In my seven years of designing and testing DAT Load Boards and learning how our customers use them, I have found that just a few simple actions can make your loads seem more attractive to carriers. Try these tricks to make your phone ring:
1. Be the early bird – but not too early! Statistics show that carriers’ load searches peak at about 8:00AM EST on weekdays. The biggest brokers often set up their loads to post automatically from their TMS, and many are posted between 5:00 and 7:00 AM. So when a carrier first starts looking, some of those loads are already several hours old. If you want carriers to see your load first, it should hit the load board in the morning, but not much earlier than 8:00. Carriers’ search activity tails off after 12:00 noon Eastern Time, when it’s 9:00 AM on the West Coast. There is a second opportunity for load providers from 5:00 to 6:00 PM, when carriers are searching, but most brokers are not posting loads. After 6:00, most carriers are done for the day.
Carriers search for loads most often in the morning, but not until 8:00 AM Eastern Time. Brokers who post too early may miss a chance to position their loads at the top of the carriers’ list of results.
2. Put a rate on it. Loads posted with rates that are competitive for that lane are more likely to receive calls. You can include a rate as part of your load post on DAT Load Boards. Some brokers are reluctant to indicate a rate, because they feel it costs them some leverage in negotiation. Use your judgment – but if your rates are attractive, it pays to advertise. If you’re not confident about your pricing, benchmark it against the prevailing rates with DAT Truckload Rate Index.
Displaying a competitive rate on your load post will attract carriers’ attention — and phone calls.
3. Search smarter, not harder. DAT Load Boards have some great, time-saving search tools. While you are posting loads, you can search for multiple trucks at the same time. And each of those searches has some additional ways to help you find exactly what you need.
Search tools in DAT Load Boards give you control over the geographic radius and time frame of your search and alert you automatically when new results match your criteria.
a. Smart Search is a way to tell the DAT Load Board to automatically look beyond the criteria that you put in your search…either by distance from the original search or by the time frame. And it gives you the results in order of how close they are to your original search.
b. Active Search automatically updates the search, so you can see new trucks that are exactly what you are looking for when they first come into the DAT system.
c. Click on LaneMakers in the search results area to find the carriers who are most active in the lane. It might pay to reach out to them with a direct phone call.
d. Qualify new carriers fast with DAT CarrierWatch, to view all details on their authority, CSA safety scores and insurance coverage.
