How to Search for Truck Loads for Multiple Drivers: A Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction: Setting Up for Multi-Driver Load Search

This video demonstrates a real-time process of searching for loads for three different drivers with varying equipment, locations, and preferences. The dispatcher uses a spreadsheet to organize driver information including MC numbers, truck/trailer types, current locations, and empty dates. For a broader understanding of the coordinator's role, see our guide on the Dispatching Business Anatomy: Role of a Trucking Dispatcher Explained.

Step 1: Initial Setup and Search Criteria

Driver Profiles:

Driver 1 (Kentucky): Delivering in Kentucky, needs load to GA/NC/SC/TN; max 100-mile deadhead; 43,000 lb weight limit; dry van
Driver 2 (Hurricane, Utah): Flatbed with 48' trailer; empty now; needs 250-mile deadhead due to remote location; no destination restrictions
Driver 3 (Abilene, Texas): Available tomorrow (14th); can only go to LA, OK, TX; 150-mile deadhead; no weight limits

Pro Tip:

"We don't like to take our drivers to areas like this... Utah is a pretty dead area unless you're in Salt Lake City. Hurricane Utah is the south region."

Step 2: Analyzing Load Boards

Results Overview:

Kentucky driver: 18 exact matches available
Utah driver: Only 10 results, most with high deadhead miles (130-200+ miles)

Filtering Loads:

The dispatcher quickly eliminates loads that:

Go to undesirable states (California, Oregon)
Have high deadhead relative to rate
Are old or likely already covered

To master the platforms used, read our guide on How to Use Load Boards: DAT vs Truckstop for Trucking Freight.

Step 3: Calling Brokers - Real Examples

Example Call: Las Vegas to Colorado Load

Load Details: 48' flatbed, drywall, requires tarps, 47,000-48,000 lbs, $1,550 offered
Dispatchers Response: Negotiates for higher rate, mentions it's a dead zone in Colorado, heavy load with tarps
Result: Load declined - too low for the work required

Key Call Script:

"Hey man, I'm calling about your [origin] to [destination] load. What kind of trailer do you have? ... It requires tarps... Is that your max rate? My max is [higher amount]. Can you do any better?"

Step 4: Email Communication Strategy

Effective Email Template:

Subject line includes: Deadhead miles + Origin + Trip miles + Destination
Body: "Details please" with load details pasted
Benefit: Easy visual reference when managing multiple emails/DMs

Step 5: Rate Negotiation Success

A Customer Success Story:

Initial offer: $1,100 for Charlotte, NC load (381 miles, 50-mile deadhead)
Dispatcher counters: $1,400
Broker counters: $1,150 ($2.67/mile)
Driver approves $1,150
Dispatcher checks with driver, then asks broker: "Can you do $1,200?"
Broker agrees: $1,200 ($2.98/mile)

Why This Load Worked:

Only 50 miles from driver's drop-off
$2.50+/mile rate achieved
Same-day delivery (driver empty same night)
Dry freight (no tarping)

Step 6: Booking Process

Sequence:

Dispatcher sends MC number and confirmation to broker
Broker asks for empty time/location
Dispatcher provides driver info (hidden for privacy)
Broker sends rate confirmation
Dispatcher reviews details (weight, pickup/drop times, commodity)
Signs confirmation
Sends info to driver via group chat and text

Key Takeaways & Best Practices

For Multiple Driver Dispatching:

Organize Driver Info: Use spreadsheet with MC#, trailer type, location, available date, weight limits, destination restrictions
Set Smart Deadhead Limits: 100 miles for easy areas, 250 miles for remote locations
Filter Loads Quickly: Avoid old posts (30+ minutes old), loads with multiple pickups, or low rates for heavy/tarp loads
Negotiate Persistently: Start higher than target, use driver preferences as leverage
Secure Confirmation: Always get rate confirmation in writing before booking

Red Flags to Watch For:

Loads posted 30+ minutes ago (likely covered or has issues)
Rates too high relative to market (may have hidden issues)
Multiple pickups with single drop
Deliveries to "dead zones" with poor reload opportunities

Conclusion

The dispatcher successfully booked one of three drivers, demonstrating the complete process from initial search to rate confirmation. The remaining two drivers will follow the same systematic approach. The key to success is organization, persistent negotiation, and matching loads that align with driver preferences and equipment capabilities.

