Read our free ebook, “Finding Shippers,” and grow your business
Strong carrier networks are the bread and butter of any freight brokerage. Without them, you’ve got nothing. No way to move goods, no way to make money.
Brand new brokers face obstacles in building a network at the beginning. Typically, it takes a new brokerage 90 days to establish a credit score and get a “days to pay” score, which carriers use to evaluate you. But those obstacles don’t have to slow your start completely.
One strategy is, whenever you do business with a carrier, make sure to leave reviews and ask them to leave one for you. Writing and soliciting company reviews can help bolster your reputation when you’re first trying to build your network, showing carriers that yours is a business they can trust.
You’ll have to do a bit more vetting and background work while building out your carrier network in order to make sure you’re onboarding trustworthy carriers. Tools like the DAT One load board come in handy here. It’ll save you a headache or two, trust us. Plus, DAT’s load board comes with the DAT Directory, which makes finding trusted carriers a cinch.
How can you find trusted carriers?
Vetting carriers is difficult and daunting. Tools like CarrierWatch allow you to verify that a carrier is legitimate and vet their credentials – it makes the whole process easy and fast. Both you and your customers will know shipments are in good hands. With CarrierWatch, you can validate the carrier’s cargo insurance and safety ratings, so you’re not caught off guard by carriers with less-than-ideal operating standards. You can even bring on carriers quickly with other tools like OnBoard, making network-building even faster. We offer private networks so that brokers can develop more exclusive relationships with the carriers. You can verify what other brokers have to say about specific carriers by visiting our DAT Directory page.
Optimize your profile on DAT by including as much as possible, such as contact information, how you post your loads, and credit scores. Source company reviews and ensure you use a domained email address (yourname@yourcompany.com instead of yourcompany@gmail.com) consistently to help generate trust among the carriers that you work with.
The above is an excerpt from Finding Shippers 101, a new guide from DAT showing early-stage brokers how to get off the ground and find customers. Click here to read the full ebook.
