Build a Better Load Board

all good questions mate, as far as why it takes so long to get paid ask any CFO (chief financial officer) and when your talking millions of bucks they will hold out as long as possible to pay quite simply because while the money is still in their bank account their making interest on it What the authorities should do to stop this, is allow the transport company hauling to charge interest to the shipper for late payment, that may speed the process up a little.

 

Load boards suck because a bunch of pricks get their broker licenses, get on load boards, scoop up a bunch of loads, take money off of them and then post the same loads for a lower rate. Same loads, just a bunch of greedy desk jockeys with their fingers in the pie. And suddenly, freight that was paying $10/mike gets to the drivers, you know, the people that are actually moving the freight, at $1.20/mile.

If you REEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYY want to do a program for a load board, do one that prevents double brokering.

 

You didn’t listen to anything I wrote. How typical.

 

How are you going to build an interface where only quality carriers and quality customers/brokers are using it? When a quality carrier meets a quality customer they don't use the board anymore, once a business relationship is formed.

I find it hard to see how you would improve what already exists. Simply stating "no brokers" won't do much. Ask why customers hire brokers in the first place. They do not want to coordinate all the trucks for their pickups and deliveries themselves. I'm sure the accounting is easier for them also.

Submitting electronic bids is just for customers or brokers looking for the lowest price carrier. They get the inevitable service screw ups they are paying for. More power to them. I get these emails every day, I just delete. Sometimes I get the 4:45pm phone call looking for me to do whatever work it was. Now I am in ###hole mode. You want me to do it now? Now I know I am going to give you an amount that "you don't have that much in it". That's what you will get from me if you dick me around because you aren't a customer I want. It's all good. Keep F__-ing it up, either the customer will find a decent broker that doesn't dick the carriers around or the customer will find the carrier directly.

 

Why would you need our advice.

don't take any wooden nickles.

So do I, but ...

You need to actually define what a load board is and what's the real purpose for it. You haven't with the last sentence.

As I would expect any software development house to do, gather up requirements and get those approved by the customer, I would like to see that document's contents to show you what you are doing is wrong and right.

BUT that said ...

Nope, it has been tried, it has failed in many cases and I will explain why in a little bit.

They exist because of the market that exists. You got to get the idea of what a broker does and what a truck owner or driver does, it seems you have a preconceived notion that is not the norm.

Prices have little to do with it. the interface has little to do with it. The problem is the source of loads and how they are handled by those who are soliticiting or selling those loads.

No and yes.

There are research features missing but then that's an issue I will get to in a moment.

Bidding is part of the problem, but on the other hand picking up the phone is the way it has to be done because of the human involvement.

They do on a few boards, both private and public access board so your knowledge is limited to what you are thinking a load board works.

Not a problem at all.

30 to 90 days is the norm but that's an agreement with the shipper.

Why can't it be done quickly?

Because it is on their business AP cycle, not ours.

This is a customer driven industry, we are not the ones who make the demands, they are.

Nope not at all but there are boards out there that you can get these loads.

OK.

OK here are the real problems.

First off there is no real regulations for brokers to control their behavior. We need those in place so a broker can not "buy" a load from a load board and repost it with the intent to fool someone into thinking it is their load, this I think should be illegal.

Second the brokers are not really the problem with the load boards, the load boards themselves are the problem. There are too many of them, all of them are easily accessible for a fee and it is broker driver to the point that it is like other venues where flooding all of them with the same load makes sales.

Third is the lack of historical data, which from what I've seen is absent for real data mining and strategy planning.

Solution #1 - we need to get better regulations for brokers. One such regulation is what I posted, another is vacating their bonds so not to pay. There are good brokers out there, there are a lot of bad one who ruin it for the good ones.

Solution #2 - we need to have one load board, or at least a connection between all of the major ones so that we are dealing with one interface and have the ability to see historical data derived from all of the load boards on sales of loads.

Solution #3 - we need to eliminate bidding on loads. I know many make a good living off of this but this is how we allow cheap owners to exist and that further drags the entire industry.

Solution #4 - means testing of new authorities beyond the basics. We need to make sure the new authority isn't going to be cheap on their business needs.

So there is my opinion.