Pre-booking loads

It's nice to get an open window FCFS say between 0700/1600 in those cases.

 

I try to avoid appointments unless its 8 am that helps a lot , I figure 2 hours at a reciever then an hour for every 50 miles away if its a firm appointment on pickup i try to get a little more time by figuiring to get there an hour early but i have found the fcfs places are generally faster than the places with appointments its rare that I have to cancel a load because a reciever wastes time its probably been over a year , I do a lot of known shippers and recievers. ..... I mostly do a 250 mile radius from my house and do up to 500 mIle trips and am home most every night ...... unless I feel like going somewhere or get a high paying load thats hard to turn down ...... or if its cold or snowing and I go deeply south

 

I sometimes will be 7 loads booked in advance and occasionally will book a good load and work to it , it takes awhile to get it down hardest part is knowing what a good load is for the area your in

 

Great advice so far. Like has been said one them being a FCFS is nice. If both are appointments then maybe allow 3 hours plus drive time. That way if your out of there in an hour you’ve only wasted two hours which is still probably worth booking ahead. Some you can get over to the pick a little early and still get loaded. It’s the big huge shippers that always want to screw you. The smaller ones generally are much more flexible as long as your only off an hour or less. Also, some brokers tell you it’s an appt when it’s not. They are just trying to make the carrier be more punctual and know to recover sooner if they don’t show. Worst case if you allowed 3 hours and it’s been 2 hours and you hadn’t been touched then start alerting the broker on the next load. This way they can either recover it or ask the shipper for some flexibility. Communication is key no matter what. Sometimes it can “screw” you by losing you a load, but many more times it helps you, the broker, and the shipper to plan and everyone is happy and reputations intact.

 

3 hours plus drive time is a good plan especially when balancing productivity and ELD compliance.

The only hard and fast rule is that being early for a later appointment goes a lot better than late for an early one in today's market.

 

another good thing is dealing with the prime contractor on a load in other words the agent that is dealing with the shipper not with another Brooker, usually in a double brokered load the agent doesn't know much of anything about the load worse yet he may tell you things he made up ....... I do known loads in advance up to a week or sometimes even more and then work to them .... that works if you are in the right area if not its impossible to make money doing it ...... I stay regional most of the time and live in Ohio and can get to any area within 500 miles pretty easy that pays decent. ... I try to stay in a 250 mile radius from the house and do a drive by the house for a 10 hr. break eg. a load from indy to buffalo or Pittsburgh to grand Rapids if I cant find anything decent i will go out to 500 miles and find a load back or triangle from there if thats where the pay is

 

It depends on a few factors for me, is the load a lumper? Then, when does detention start 2h or 3h. I usually give receivers 3 hour window and the shippers fcfcs if possible. As for 1 hour for 50 miles this depends where you at, in Los Angeles rush hour 1 hour 50 miles is no good.

 

I had a 3pm appt at bayou steel the other day, didnt get loaded until 1am. I was thus 2 hours late the the following appt.

That experience has me preferring to run unbooked and just stay in hot markets for a while until i know the drill at more shippers and traffic in more zones. It would really irk me to have a shippers poor performance cause me to be a poor performer on the next one. I find that running where i know is also much more efficient than where i dont in terms of split second rerouting and not gps'ing myself into deadends and 7ton bridges.

 

I've been lucky to have never missed an appointment since I got my authority. I never failed to show up either. When I worked for someone else it was a different story but late arrivals were not up to me, neither my fault.

I like prebooking a week ahead - 3 loads.. This frees my mind from that constant loadboard onlooking. Perhaps, that is not the best tactic for the spot market sharks but as long as the prediction of money left after fuel and tolls agrees with what I need then I prefer it that way.
If the likelihood of detention is high, I tell them where I go for the unload and who the receiver is, this way, if they have doubts or objections, they may refuse to give me that load in the first place.
I make a presumption that I can spend 3 - 4 hours at an unknown place. So I reserve the time to arrive at another pick up accordingly. If I see that nothing is done after 3rd hour then I call the prebooked load broker and let them know about the delay and leave it up to them if they want to remove me from the load.

I also find that falling out on a load is not that big deal for a broker as long as it is at least one day before the pick up. It could be a big deal, if you took it for too cheap and they know that nobody else would take it for so little but they know what they risk when they sell loads days ahead for cheap rates.