Piece of advice to new carriers...

[Beep Beep]

Just a small piece of advice when starting your transportation empire:
Do not name your company "World King" or World Best" or World anything unless you mean it and absolutely will be. All that means is that it may get you at least 1 phone call. After that, you have to perform. Being in the transport business doesn't mean you go from point a to b just picking up stuff, it also means that you must have all the other things that go along with being the "World's best" anything.

The biggest issue I have with carriers is their lack of communication and returning a simple email, text, WhatsApp, or phone call to keep me, the guy who's paying your bills, happy. When I ask you where your truck is now, I do not want to hear he's on schedule. That means absolutely nothing to me. I need to keep my clients apprised at all times where their cargo is and can you imagine the blank stares if I tell them he's on schedule? I don't understand why some carriers insist on lying or carrying on with the truck stop BS when asked a direct question. Honesty will get you a few points and if you f'ed up, admit it, and move on. Do not make this a habit though.

So for me, communication will go a long way into making you the World best anything you want to be.
Thank you for reading my humble post

 

[loaders]

Here, once again, is the recurring message about communication. It cannot be emphasized enough just how important it is in our industry, especially in today’s, instant “I need to know” environment. I know that carriers can get fed up or annoyed with constant status checks on a particular shipment but in most cases the call is being made for a purpose, not just to harass you. The free and unfettered flow of factual and current information makes everyone’s job easier and it keeps the freight paying customer happy. Which in the end, is why we do this work isn’t it? Honesty and transparency on the part of all players, is the cement that builds a mutually beneficial relationship.

 

[EricG]

As a carrier we believe our job is to pickup and delivery on time, with the freight in the same condition we received it in, and to complete all this for a fair price. The more proactive our communication is with our clients, the less inbound calls or emails we have to attend too, thus freeing up resources to assist a new client, or answer the phone 5 seconds quicker, less hold time, faster email responses to other clients etc.

We believe that providing real time tracking to clients booking Rush or Direct shipments is key, let them monitor truck as needed on demand, without having to make an inquiry first. Providing Real time POD services (document imaging from the cab) immediately upon delivery also removes the inbound request for POD's... that feature alone that easily remove 300+ inquiries per day from clients. When you transacting hundreds or thousands of emails per day, the more proactive and automated the interactions with your clients, the more internal resources (human time) is freed up for human required tasks. A human interaction should not be required for a tracing / or POD request... its easily automated.

We've taken our proactive notifications one step further, we advise proactively that free waiting time is expiring, we proactively notify of any pricing or accessorial charges automatically. Brokers and carriers value this proactive communication, as it allows them to allocate their "human resources" to profit producing actions like sales or load bookings, not tracing, or emailing for pod's etc.

The last step is full API integration with your partners / clients, allowing them to interface with our systems from their internal system which is already at their finger tips... saves opening chrome, picking up the phone, sending an email etc.

I totally agree, communication is the first step to a success transaction.

 

[27426]

Great communication of Good or Bad outcomes used to be the gold standard by which participants in this industry defined themselves. That is quickly being supplanted by the need to automate and turn it into data that can be consumed on demand. In the near future if you are only relying on great communication and service to survive you will find yourself at a disadvantage. I see it in ecom and last mile related transportation already, and its happening in the small and midsized LTL market. Feeding the data warehouse is going to be part of carrier selection. Service and Communication still need to be great, but without the tech to integrate your data with mine, it may not matter. My advice for new carriers - be able to share your data,

 

[Chica]

We could also flip the cards and start another new thread "Piece of advice to new brokers". I would start that thread by telling them to stop communicating with carriers ONLY by email. Email is great when you know the carrier contact and have developed trust in them. When you are new and don't take the time to speak with prospective carriers, outline the requirements and expectations of the load you are posting/offering, you are not going to get the best result. When you respond to a carrier's inquiry about your load with a one word answer "rate?", you are not developing relationships with carriers. This industry is not Facebook Marketplace and like Loaders stated, communication is the most vital part of this industry. Sorry that got off topic. lol.

 

[Mario]

We could also flip the cards and start another new thread "Piece of advice to new brokers". I would start that thread by telling them to stop communicating with carriers ONLY by email. Email is great when you know the carrier contact and have developed trust in them. When you are new and don't take the time to speak with prospective carriers, outline the requirements and expectations of the load you are posting/offering, you are not going to get the best result. When you respond to a carrier's inquiry about your load with a one word answer "rate?", you are not developing relationships with carriers. This industry is not Facebook Marketplace and like Loaders stated, communication is the most vital part of this industry. Sorry that got off topic. lol.

Just a small piece of advice when starting your transportation empire:
Do not name your company "World King" or World Best" or World anything unless you mean it and absolutely will be. All that means is that it may get you at least 1 phone call. After that, you have to perform. Being in the transport business doesn't mean you go from point a to b just picking up stuff, it also means that you must have all the other things that go along with being the "World's best" anything.

The biggest issue I have with carriers is their lack of communication and returning a simple email, text, WhatsApp, or phone call to keep me, the guy who's paying your bills, happy. When I ask you where your truck is now, I do not want to hear he's on schedule. That means absolutely nothing to me. I need to keep my clients apprised at all times where their cargo is and can you imagine the blank stares if I tell them he's on schedule? I don't understand why some carriers insist on lying or carrying on with the truck stop BS when asked a direct question. Honesty will get you a few points and if you f'ed up, admit it, and move on. Do not make this a habit though.

So for me, communication will go a long way into making you the World best anything you want to be.
Thank you for reading my humble post

I find this tends to go full cirlce on communication with both brokers and carriers that we have received loads from. Not all of them but quite a few there is constant lack of communication on payment terms. Terms 30 days calling at 35,40,50 and still no answer. There is a whole section here on non paying people. The lying and BS on payment is always great as i get to hear new reasons why the cheque is not signed or the AP is on vacation for 89 weeks at a time. Just my little rant on communication.

 

[loaders]

We could also flip the cards and start another new thread "Piece of advice to new brokers". I would start that thread by telling them to stop communicating with carriers ONLY by email. Email is great when you know the carrier contact and have developed trust in them. When you are new and don't take the time to speak with prospective carriers, outline the requirements and expectations of the load you are posting/offering, you are not going to get the best result. When you respond to a carrier's inquiry about your load with a one word answer "rate?", you are not developing relationships with carriers. This industry is not Facebook Marketplace and like Loaders stated, communication is the most vital part of this industry. Sorry that got off topic. lol.

Absolutely correct. With the spread of AI technology and the use of Chatbot, ChatGPT and similar programs, you never really know who you’re talking to using just email. A seemingly professional, educated responder on email might turn out to be an illiterate, buffoon in real life. A sure fire way to destroy that warm and fuzzy feeling! Communication, especially the old fashioned, person to person kind is crucial.