Drivers Wanted
Definition: LTL (less than a truckload)
LTL trucking or freight is a popular trend for the transportation of small loads, less than a truckload. It is essential for Transportation companies that offer LTL services to be attentive and strategic in their pursuit of small loads. The process of establishing LTL services and searching for freight is a multi-pronged process, one that is a collaboration between shippers, brokers, and load boards. Each of these components has their own role and stake in the process, and is necessary to facilitate the entry into the LTL space. Total Transportation and Distribution is an award winning, strategic LTL trucking company located in the Inland Empire of CA.
It is important to take a very clever approach to LTL trucking—carriers need to make sure that the freight they carry is profitable and that all of their resources are both available and dependable. Carriers need to find appropriate “loads” that despite being small in size, are able to deliver maximum profitability. Routing LTL requests are very precise, detailed, and specific in order to cultivate efficiency in the management of money, time, and resources; at Total Transportation and Distribution, we have a system in place like no other and take pride in our 99.9% on time delivery rate.
Brokers are the link between shippers and truckers. Carriers use them in order to match shippers that have small freight requirements with truckers in a particular company. Without brokers, it would be extremely difficult to find shippers to work with. Be cautious however, carriers should choose brokers with the utmost care –our broker selection process is very rigid and performance driven. Agreements should be made with reputable brokers, establishing amicable relationships that rightfully make brokers the customers of truck drivers—not the other way around.
Shippers are another vital piece to this puzzle. They are the primary customers for transport companies. Once again, in order to establish LTL services, it is important to find shippers that are reliable and can offer the right kind of freight to deliver maximum profits. The niche for small freight shippers needs to flow well with the trucking company’s resources. Oftentimes, small freight trucking companies have only a handful of shippers—but each of those shippers is usually extremely reliable, keeping trucking companies afloat. Companies operating with LTL services need to ensure that they have a quality backhaul, otherwise this can cost large sums of money and quite often unnecessary mileage. Having a few clients is in no way a negative quality; having good, stable clients is the key to delivering the best services to those top customers that maintain a steady, worry-free stream of revenue. This promotes the prevention of issues that can arise from having too many customers, which could result with a decline in the quality of service provided.
The last component to the LTL trucking business is the load board. Load boards facilitate the acquisition of freight, or loads, for the trucks to carry. Within them, load boards have a variety of tools that are able to find LTL freight. These tools include filtering by truck-to-load ratio, rate-indexes, and searching within a particular radius for available trucks. If a load board is not used frequently, trucking companies (especially in the LTL sector) can experience massive revenue inefficiencies. Trucks can be docked in low-freight areas and loads can be cancelled for pre-routed trucks. Having a load board can smooth out these issues creating an environment where companies are able to operate reliably and with a steady profit.
In order for LTL trucking services to function for trucking companies, a cross-collaborative effort between brokers, shippers, and load boards is required. This effort helps to ensure that companies offering this currently popular service, have the tools they need to ensure profitability and reliability. For your next LTL trucking booking, contact us at www.ttdwest.com – try us out and let us know what you think of our services.