Independent truck drivers or owner-operators, as they are sometimes called, need to find loads for their truck if they are going to make money. Anytime your truck is sitting idle, the truck is costing you money and that is not at all what you want. There are some ways to keep the truck rolling, and most of them are not difficult to find.
Truck Load Boards
A truck load board is a simple idea but has changed and modernized over the years. Load boards used to be found in truck stops and are still in many, but there are other ways to access them now that make life easier for the driver.
The truck board is a list of loads that alerts drivers to work available. They list the freight, the company needing to move the freight, the pickup and destination points, the weight of the freight, and the price the company is willing to pay to move the freight. Most boards also list special conditions that might apply to the load as well.
Modern Load Boards
With modernization comes changes, and trucking load boards are no different. While you once had to pull in to find a load, you now have the option to subscribe to a load board provider and get load information on your computer, tablet, or phone while you are on the road. Some of the largest load board providers offer thousands of jobs on their boards and allow you to search by the area you are in, the type of cargo, or even the company shipping the freight.
Since the load board lists the pickup times and delivery requirements, a well-organized driver can plan their trip from point A to point B and have loads along the way to keep the money coming in as they make each leg of the trip.
Load Specific Board Subscriptions
If you haul specific kinds of loads, a good job board will allow you to seek those jobs out. There are some boards that you can subscribe to that only offer heavy haul loads or hazardous material loads. If you have chosen a specific niche to work in, they might be easier to navigate but they will also have fewer jobs listed on them.
Look at the general boards to see if they cover your needs while giving you the information you are after, and if they don't, you may want to look into a load board that offers just the loads you want to haul.
For more information, reach out to a company such as My Virtual Fleet.
Share5 August 2019
I come from a small town. It's so small that there is no public bus service—you can walk everywhere within city limits. People drove their cars if they wanted to leave town. At home, I rarely saw a taxi, and subways were something I only saw in movies. Moving to New York City was a shock in many ways, but learning how to get around using public transportation was one of the biggest hurdles that I faced. I didn't know how much to tip a taxi driver or how to find my way around on the bus. However, I did eventually learn. I know that there must be many people who are facing the same learning curve that I was facing a few years ago. I started this blog to help other small town natives like me learn how to get around in the big city.