independent owner operator load networking idea

I have an idea to give independent owner/op's another tool for finding good loads. I wanted to post it here so I could gauge interest in it and get some feedback on how it should be set up. This would mainly be geared towards O/O's with smartphones or a laptop/tablet in the truck.

How it works is if you spot a better than average load you will send the load info with origin and destination in the subject and info including rate, weight/dimensions, broker/shipper contanct info, and any other relevent info to an email address I will set up. That email will go to everyone subscribed to the list (either through a listserver or email forwarding) In turn, whenever someone else posts a load it will come to you.

The benefits to you are

1. free
2. only premium loads (I'll leave this at poster's discretion, but if I get complaints of someone posting cheap loads I reserve the right to boot anyone from the list)
3. a negotiated rate already listed (this should be considered a minimum rate)
4. participate as much or as little as you like (you could even set up a separate email account and only look at it when you are searching for a load.)

If I can get enough interest it will give the independent owner/operator some of the same advantages a lease operator has without losing the 25% and cut down on the time we spend searching through cheap loads and no-go's on the load boards. I'm sure we all have certain contacts we don't want to share, and that's fine. But if I'm sitting in IL and I get an email of a nice paying load from Laredo - Baltimore I'll put it on the list. Or if someone calls me with a good offer and I'm busy with other things, etc... The list is for the good loads you turn down. Rather than doing nothing with them, you share them with people who are commited to sharing opportunities with you. free market karma !

Some of the things on how it should be set up I'm considering. There will be one list for step/flat and one list for van to start. I figure in the subject I should instruct people to put state to state first, then city to city like "FL-IN Jacksonville-Indianapolis" That way it will be easy for the recipients to scroll through the loads. I mean, this thing could get big in time to the point you are recieving hundreds of emails a day. At that point I guess I would have to consider making it web based and seperating by state or region. But I don't want to think too far ahead, just get it set up and see what kind of participation I can get.

 

One thing that came up in discussion with an O/O not from this forum is for this to work everyone must share some leads. He suggested that in order to accomplish this I should require each person to share at least 4 loads per month. I think that's reasonable, if you're out there scrounging the load boards you must come up with at least 4 loads that are good but you can't do them because they don't pick up til the next day or they aren't going where you need to be or something. That will also help me to keep from accumulating dead e-mail addresses.

I hope I can garner some interest and support on this. If things go well and people participate down the road we could even use this network of carriers to approach some direct freight and opportunities which would not usually be available to the independent owner/op. think about it.

 

I guess your reading and comprehension skills aren't too sharp because I clearly stated you share loads and opportunities you turn down. My exact sentence was "I'm sure we all have certain contacts we don't want to share, and that's fine. But if I'm sitting in IL and I get an email of a nice paying load from Laredo - Baltimore I'll put it on the list."

For you and others who don't understand the benefit of getting 100 load opportunities that someone else has done the legwork on for every 1 that you share as a free service. PLEASE do NOT join this list !!

 

it's no big deal if Irv wants to keep his multi-million dollar business deals to himself. This idea isn't for him. It's for those of us that want a list of decent loads you can scan through in a few seconds rather than making 30 phone calls, being put on hold, and being offered cheap rates.

It's for those of us that are spending too much time seperating the wheat from the chaff if you will. If I spend all day finding a decent load out of Baltimore and the broker has three more available, why should a guy in my network have to spend all day doing the same thing ? I post it, he get's it. Maybe next time, he posts it and I get it ?

Again, people who don't understand this concept, really, just go away. This isn't for you.