A Broker’s Weekly Planner

Brokers need to have a good understanding of the daily spot market trends.

If a broker can look at the advantages and disadvantages of each day of the week and plan their business development activities around those subtle changes, they stand to win big. If you’re a broker and want to optimize your work week, find out how to make the most out of each day.

Overall Planning Tips

• You need to be available before your trucks roll down the pavement, so start your day early.
• Make sure you have your reliable carriers under loads on the days when you know it’s harder to get a load covered.
• Don’t wait too long before you book a load. It can be more difficult to find last-minute truck drivers for reasonable rates in the current age of ELDs.

Your plan will vary depending on the weekly delivery cycle of your region, seasonality, your drivers’ typical lengths of haul, their personal requirements, and other factors. While you don’t control many of these elements, it’s still essential to build out a weekly plan that can improve you and your company’s success.

Sunday

Using the Truckstop.com Load Board to schedule a pickup up or delivery on a Sunday is like giving yourself an extra load for the week since this typically isn’t a day for either appointment. Sundays offer the highest rates of the week, so make sure to quote appropriately.

Monday

Mondays have the highest volume of the week on the load board, so be prepared to negotiate. Along with tighter-than-average capacity (due to the number of deliveries being made), this is a good reason to avoid waiting until the last minute to book a load on a Monday.

Tuesday

Trucks are usually empty on Tuesday mornings. Get on the Truckstop.com Load Board early in the morning so you can find drivers looking for their next load or trying to get home.

Wednesday

By Wednesday, about half of your gross revenue for the week should already be in-hand. It isn’t too early to start planning out loads for the following week.

Thursday

On Thursdays, truck drivers are either looking for loads short enough to deliver on Friday, or long enough to get them through the weekend. Plan ahead for either scenario, and be prepared for drivers to negotiate harder on Thursdays on both lengths.

Friday

At this point in the work week, it becomes difficult to find empty trucks with enough miles left to meet a Monday delivery. See if you can book weekend pickups and deliveries which can offer better rates than freight during the weekdays.

Saturday

If you find a driver willing to take a Saturday appointment for you, treat them well! Keep their contact information in your preferred list of drivers so you can reach out to them in the future. You’ll both come out with extra cash in the end. Become the “go-to” broker for 9-1-1 freight in your lanes

Learn additional ways to build good relationships with carriers.

Vacation Planning

For brokers, taking a vacation at the end of the month or the end of the quarter may save you some headaches. Since shippers have a higher volume near the end of a period, they often put extra pressure on an already capacity-low marketplace. Keep this in mind when planning out trips.

One of the best ways to find hidden capacity and the best carriers is with Load Board Pro. Plus, you can get lanes covered faster and plan ahead using tools like Rate Forecasting and Spot Market Insights.