A load board, also called a freight board, makes it much easier for your company to post loads. Load boards work well for both shippers and freight brokers. This is because the load board matches the systems that allow you to post loads. You can also use load boards to post equipment you may be selling or offering free. Below is more information about this to help you purchase the right load board for your company.
Allow You to Search, Post Loads and More
The load board you purchase should allow you to search and post loads using different criteria. This should also let you search through carriers, brokers, and freight. To make the load board the most useful besides searching and posting loads the load board should allow you to:
- Have access to a message board to speak to other brokers, carriers, etc.
- Match loads
- Find credit information of buyers
- Let you make notes on the carriers or shippers
- Allows you to have mobile access
- Offer pre-approved loads to make financing easier
- Verified by FMCSA
Pay or Free
When you start looking at load boards for your cargo van you will find there are a variety of providers. You will also find some of these providers are paid and some of them are free. The providers that offer the paid service will have a variety of plans for you to choose from. How much you will pay depends on the plan you choose. Make sure you know what is included in each plan before you make the purchase.
Just because a provider offers their services for free does not mean they are not as good as paid providers, however. Take your time to shop around and compare the different paid and free services to see which would work best for your company.
Factor Your Company's Invoices and Fuel Costs
If your company uses freight bill factoring, then you need to choose a load board that can factor your company's invoices. Integrating the load board with your invoices makes financing slow pay freight bills much easier. This can be useful if you are running low on money or you are just starting up your business.
Along with the invoices, you can use the load board to also factor in fuel costs. This allows you to budget money for your fuel when you pick up the freight.
Talk with the provider you sign up with about this information and they can give you much more information. Contact a company, like My Virtual Fleet, for more help.
Share
