Back-hauls help make the return trip from shipping destinations profitable as well as productive.
Deadheading, driving an empty trailer back from a delivery, is a waste of fuel, driver time, and vehicle wear and tear on the return trip. Locating a back-haul load at or in the nearby vicinity of where the outbound load was delivered is the key to optimizing revenue opportunities.
First, optimize flexibility. If the trailer is a conventional van or flatbed, your choice of back-hauls is pretty much limited to freight appropriate to one or the other. Curtainsiders, on the other hand, can easily morph from a flatbed to a conventional van and back again. This not only increases the odds of finding a back-haul you can accommodate, but the process is also expedited due to the three-side access afforded by the curtainsider. Any and all deliveries still pending inside your trailer remain easily accessible at any point along the route, ensuring that unloading freight to your primary customers isn’t impeded by the addition to the trailer of one or more backhauls along the way.
The process of locating freight, including back-hauls, has been substantially revolutionized by technology. In the past, truckers located available back-haul loads by checking out written bulletin boards at truck stops and/or relying on brokers and dispatchers. Online load boards begin appearing almost at the dawn of the World Wide Web and today are some of the oldest trucking industry-related sites on the internet. The most basic online options, putting a diverse variety of freight and truck together, basically create a virtual version of the traditional written freight boards and still rely heavily on brokers to choreograph the connection.
Today, however, an increasing choice of apps are available to specifically match available back-hauls with trucks that have the capacity, with or without utilizing a broker as a middle man.
Trucker Path: This free app aids carriers to locate and book available freight, and also connects brokers to carriers. Drivers can scan the area immediately surrounding primary deliveries to locate back-hauls close-by. The driver or fleet submits an offer on the back-haul via the app and negotiates a price with the broker or shipper.
Cargomatic: An on-demand brokerage service for freight, Cargomatic is a smartphone app that includes a dedicated function specifically focusing on backhauls. The app seeks to become to local freight hauling what Uber is to people-moving. Available room for a back-haul of a certain size is listed on Cargomatic’s system and shippers nearby to the truck's immediate location with available freight can negotiate shipment entirely through the app. In addition to individuals, traditional freight brokers also utilize Cargomatic, representing about 25 percent of the app's traffic. Presently the company is limited to West Coast and New York City short-hauls, but is planning expansion into Atlanta, Chicago and other major cities.
GetLoaded: The back-haul search option in this GPS-based smartphone app uses your present location to find back-hauls offered by shippers close by as well as allowing the shipper to search for available trucks in the area in real time. Truckers can call the shipper directly from the app and shippers can contact truckers the same way.
If you are you looking for creative ways to get more profitable with back-hauls, curtainside trailers can optimize your fleet. Contact us today for more info.