Working with direct customers is where you want to get to.  As tier 2 level access, we open the door to you to work with direct customers.   There is a slight difference between what we call a shipper and a customer.

Shipper – This is the physical location that product is shipped from.  It is the address provided to a driver in order to pick up a load.

Customer – This is the location we bill for a shipment we do.  It can often be the same as the shipping location, but it can also be the consignee or third party billing location.  In some cases we are paid by credit card or even wire transfer.

In the example below, the shipper is different than the customer.  However, we have shipped loads from this shipper and billed both a third party and the shipper as well.  Meaning this shipper has had two separate bill to customers.

We track both shippers and customers and many are entered twice because of both being the same, meaning same address in shipper as the customer.

Our ‘Map Shippers’ will map any shipper who has the “Frequency” field given a value.  So it’s very easy to have a shipper map or unmap as you only need to change the value of “Frequency” from nothing to something or vice versa.

Search

The search field value Frequency has the following categories.

• Daily
• Monthly
• Occasionally
• Prospect
• Seasonally
• Weekly

Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Occasionally, and Seasonally help filter out the shippers and how often they ship.  This is only an approximate and we can update as necessary.

A prospect is a new opportunity for a new customer.  You want to take the opportunity to pursue ‘prospects’ because they are sales leads where you can earn sales commission dollars for bringing us new business with these accounts.

In the image above, you will see the ‘checkered flag’.  This is how we see new prospects.  They are open for anyone to call on to try to develop the account.  Just notify Dave or Travis and we will assign you the account, but we will follow your progress to be sure you are handling the account.

Truck Radius Search

Tier 2 gives you access to the truck radius search under ‘Truck Tools’.  You use this feature to look for truck capacity in an area where a direct shipper is located. The example mentioned early was we had a shipper in Minden, LA.  This particular shipper uses a lot of double drop equipment because most of what they ship is oversize.  In the ‘truck radius’ search we can enter the following.

1. Center – Enter the city and state of the shipper: Minden, LA
2. Radius – Determine how far to search out for trucks.  200 miles for example
3. Trailer Type – Enter ‘Double Drop’ if you want to only see these trailer types.
4. Click “Search”

The results will show on both the map and below as a list.

Now that you have these results, you can go through the process of calling the shipper and checking on available loads and follow up with the trucks.  You can also copy and paste these results into an email to the shipper or customer.  It just depends on the nature of the contact and what method works best for them.  Some people are better with email while others are better with a phone call.

You will get to the point where the contacts will know you well and even rely on you for capacity.  You have to develop this relationship, but when you do, it can be worth its weight in gold!