Load board

A broker who cannot cover a load with a known carrier posts it: origin, destination, pickup date, equipment, weight, sometimes a rate. Carriers searching for loads near their truck see it and call. A carrier with a truck coming empty into a market posts the truck, and brokers call them. The boards also publish rate data derived from the postings, which is the spot rate everybody quotes from.

The boards are efficient and anonymous, and anonymity is their weakness. A load posted to the public is visible to legitimate carriers and to double brokers and identity thieves, and a broker who accepts the first caller at the first rate is the target. The working rules: verify the carrier’s authority and contacts against FMCSA before sending a rate confirmation, prefer carriers with history, and be suspicious of a load that reappears on the board at a lower rate ten minutes after it was covered.

Load boards are also where a broker’s sales problem shows up. A brokerage that only covers spot freight from the board is competing on price with every other brokerage on the board; the margin is in shipper relationships that produce contract freight, and those are won on the phone, not on the board.