get get them is another story. Prime example : I saw a load that I wanted for next week, so I check the destination for loads coming out. Loads coming out are decent so I book the load going to destination. I then turn around an try to book the load at destination an POOF!,,,no loads within 400 miles of destination. It's like the loads just disappeared. So now I'm committed to a load going somewhere without a load coming out of the area. So unless I wanna book a load that's 400 miles away I basically have to sit at destination for 2 days until something pops up. Not a big fan of sitting,especially when it can be avoided.
So all the loads disappeared within the hour of you booking the load to that destination? Even if it does happens which has happen to me when the agent takes forever to dispatch me, always give the agent a heads up and on when you'll be there and which direction you wanna go. Another thing is knowing which agents have their own customers and which have their own customer and also book freight from other brokers and load boards.
That's also a good question because if its a 50/50 area then the load going in ought to pay good to bounce.
I try an prebook out of my destination area. Lately that's not been working an by luck I stumble across a load at the very last minute an when I say last minute I'm talking last minute as in a load here offered to me while I'm unloading at the destination. I've only been here a month so yes I understand patience is key so I'm not complaining, just looking for a little more insight on what it is I'm doing wrong. So far, I've only been able to prebook once since I've been here. I know the lanes pretty well but just becuase I know the lanes from having my own authority doesn't mean the lanes are the same with mercer. I found that out really fast!!
It doesn't sound like your doing anything wrong to me. There are times when you will not be able to prebook, even if your settings are wide open. I know by reading on here it seems that your in the minority when it comes to being able to prebook, but trust me you're not. I've sat empty next to guys/gals that have 4 digit trucks more times than I care to count, & I'm pretty sure that those individuals have the system figured out pretty good. It's just slow right now & has been for a bit, it will pick up and when it does you'll be fine!!
Don't get me wrong I totally understand we are in the slowest period we've ever seen for freight. I totally understand that part that's why I'm not pointing any fingers. I just don't wanna be sitting here a year from now an still trying to figure out why I'm hustling backwards in a sense.
I will add that if you have a coordinator, you and that coordinator have to be on the same page. My 1st coordinator I had was very good, 2nd not so much, now I don't really have one. You can't monitor the board by yourself all day, loads come up and go very quickly, so someone has to be on top of the board for you. A tip from me would be to have someone monitor the board for you, like a significant other, a friend, anyone. The reason would be to find out if there is stuff coming up that you would have put your name on, but were never offered it.
