What do you look for in a good carrier?
- Thread starter Ownerop17
- Start date
30
Besides the obvious, proper authorities, licensing, WSIB and insurance, we always ask for three references and we follow up calling them. Like wine, you’re not going to know which ones are good until you have tried a few. Solid, honest communication goes a long way in creating a productive relationship for both parties. That goes for both parties, you and the carrier.
30
What loaders said. I also look for good followup and communication. If there's a problem I'd like to be made aware of it. If the load has delivered I would like to know that too. I would prefer to not have to call my receiver to confirm load delivery..
20
I always looked for the smaller details as well as the ones above...correct spelling on websites, updated websites that looked legit as opposed to a generic one, a working website also! Don't hide any problems with the load, I could work better bad truths than good lies. Ease of communication with dispatch, if the promises sound too good, chances are...they are.
30
I guess I am out then as I do not think my website has been updated in 10 years. I make spelling mistakes all the time with my fat fingers,. To bad I do what I say I will when we say we will do it.
20
Never hooked up in my previous broker life, but after learning more and more about the people here and who they are, after a while the spelling etc problems go away. Your website is clean, simple, and direct....doesn't have a "News" section, and the last update was in 2005 with Stay Tuned or Coming Soon. That's the difference.
30
True enough.. however some of my best carriers are "old fashioned" to put it politely.. no website.. no typed invoices even.. invoices are written out in long hand.. but.. man can they work.. top notch top quality all ' round. The Susan Boyle of trucking! As with people.. we sometimes have to look beyond the glitter to see the true gold..
30
All true. My business was built through the efforts of smaller trucking companies, back in the days of fax machines, no load boards, no websites and computers that needed their own climate controlled rooms. However, like ten cent pay phones, those days are over and companies should have a web presence of some sort. It is a different marketplace and to be successful these days, you have to keep up with the times. Chances are, the sons or daughters of the owners of the companies you described above Freightbroker, are chomping at the bit for Dad to retire so that they can drag the company into the 21st century.
30
I agree loaders.. but I would miss the more "I'm really a person" feel to the old fashioned way of doing things. Websites are fine.. but 90% of them unintentioanl detract from the business instead of augmenting it...
Sometimes its all about who wants it the most. For example, If I have a small regular move of a couple of skids a month to the same point I prefer to deal with a small "old school" carrier. To them it is significant and it means more to them. It is a bigger piece of their overall volume and their dispatch and drivers remember any particular details required which avoid potential problems. The same move to a big carrier just doesn't get the same priority and is just another shipment to them. Bigger carriers need bigger volumes before it starts to become important to them.
20
Yes, we must use technology but it doesn't mean I have to trust it.
At the risk of declaring myself old fashioned, I use a hybrid combination of computer with paper and pen. I'm in my 40s and computers were not "mainstream" in personal homes until after I was already in university. I hand-wrote my study notes and rough drafts of assignments, essays, etc and then typed out my final drafts on a computer in the computer lab at school that you had to sign up to use at least a week in advance. (And then saved everything on a huge floppy disk! lol) Then, I would print out my reports on the VERY loud and painfully slow dot-matrix printer which would echo through the halls of the school!
Anyway, computers are great until they crash, freeze, etc. My handy-dandy "dispatch bible", which is a paper notebook, is accessible any time, any day, anywhere. Yes, all the info from my notebook is also in my computer but I can flip through those pages and find exactly what I need faster than trying to access it on my computer.
That being said, we are a very small carrier so I am able to do things this way and it works very well. If we were larger, I don't think my "hybrid" system would work out very well.
Yes, this is kind of off-topic but it gives everyone something to read at the end of the day!
30
You think that's old.. I still drive around with a map in the glovebox, just in case!
30
Perly's,
I used to buy a new one every year so that I could have all the new streets. Oh, the memories...
Keep well,
Mike
I used to buy a new one every year so that I could have all the new streets. Oh, the memories...
Keep well,
Mike
20
When I started here we had rotary dial phone , no computer , no fax machine , no satellite's and 10 trucks running the USA.
Customer - "Where is my load" ?
Dispatch - "uh, we think he loaded last night and are waiting for him to call"
We were all "good" Carriers back then
Customer - "Where is my load" ?
Dispatch - "uh, we think he loaded last night and are waiting for him to call"
We were all "good" Carriers back then
30
I remember those days! and the office a thick haze of cigarette smoke because smoking indoors was still alllowed. Drivers calling in from truckstop pay phones.. And beleive it or not.. the carrier I worked for had a lineup of owner-operator applicants waiting to work for us... no recruiting required.. just pick a name from the list when you needed another one!
30
When I started here we had rotary dial phone , no computer , no fax machine , no satellite's and 10 trucks running the USA.
Customer - "Where is my load" ?
Dispatch - "uh, we think he loaded last night and are waiting for him to call"
We were all "good" Carriers back then
So you are a really old Donkey?
I remember running around with a list of broker phone numbers in the truck, DAT load boards in truck stops and doing interstate loads back close to home so we did not have to spend weekends in the truck. The good old days of being a gypsy..