Landstar is unique among motor carriers in that it's dispatch system is decentralized. Your loads come not from the company but from a network of independent agents, with each agency developing and servicing its own customers. These agents affiliate with Landstar for the same reasons owner-operators do. Landstar provides a fantastic networking system and support.
For an owner-operator, the very best way to succeed at Landstar is to be safe, reliable and communicate well. As the agents who have loads to dispatch look for trucks, the more they believe in you, the more likely you are to be called.
In general, when an agent needs a truck, he or she looks at the board to see who is available. If you show up as empty and available, you may very well get that call. But if more than one truck appears, the agent chooses. And at Landstar, there is no criteria that governs the choice. If the agent likes or knows you better than the others, because you have served the agent well in the past, you are likely to be called first.
So, in a decentralized, criteria-free dispatch system like this, how do you stand out from perhaps several trucks that the agent likes and knows? And what about the chicken/egg problem of motivating an agent to call you when the agent has never used you before?
The chicken/egg problem is not as bad as it may appear from the outside. The Landstar Express America fleet is smaller than the big carriers and the agent network is large. When an agent has freight to dispatch, it will frequently happen that you are the agent's only option within the Landstar network. Agents have the ability to broker freight outside of the network but, in general, it pays off in several ways to stay inside.
There are two approaches to getting freight within the Landstar system. One is to sit around and wait for the phone to ring. The other is to market yourself. There are many ways to market yourself. They include making courtesy calls to agent offices to introduce yourself in person, making telephone calls to update agents on your status, sending greeting cards, sending thank you cards and more.
To efficiently market our truck to as many agents as possible, we used email and this web site. Both were well received, and in many cases, enthusiastically received.
Agents loved it that we were not interrupting their day but still advising them of our status. Several agents shared the web site with their customers to brag up the great team they were putting on a given load.
The email text was carefully crafted to meet agent needs. It's strength is not in its glitz and glitter (there is none) but in its repetition. Repetition builds familiarity and familiarity builds trust.
Additionally, agents liked the content because it saved them the step of going to their board to look up truck specs. When they start work each day, agents pretty much know in their head what loads they have to cover. Our emails gave them the ability to instantly know if they might make some money that day by putting our truck on one of their loads. Or it might happen that learning of our status in the morning, they remember us in the afternoon when a customer calls in the afternoon with load we can cover.
The email text is below. Very important in this process is the subject line format. Here are some samples:
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Avail. Now in Bordentown, NJ
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Inbound to Minneapolis, Avail Tue. a.m.
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Out of Service to Rest. Avail. Fri. a.m. in Los Angeles.
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Avail Now in Dallas. Seeks Load To/Toward FL
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Truck in Shop. Will be Avail in GA on Mon.
Notice the repetition in the subject line. These emails were sent almost daily. As agents grew familiar with the format, the subject line jumped out at them from their many other messages. Depending on their needs, they could instantly delete the message or contact us about covering a load. They loved the efficiency.
It takes time to build an email list of agents and the way you do it is very important. You don't want to be known as an unwelcome spammer. Our technique is known as permission-based marketing. Agents must request to be added to our list before being added.
Permission-based marketing takes time and effort, but it also ensures that your emails are gratefully received. In building our email list, the web site came in very handy.
When a new agent called for any reason, or if we had occasion to call the agent, we directed him or her to the web site as a way of further introducing ourselves. That was usually easy to do because an agent is almost always at one's computer and online when he or she calls.
If the agent did not have time at that moment, we got permission to send him or her an email further introducing ourselves and our web site. When permission was granted, the email was sent immediately so it would be seen while the telephone chat was still fresh in the agent's mind.
In almost every case, the agents said "Wow!" when our web site opened before them. They saw a great looking truck and a happy, professional-looking team. The site is quick, easy and communicates only basic information.
Because there was little else to see, many agents went immediately to the photos and were able to learn all about us from the brief descriptions provided. In that "Wow!" instant, we got into their heads and earned their trust. Thereafter, the emails provided a frequent reminder of the Madsen Team (Truck 3772). This repetition kept us in the front of agent minds.
When getting permission from agents to send them our emails, we asked if the email address we had (from the Landstar list) was the best one to use. As often as not, the answer was no and a better address was provided. In many cases, the address of the agency's dispatcher was provided, or a single address was given that automatically forwarded our email to every agent in the office and/or every sub-agent in a large agency's network.
In about a year's time, we grew our list to over 70 email addresses, but because, in many cases, the messages were being automatically forwarded to others, our daily "blast messages" reached hundreds of agents. It worked out that we might haul freight for one of these agents only once a year, if that, but because our exposure was so wide, we got more load offers than we would have without this marketing effort.
We know these messages were being read. An agent might talk to us three months after we said we were inbound to Topeka and mention that he saw us in Topeka where his mother lives. Or an agent might comment that she had a sweet load bubble up in Seattle two weeks ago only to see us leave the day before she would have called to put it on our truck.
