Freight load boards are becoming a great value online system for carriers, shippers and freight brokers these days.
Before the advent of these new online matching systems, a load board was as simple as a blackboard hanging from a dispatcher’s office wall containing a list of loads and truck driver’s names.
By introducing the online technology to the trucking industry, a revolution has happened and the online load boards was invented and used by the motor carriers across North America, for the first time which resulted in a huge growth in the online load board market.
It didn’t take much time for this new technology to become popular in the trucking industry and now, the number of online matching systems available in the internet are enough to make you feel overwhelmed when you want to choose one of them.
Finding top freight load board services without no doubt is one of the frustrating tasks. You may need to put a lot of time and effort to find an ideal freight board for posting or finding loads all over the world.
To make this process easier for you, we have collected the information about the 10 top load boards for freight carriers in this post.
Before getting familiar with top 10 freight load boards, let’s see what is a load board and why you may need to use them.
What is a load board?
Freight load boards work as an online matching system to help shippers and freight brokers posting loads or finding the most reputable carriers, negotiating with them and making an agreement to move freight.
By using a freight load board application, shippers and freight brokers can get in touch with carriers and use the options provided in the freight load board to find loads matching, review the credit information or days to pay, see the messages, make notes for sending to the shippers or carriers, issue factors to get approval for finances, etc.
Traditional vs lTL load boards
In the Traditional load boards, freight brokers, shippers and truckers can share their information about loads, capacities and destinations. The only difference between traditional and ITL online load boards is the size of loads. LTS stands for “Lighter than truckload Services” which means the freight available in this platform is not as large as a full trailer so it may need to be lumped with the others.
Free vs Paid freight load boards
As we mentioned above, there is an extreme competition between online matching systems in the trucking industry, that’s why you can find both free and paid providers with flexible plans in the marketplaces.
The surprising news is that there is no guarantee that a paid load board offers a better option than a free one. There are some free load boards for freight carriers that can offer much better services to you.
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Here are top 10 free load boards for freight carriers:
- Trucker Path
- Free Freight Search
- Trulos
- DSSLN
- Live Loads
- Load Up
- Trucking Planet
- Freight Finder
- Landstar
- Check Freight Broker
What is the advantage of using load boards for freight carriers?
Using a freight load board has many advantages, including:
- Easy to use and inexpensive for motor carriers, shippers and freight brokers
- Best solution for new freight brokers or owner operators to run their business
- Better management of available freights and trucks specially for time sensitive shipments
- Provide 24/7 access for carriers to accept delivery of freight matched their location and equipment
- Simplify the process of loads delivery
- Given the opportunity to motor carriers to avoid deadheading back home
- Easy access from anywhere by using mobiles, tablets or computers
How does a freight load board work?
To use a freight load board:
- On one hand, the carriers can filter and find the loads that are already posted according to their locations, the load destinations, the date of delivery or many other options available in the online apps.
- On the other hand, freight brokers and shippers are able to both post their loads or search to find a truck or equipment required to carry their loads according to their locations.
The top online free or paid load boards offer a lot of detailed information about both parties to help them find each other faster and easier.
It is also very important for the online board app to provide the useful information about how the both parties get in touch with each other. Usually, contact information such as email addresses or phone numbers of carriers, shippers or freight brokers are provided in these apps.
If you are a carrier, pay attention to the below Considerations when using a load board app:
- Start your search by filtering your current location
- Don’t just filter the loads according to your location. it’s better to filter the type of equipment you have as well.
- Before accepting to carry the loads, check the payment history of freight brokers and its reputation.
- If you have found the right load don’t hesitate to get in touch with the freight company immediately. Don’t forget it’s a competition.
- It’s better to look for the freight brokers offering fuel advances or quick payments.
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Top 10 load boards app for freight carriers
There is no difference if you need to find a freight load board as a trucking company or as a freight broker or shipper, there is also no difference where you want to post your loads from North America to the middle east or anywhere else, the online matching systems, we are going to introduce you, can do this task with the minimum price and the best services for you.
Let’s get familiar with them.
Trucker Path is one of the most famous online board apps specially in North America offering a free load board which means you can filter and find a load and contact with the freight brokers for free.
You can filter the posted loads according to the below options available in the online load board app:
- Load Weight
- Routs
- Credit scores of the brokers
All features of Trucker Path offered in the mobile app are available on desktops as well.
Truckstop is known as the first online matching system starting its services from 1995. Although it’s not a free load board, the number of carriers and brokers joining this app continue to increase due to its reliable services such as real time data, best paying loads, etc.
There are two plans available in the Truckstop application: Pro and Advanced. Pro Truckstop provide a better functionality for searching loads or trucks, however the Advanced Truckstop plan which is less expensive provides day to pay information of shippers.
Direct Freight comes with a professional filtering system, customizable alert scheduling and a unique weather built-in widget to help carriers take the most advantages of this new and online technology.
Carriers can enjoy 15 days free trial when sign up for the first time to search and find a load but after this time they need to pay for monthly subscription. Posting loads or trucks on the contrary is totally free and carriers, shippers or freight brokers can post their trucks or loads for free on Direct Freight.
One of the most amazing features of this online Freight load board is the possibility to be integrated with transportation management software provider (TMW Systems).
123Loadboards is a free Freight load board just for posting loads. Any user will be charged monthly for using other features of this online load board app. The good news is that even the advanced plan of this app costs less than the subscription price of other platforms that’s why over 325,000 users are now using this platform and enjoy its features such as broker credit checks, posted loads information, integration with TMW Systems, etc.
DAT load board started its services from 1978 with offering Dial-A-Truck monitors. By developing the online technology, this company developed a powerful solution according to the trucking industry market demands which is now known as one of the biggest and oldest freight load boards apps.
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The other famous online freight load boards with the same functionality are:
- Free Freight Search : Famous for sending free notifications when a match is found.
- Trulos : Famous for offering free searching and filtering loads posted by shippers and freight brokers.
- DSSLN: Famous for providing the largest and the most comprehensive database of Logistics and Supply Chain companies.
- LoadUp: Famous for providing a simple and easy to use interface which makes the process of finding loads faster.
- Fr8Connect: Famous for offering a free membership for using the usual features. But it offers premium plans as well.
Conclusion
Online freight load boards are the best solutions for connecting carriers with the shippers and freight brokers to create mutually beneficial shipping relationships and grow their business. Contact us to develop a custom load board for your transportation company
