Do you save your lane history?
As a carrier booking loads with brokers and Carrier Sales Reps, you need to be keeping a Historical Log Book noting the details of the loads you're moving. Build an Excel sheet, or at a minimum, note the load details in a notebook. You need to be building relationships with brokers and Carrier Sales Reps, and the best way to nurture and grow those relationships is to stay connected with them. After every load you move, write down:
A) Who gave you the load. B) Contact name, phone number, email address. C) The date you moved the load. D) What you were paid. E) The pickup and delivery locations (city/state).
This is how brokers play the freight game — they call it "lane history," and you need to be doing the exact same thing so you can stand toe to toe with them and get paid the best rates.
I have personally booked loads with carriers week after week and sold them the exact same load at different prices every time. Why? It wasn't because demand or fuel prices changed — it was because the carrier wasn't keeping good records from the last time I paid them to run the load. If you're not writing down what you were paid two weeks ago for a load, and someone asks you to run the same load again today, and you don't remember what you got paid last time, the broker is going to capitalize on that.
I have a tool to help you get started with your Lane History — check out my video on Vimeo (vimeo.com/648806928). It's an Excel sheet template you can use to create your own Historical Log Book noting the details of the loads you're moving. Your focus is building relationships with brokers and Carrier Sales Reps, so that when their customer gives them a load, you're the first person they think of, and they call you before it ever hits the load board. Building a database of your lane history — who gave you what, what it paid, and when — means you get first dibs on loads before they're offered to the public. This is how you become memorable and get the best loads called in to you before anyone else.