2nd Month of the year is almost over, you feel broken, beaten up, wondering why you got in the business, wondering what you are going to do this coming week with rates looking like they are from the 1800's. Everyone goes through this, I do, even 12 plus years in I still get the feeling of discouragement, when every phone call on every lane results in no load booked because the rate is way too low, and the one that is semi-decent has a 22:45 pickup and drops off 3 days later at 22:45.
The trick is to keep going, don't take the easy way out by saying yes, and then justifying "well it's the best there is" That's an EASY trap to get into and you aren't doing your carriers any favors, you must do your best to avoid that. So keep looking, keep calling, but what else can you do?
Look back into your old rate cons, look back and reach out to those brokers, those contacts, there's a lot of times were loads that were about to hit the board, get covered by previous contacts. Once you do book a load, keep cultivating that contact with great and constant communication, the less they have to chase you, the better you will look in their eyes.
Use your gameplan to advantage if you know your carrier is going to be at a certain location every Monday, cultivate those contacts who have those Monday loads, I have a carrier that has 3 trucks in the same geographic location every Monday, very rarely do I need the load boards to get them going, I use past contacts who have loads that we have done before that the guys are ok with, might not like them per se, but they are ok with doing them.
Perseverance, just keep picking up the phone, making those phone calls, cultivating your contacts, it's tough in this market, but it marks the difference between a dispatcher who is in it for the money vs a dispatcher who is in it for the carriers.
