Being in the trucking business is like living in the group of wolves. You will eat and survive if you are one of the strongest and one of the smartest in the pack. Trucking business is just like that!
Finding the best-paying freight loads to haul is the most important job for every trucking company. Many companies go out of business because they don’t know how to find good loads.
Dispatchers Have Important Role
Everything in trucking begins and ends with dispatch. They are the biggest factor in company success. Dispatchers are taking care of everything and everyone included in the transportation process.
Source: www.bright.stellaservice.com
Finding high paying freights can be very difficult without a good freight broker. They provide and connect the freight service with the shippers who need to move goods. Dispatchers are in direct contact with the freight brokers, that is why dispatchers have the main role in the quantity of providing loads.
Do I need to have a connection with freight brokers? Having a great connection with these guys is the smartest thing to do since they have big data of shippers who can be connected with you.
Good communication and negotiating skills are necessary to convince the broker to give you loads every day, dispatchers have from 5 to 60 different drivers on their board’s and around 10 trucks per day to take care of. This is not an easy task to manage, not easy at all.
This is the reason that some dispatchers are popping out of the rest, with this skills they are becoming more successful.
Have The Best Customer Service You Can Get
Customer service is the most important department of every company that has communication with the clients, because the people who work in this department are your company representatives.
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You need to have the best customer service in order to work with the best brokers, this department needs people who are
- polite
- efficient
- paying attention to details
- solving the problem at the moment
Solving the problems in the short time of their appearance like finding and delivering the lost paperwork as soon as they are requested by the broker will prevent delays and will avoid deadheading.
Watch Your Safety Rating and Get the Best you Can
Safety rating is an evaluation of the motor carriers, having a good safety rating means that you will deliver the load safe and on time. Freight brokers have to find the best trucking company because they want their customers to be happy with the final outcome. Brokers will not hire the company with bad safety rating.
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The review of the motor carrier operating includes:
- hours of service
- commercial drivers license requirements
- accidents
- maintenance and inspection
- financial responsibility
- driver qualification
- hazardous material
Regulations The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) measures a carrier’s compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and provides carrier safety data through its Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) System web site.
FMCSA has launched the Safety Measurement System (SMS) site in 2010 and this Measurement System data enable the FMCSA to quantify and monitor the safety status of individual motor carriers on a monthly basis, it combines current and historical safety performance information (crash reports, roadside inspections) to measure the safety status of the carrier.
Source: www.overdriveonline.com
Carrier Safety Ratings
- Satisfactory – Records indicate that there is no evidence of substantial non-compliance with safety requirements.
- Conditional – Records indicate that the carrier was out of compliance with one or more safety requirements.
- Unsatisfactory – Records indicate that there is proof of substantial noncompliance with safety requirements.
Safety Evaluation Area (SEA) Scores
SafeStat uses safety data in four еvaluation areas to measure the safety status of carriers
- Accident SEA
- Driver SEA
- Vehicle SEA
- Safety Management SEA
Accident SEA
Carriers with high crash rates in the past are likely to continue to have high crash rates in the future. Meaning, if the trucking company has a high crash rate performance possibility of future crash rate performance is high.
Driver SEA
The criteria for the Driver Safety Evaluation Areas are are independent of crash history, they are based on driver violations.
Vehicle SEA
Vehicle violations and roadside Inspections
Safety Management SEA
Identifying carriers with high crash rates. The Indicators in this SEA are based on safety regulation.
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All this information’s implies that good safety ratings provide safe loads, loads that are delivered on time. Bad safety rating means that company have а tendency for breaking the highway rules like: speeding tickets, accidents, log book violations and more. What will you choose if you where shipper or freight broker?
Have a Good Insurance
Frequently things can go wrong for truck operators and the cargo they are carrying, damage can be caused by a
- collision
- load on fire during transit
- load being accidentally dumped onto a roadway
- overloading
- organised crime
- or even being run over while waiting to be loaded
The related costs can be incredibly expensive, and for this reason freight brokers prefers the best freight insurance and the best coverage for the goods.
Always be aware of the possibility that the load can get damaged or lost and make sure to find the best way to protect your load.
Develop Negotiating Skills
The negotiating skills of your employees control revenues and have a direct influence on financial performance.
We are all in our lives negotiating for something, we are doing that to pull the best of the situation or to get a win-win outcome. Employees have to buy or sell services and to do that they have to negotiate or re-negotiate regularly, with customers and suppliers.
Train your dispatchers and give them proper training programs to handle this process and to pull the best price of every load.
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Guide them through this process, show them examples by watching others how handle different situations, believe me, some of them will even learn how to improve these techniques and they will become the best negotiators in that field.
Some people are natural, born for the customer services because they have great instincts that guide them through the process and this lead to the positive outcome for your business, if you already found this type of people be sure to keep them and motivate them, these people are your business family, treat them right and they will be always there for you.