Understanding broader travel and logistics concepts helps, similar to those covered in the Comprehensive Guide to Essential Home and Auto Services.

so for this video we're just going to run through the process of actually searching for a load and I'm just going

to show you how I search for uh multiple drivers at the same time so here on the spreadsheet I have the drivers um

information listed here the carrier's MC number truck and trailer number and then their location and then when they're

going to be empty so I put um carrier 1 carrier 2 carrier 3 uh just for privacy purposes I don't

want to actually list out the MC numbers but I have it pulled up on my other screen which uh you can't see so this is

how I um kind of set up that initial process when I'm about to start searching for loads so once I know their

current location and I just have all this in front of me I just navigate to the lowboard and I se set my search

criteria so you just click on new load search and then you would input all the information like the origin and

destinations uh the times and everything so I've already done that as you can see here I have my first driver

he's going to be delivering in Kentucky and uh he's he'll be available tomorrow to pick up a load uh going to

Georgia North Carolina South Carolina or Tennessee and what I um want to mention about this driver he doesn't like the

dead head too much so I put 100 miles Max for him and his weight limit is 43,000

also he has a Dyan so the next driver is a flatbed he's got a 48t flatbed and uh he's going

to be well he's empty now in uh Hurricane Utah so the available date I put as today's date and for for him I

had to increase a dead head to 250 Mi and the reason for this is because he's in a pretty bad location so the dead

head has to be a little bit high for us to to kind of find loads there's really not going to be that many loads in the

location he's currently in and the reason we have to take him here is because he has a family that he had to

visit so we really had no option but in most cases we don't like to take our drivers to areas like this like Utah is

you know pretty dead area unless you're like in Salt Lake City uh there's some loads coming out of that area but

Hurricane Utah that's like a South Region of Utah so next I have my drive in um and

he's in abene Texas and he can only go to Louisiana Oklahoma and Texas oh I forgot to mention for the flatbed he can

go anywhere so his destination is empty so it's going to just show me all the loads uh going to really anywhere and

for the Texas driver he can only go to Louisiana Oklahoma and Texas he'll be available tomorrow on the 14th for him I

put 150 dead head and he's also in a pretty bad area so you know it's going to be a little bit tough so I had to

increase that dead head he doesn't have any weight limits or anything like that so let's go ahead I'll click onto

that Kentucky one I'll have all the lows here pulled up and as you can see here I have 18 exact matches so we'll just run

through them and see what we have here but first I also want to show you the uh the Utah one and as you can see here we

have only 10 results for Utah and the Deb heads are like extremely high like this one is over 200 mil this one's over

130 Mi Etc and then the delivery locations is like California and our driver doesn't go to California so we

can't really call on this one and the New Mexico is pretty bad uh reload area as well so we'll try to avoid this one

uh this one goes to Salt Lake City Utah so this is a potential load that we can call on

and I have a load to California as mentioned we don't go to California uh Colorado this you know potential load

here that we can do and then we have an Oregon load unfortunately driver doesn't like to go to Oregon either so these are

just a few options um let me go ahead and call on this Vegas to Colorado let me click and see

what um where this actually delivers in so our driver he actually lives in Colorado so you know he might be okay

with this load so let me call and see what they have going on

here so I have my phone here in front of me I'll put it on [Music]

speaker hey man I'm calling about your Las Vegas to uh gisson Colorado load uh yes what kind of trailer do you

have uh 48 foot flatbed okay yeah that'll work it's just a load of youry wall um it's a 24hour

shipper in Vegas uh it does require tarps um they will load you up a scale at the

shipper so probably around 47 48,000 on the we and then you can deliver either

tomorrow or the next day uh the receivers open 8 a. to 4m and we have 1550

them 8 to 400 p.m. yeah and how much do you have on this one

1550 okay and is that y's Max rate my Max is 16 my best okay uh that seems a little

bit too low cuz uh Colorado is pretty it's a pretty you know it's a dead zone and it looks like it's delivering in the

middle of nowhere um also it's going to be heavy load with tarps is there any way you can pay a bit

more uh man I wish I could really okay um I'll have to call the driver and see if this is something he's

interested in but um I I can't really lock it in right now but I'll call you back man I'll let you know if it's

something I know it's man I understand yeah app I got you man Lu appreciate it man have a good one

bye so this load uh definitely is not something my driver is going to be willing to do cuz this one requires for

him to tarp the load and then he's got a dead ahead 136 to pick it up and it's a pretty heavy load so running for

$29 is pretty bad so definitely not worth it so let's see what else we have here

um just going to go ahead and just refresh the page looks like we have

a Utah to Washington load maybe this is something he would do let me call and see what

the what the load looks like [Music] thank you for

calling looks like they're not picking up and I've seen this load posted earlier and they weren't picking up

earlier either it's a pretty old load I'm assuming um uh dat is just uh refreshing it you know it's showing that

it was just posted it's probably automated uh let me go check the other drivers see what we have for

them so here I don't see anything good like these two loads they were posted a while ago and typically if a load is

still on the board and it's been posted like over 30 minutes ago then most likely the load has been covered

or it's a uh false post meaning there's some errors to this load so that's why it hasn't been taken down yet uh so I

see here this one is 145 miles to pick up definitely not worth it this one is paying

