One load per month has suddenly turned into one load per day and you are starting to get the hang of it. As your new dispatch from home job begins to blossom, it’s starting to look like this has the potential to become a legitimate business. It’s time to get organized. Perhaps your brokerage is using a whiteboard or a notebook. With so many moving parts in transportation and logistics, it’s easy for a load to fall through the cracks. Therefore, it’s vital to digitize your dispatch.
Everyday Dispatch Software For Freight Brokers
Dispatch software can be as simple as a custom excel sheet. To start, organize the Excel workbook using different ‘sheets’. On the first sheet, prioritize your ‘open loads’ or loads that you have accepted from your customers, but have not yet found a truck. Include the ship date, origin, destination and rate at a bare minimum. On the second sheet, track the life of the load. As loads get booked, dispatched, loaded, etc., this page will constantly need updating throughout the day. Lastly, create a third sheet that will act as an archived list of all your delivered loads. You can also use this to track payments if you opt to not use Quickbooks or any other accounting software.
As you continue to move more loads and potentially hire additional employees, it’s important to take some steps towards a more stable dispatch solution that can be accessed from anywhere. While Excel is great because it’s so customizable, it is limited. For example, only one person can update a given sheet at a time, it has no reporting and it’s not very intuitive on mobile devices. While many freight brokers work from home or operate remotely, it’s imperative to invest in dispatch software that is cloud-based and team-friendly.
The Best Freight Broker Dispatch Software Is Here
There are plenty of options for dispatch software but often times smaller brokers are simply priced out. TMS software can frequently present itself with all the bells and whistles and a price tag to match. Though realistically all your business needs is simple, customizable organization tools. TMS software solutions such as HaulHound Pro can empower your staff with those tools starting at just $100 month.
