Having your own trucking company can be challenging, especially if you are new to the industry. When starting a trucking business, there are many things to consider, such as how to market your company, where to find a freight broker, whether or not to perform your own truck dispatching, and so on. These factors, however, differ from one company to the next.
As a transportation company, your main goal is to deliver goods without delay or damage. Therefore, it is essential that you follow a schedule and be on time with it — but as a carrier, your main struggle at the same time is how to find your truckloads. Advanced Trucking provided tips that can help you to start booking your own truckloads in no time. Keep reading to find out!
- Find freight brokers. A freight broker is a person or a company that connects a shipper with cargo and a licensed transportation carrier authorized to transport it. Thus, they are a mediator between a shipper and a carrier. Also, having a good relationship with a freight broker is essential, as they can also help you in various ways. They can offer versatility in terms of shipping options and capacity of the truckload, they can save you money, and also, they can handle client issues on your behalf. Freight brokers can significantly help you when you are just starting a business.
- Hire truck dispatchers or dispatching service. Hiring truck dispatchers or dispatching services can greatly help you manage your own truckloads and ensure that you’re scheduling consistent freight and keeping loaded at profitable rates. In addition, they connect you with brokers and shippers. Aside from that, they can provide you assistance in accounting, billing, and collections.
- Use load boards. A load board is an example of an online marketplace where truck drivers, shippers, and freight brokers may post and search for loads. It is one of the legitimate sources of truckloads that you can directly search for yourself if you have specific truckloads you want to transport. Some examples of credible and trusted load boards are the following:
Dat Load Board. DAT One is probably the largest on-demand truckload marketplace that you can find on the internet. Many owner-operators, carriers, brokers, and shippers choose DAT One as their go-to load board.
Trucker Path. Trucker Path is also a freight search platform that’s also available on mobile. You can easily filter your searches by weight and route using their mobile app or PC if you like.
123 Load Board. 123Loadboards offers many services and insights into all costs related to each load, from broker credit checks with TransCredit to fuel advances. They are still one of the few load boards where you may offer loads for free.
Truck Stop. Truckstop.com is a comprehensive load board that was one of the first to debut on the internet. Launching its first digital freight-matching marketplace in 1995, it is, in a sense, fueled by its enormous community.
With how technology emerges so well these days, many freight brokerages also started having their own internal load boards like JB Hunt, Coyote, C. H. Robinson, Schneider, Landstar System, and many more. You can definitely rely on these sites if you want to start booking your own truckloads.
- Become a government contractor. Becoming a government contractor will be very beneficial for you. Though there are additional requirements to fill out to become an authorized contractor, it will definitely pay off. Most of the time, government organizations outsource not just their staffing needs but transportation as well.
- Build your own website. Having your own website is no replacement for working with freight brokers and truck dispatchers. Like Advanced Trucking, we created our site to connect more to people. With technology these days, having your own website can definitely help boost your business. People can also contact you in an instant. Just make sure that your site is well optimized and is user-friendly. It should also include these main parts: Homepage, About page, the Service page, so that users can see what the services you are offering, and lastly, a contact page.
If you are looking for a company where you can control your own business as an owner-operator, consider joining Advanced Trucking.
