Load Board

What is a Load Board? 
A load board, also known as a freight board or freight matching service, helps to connect shippers and carriers. It is an online marketplace where truck owner-operators, shippers, and freight brokers can post the loads they have available as well as find available loads.
Most trucking load boards are sophisticated and allow you to post and search for loads using a number of criteria in addition to providing various services for both freight brokers and carriers. Depending on the board, you can find services such as:
  1. Load matching
  2. Credit information/days to pay
  3. Message boards
  4. Ability to make notes on shippers/carriers
  5. FMCSA verification
  6. Finance of pre-approved loads using factoring
  7. Mobile access
How a Load Board Works

A load board simply helps to connect shippers with carriers. The shipper will post to the load board any available freight they have along with what equipment is needed to move the freight and any other pertinent information. The carrier can then search the load board to find freight options available for them to carry.

In the end both parties, shipper and carrier, benefit from using a load board. The carrier gets to fill an idle truck with a freight load and the shipper is able to move their freight.

Reduce Truckload Freight Costs

Benefits of Load Boards
  • Convenient & Efficient: A load board is easily accessed wherever internet is available. Both shippers and carriers can access the load board from their computers or mobile devices. Load boards are available 24/7, so no matter when you look, the load board is available with the most up-to-date information.
  • Easy to Use: Load boards are easy to use. They require little to no technical knowledge. All you have to do is create an account and log in to view the loads available.
Types of load boards:
There are multiple kinds of load board that specialize in different things. The first two are relatively obvious: paid and free load boards. There are however, derivations on these traditional load boards, most notably LTL and miscellaneous loads.
  • Traditional Load boards: These load boards are traditional forums that allow freight brokers, shippers, and truckers to share information on loads, capacities, and destination.
  • LTL Load Boards: LTL stands for “Less than truckload.” This acronym applies to any freight that isn’t large enough to full a trailer on its own, and so will likely be lumped with other freight. A term one can often find associated with LTL is “hotshot,” which is synonymous with LTL when referring to freight but can be used to describe a smaller truck that is employed with other trailers on a ‘for hire’ basis.
  • Misc Loads: Miscellaneous loads are anything that don’t fall into either of the above categories. These are generally very unconventional loads like livestock or boats that a trucking company can easily find a niche in.
MercuryGate Load Board:
The MercuryGate Load Board was released to our customers in the January 2021 release. This allowed all MercuryGate customers to be in a single GUI. By putting more functionality within a single GUI, it allows users to complete the majority of their work within the load board without having to enter multiple screens.

Request a MercuryGate Demo to Get Started

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