Searching for Loads on LoadBoards

The way you do it is the way I do it.
I haven't found the magic pill or crystal ball.
Find direct customers to haul for. Cold call.

Good luck.

 

A book could be written on this question and not cover everything. The first thing you need to do is learn a few specific areas/regions - when they're hot and when they're not. There are no short cuts and no tricks - it takes time and patience.

Generally speaking it's better from a negotiating standpoint for them to be calling you and asking for your truck. You're pretty much perceived as begging when you call them and therefore the offers will mostly be lowball.

Is that all you ever do? Call and ask them about their loads? Do you not post your truck? If a market is pretty hot you can call inquiring on loads and feel out if the broker has deep pockets then get a good rate. That's the only time you can call them and get a great rate.

It's best to post your truck and just let them call you. But this doesn't work in a dead area. In a hot market your phone blows up and you can get a better rate. So put yourself in hot markets and have at it.

 

Enter daily operating costs into a spreadsheet. Add up. Shoot for $175/day company profitability. Don't forget to pay the driver and replacement truck/truck 2 fund, among other expenses. Also dont forget that you will be operating 5 or 6 days per week for that truck but your fixed costs are monthly. This translates to about an extra 70$ for a multi day trip. Then check rates coming back out of that area. Target $1000/day gross revenue combined with $2.10/mile.

Call on load, ask for your price. Not higher than the price you need, just the price you need to satisfy above conditions. They will counter offer. Politely say, no thanks, I am going to check around. 60% of the time they cave right there. If not, keep calling. NEVER settle for less than your price.

 

There are a lot of good paying loads on the boards.
Plenty cheap rates that make me run empty out of certain areas also.
.

 

Lol that is such an amateur statement. Sometimes a month working of loadboards, can net you more than working two months for your regular customer.
You can't tell your customer to pay you $6000 today instead of regular $3000, because market is hot, but working with loadboards you can. But also if market is slow today, your customer won't offer you $2000.
It all comes to find what works best for you. I have a good direct shipper for Monday pickups, but I don't want to service him all week, because it will put pressure on me, to get any load to come back to him for Wednesday, while instead I can do a triangle and come back home with more money. It's not black and white the way you made it sound

 

Focus only on certain markets. It’s easy to fall into the trap of taking whatever load pays the best and you end running every which way. When you have 3k trucks you can do that, not one. I run the same lanes over and over and as a result I load with the same brokers a lot. I don’t post my truck. I call up the regular people I pull for and service those lanes only. I hit the load board for in between loads to position me back for one of my regular lanes. Build a good relationship with a brokerage office out of your home market so you have a strong headhaul base. I load out of AR with the same guy every time for good rates.