300 uh definitely not worth it so I don't see nothing for this driver uh so let me check the Kentucky

driver so it looks like we have a few options for him uh he prefers going to uh Georgia so but

he's open to going to North Carolina and South Carolina as well I see this one as

a going to Tennessee so this area of Tennessee is actually not that good for reloads so

we're going to avoid this one so let's see what else we have here this one is posted for, 1600 so that's

probably there might be something wrong with this one cuz it's pretty high so I'm I'm

assuming it's either uh multiple pickups it says here two pickups one drop so probably

something's off about this load cuz it's been posted 19 minutes ago uh let me see so we have a Charlotte

load for 1100 so this one delivers the same day so this is a straight through one so I'm

going to go ahead and email them I'll copy the email address because they don't have a phone number here

listed so when I email the Brokers about a potential load what I like to do is I like to copy the dead head uh origin

trip and destination so I'll just select it copy it paste it on the subject line and I'll just say details

please and I'll just send them an email so that's how I would uh ask about this load so this makes it easier because if

I'm like dispatching multiple drivers and I'm sending multiple emails to different Brokers I can kind of just see

you know what the dead head is where it picks and then the total miles and then where it

drops uh so you know if once the broker responds I can just quickly grab the details here put it on the spreadsheet

and now I have my uh load that I can present to my driver so I'll just send him an email and wait

for his response but in the meantime I'm going to continue searching for a different

load so this one paying it's paying decent uh only problem is it picks up at uh picks up at 600 pm and it drops the

next day like later in the night so we're losing pretty much a whole day so this one is not worth

it so this one also same load um uh this one Cornelia Georgia this one

I know for sure is going to have tough reload area see it's like delivering the middle of nowhere um but here I see that

one of the uh broker that we just email had responded so I'm going to go see what

he's uh what he's got going on so looks like he his load here I'll pull it up on the screen so you can see

it as well so looks like he's his load is going to Charlotte as I mentioned

earlier he's paying 11100 and it's picking up uh 10: a.m. tomorrow drops uh straight through

2200 so let me go ahead and quickly check what this load looks like so picks up in Danville Kentucky drops in

Charlotte North Carolina loaded miles 381 empty mes 50 it picks up on the

14th so I'll do 12:14 at 10 a.m. drops 12 14 22

200 same day uh it's weighing 16940 dry

Foods he's paying 11100 so this is a pretty decent load it's paying over

$255 so this is uh pretty good and I'm sure he he'd be willing to go up on the rate and the fact that it's a same day

run I think it's good because the driver will be empty the same day and he can pick up fresh the next day so let me see

if we have um let me pull up the driver's group chat and see if that's something he'd

want to do let me email him back and say uh can you pay more

14400 so I just told him I'm looking to be at400 and I'm just going to see what he's going to counter with in the

meantime I'll copy and paste this to the group chat and see what our driver says looks like he

responded so his he countered with 1150 so I can go ahead let me update that here see what the rate per mile looks

like so $267 so personally I think this is a decent

load um but I can't say for sure until my driver approves of it so I went ahead I

messaged them on the telegram group chat and I'll just wait for his response so I got a response from my driver and he

said he'll run it for 1150 and while the driver was um you know responding to me I just sent a

quick email to him I said can you do it for 1,200 so I just typed 1200 question mark and he just said I can meet you at

12200 so it worked out perfectly uh my NE next response to him was you know book it and I gave him the MC

number and since we were already set up with this broker uh he didn't require me to fill out no carrier packet and he

just sent the rayon so I'll scroll down and show you the next thing that he said so once I told him to book it and I gave

him the MC number he asked me when and where will your driver be empty and then I just said empty

tomorrow morning and then I gave the uh State and the City uh where he'll be empty and then I also responded back

again I said the driver will be empty at 2: a.m. tonight so he can pick it up first thing whenever the shipper is open

and then he just responded back saying please send me your driver's information and no falloffs so basically saying he's

saying uh go ahead and send me your driver's information and please make sure he doesn't uh cancel this load so I

sent them the driver's information and I'm going to hide it here I don't want to show the driver's information and and

then after I send him that information he put the rayon together and then he emailed me the rate confirmation so I'll

show you what that looks like so here's that rate confirmation and as you can see here it's from Danville Kentucky to

Charlotte North Carolina and here's the uh drop time and this is the pickup time and basically everything is aligned to

what he had mentioned in the email so I have the weight and then it's dry Foods so I signed the ray confirmation and

then I emailed the uh driver uh the ray information and I texted him that uh the load is booked

and now he has the address so he's ready to go for tomorrow now if I go back on the lower board you'll see that I have

two more drivers that I need to cover and the process is going to be the same I'm just going to call the Brokers and

see which load is going to work best for me this load was perfect uh it was 50 Mi away from where the driver was dropping

off his uh previous load and it was paying well above of $2.50 per mile which is perfect for this driver and

he's going to be delivering it the same day so he'll be empty the same day that he picks up the load so he'll pick pick

it up at 10: a.m. drop it off later later at night and it's paying 1,200 so it's a perfect load for him he loves it

and we're good to go on this one so yeah that's just a quick video I just wanted to show you what that typical process

looks like for when you have to handle uh like that booking process for multiple drivers you just set the search

criteria on the lowboard and you're just running through the loads and seeing what uh is going to be best for your

drivers so let's go ahead and jump to the next lesson

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