It was not unusual to receive thank-you replies to the emails from agents who could not use us at the time but wanted to say how much they appreciate this technique. For some of them, our messages had a certain entertainment value. They enjoyed watching us move around the country. We'd sometimes hear comments like, "You were in Canada last week and now you're in Florida. You guys are doing it to it, aren't you?"
Recognizing the entertainment value these messages had, we resisted the temptation to make them cute or funny. In the interest of efficiency and so as to not inadvertently say something that might put someone off, these messages were strictly business; using the same format and text every time.
This system was not a total solution. We had our days of sitting between loads as all expediters do. But we believe this marketing effort was well worth the time we put into it.
Emails are free. The cost of maintaining the web site was minimal. Not only did we get more loads because of this marketing effort, the quality of the loads was greatly enhanced. We personally met very few of the agents we worked with, but because of the web site and emails, they were very comfortable using us when a safe, professional team that communicates well was needed to haul an especially important and lucrative load.
Email Text:
We are inbound to Topeka. Will be available after our Tuesday, 08:00 delivery.
Agents: Click here to see what you get when you book this truck and team.
Phil and Diane Madsen
Truck 3772
(000) 000-0000
Truck Specs:
10,000 lbs. payload
16' box (straight truck) 94"H x 92"W inside
Reefer
Lift Gate
Pallet Jack
Roll-up Door (92"H x 88"W)
Wood Floor
Pads, Straps, Bars, Floor Rings, Eight Rows of E-Track, Dollies, Carts
Eight rows of E-Track enables freight decking.
Team Specs:
AA&E, Non-smokers, No pets
10 Years Experience
No Freight Damage Ever
Career on time rate (1,000+ loads): 99.7 %
Skilled in White Glove Work
For an owner-operator, the very best way to succeed at Landstar is to be safe, reliable and communicate well. As the agents who have loads to dispatch look for trucks, the more they believe in you, the more likely you are to be called.
In general, when an agent needs a truck, he or she looks at the board to see who is available. If you show up as empty and available, you may very well get that call. But if more than one truck appears, the agent chooses. And at Landstar, there is no criteria that governs the choice. If the agent likes or knows you better than the others, because you have served the agent well in the past, you are likely to be called first.
So, in a decentralized, criteria-free dispatch system like this, how do you stand out from perhaps several trucks that the agent likes and knows? And what about the chicken/egg problem of motivating an agent to call you when the agent has never used you before?
The chicken/egg problem is not as bad as it may appear from the outside. The Landstar Express America fleet is smaller than the big carriers and the agent network is large. When an agent has freight to dispatch, it will frequently happen that you are the agent's only option within the Landstar network. Agents have the ability to broker freight outside of the network but, in general, it pays off in several ways to stay inside.
There are two approaches to getting freight within the Landstar system. One is to sit around and wait for the phone to ring. The other is to market yourself. There are many ways to market yourself. They include making courtesy calls to agent offices to introduce yourself in person, making telephone calls to update agents on your status, sending greeting cards, sending thank you cards and more.
To efficiently market our truck to as many agents as possible, we used email and this web site. Both were well received, and in many cases, enthusiastically received.
Agents loved it that we were not interrupting their day but still advising them of our status. Several agents shared the web site with their customers to brag up the great team they were putting on a given load.
The email text was carefully crafted to meet agent needs. It's strength is not in its glitz and glitter (there is none) but in its repetition. Repetition builds familiarity and familiarity builds trust.
Additionally, agents liked the content because it saved them the step of going to their board to look up truck specs. When they start work each day, agents pretty much know in their head what loads they have to cover. Our emails gave them the ability to instantly know if they might make some money that day by putting our truck on one of their loads. Or it might happen that learning of our status in the morning, they remember us in the afternoon when a customer calls in the afternoon with load we can cover.
The email text is below. Very important in this process is the subject line format. Here are some samples:
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Avail. Now in Bordentown, NJ
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Inbound to Minneapolis, Avail Tue. a.m.
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Out of Service to Rest. Avail. Fri. a.m. in Los Angeles.
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Avail Now in Dallas. Seeks Load To/Toward FL
Madsen Team (Truck 3772) Truck in Shop. Will be Avail in GA on Mon.
Notice the repetition in the subject line. These emails were sent almost daily. As agents grew familiar with the format, the subject line jumped out at them from their many other messages. Depending on their needs, they could instantly delete the message or contact us about covering a load. They loved the efficiency.
It takes time to build an email list of agents and the way you do it is very important. You don't want to be known as an unwelcome spammer. Our technique is known as permission-based marketing. Agents must request to be added to our list before being added.
Permission-based marketing takes time and effort, but it also ensures that your emails are gratefully received. In building our email list, the web site came in very handy.
When a new agent called for any reason, or if we had occasion to call the agent, we directed him or her to the web site as a way of further introducing ourselves. That was usually easy to do because an agent is almost always at one's computer and online when he or she calls.
If the agent did not have time at that moment, we got permission to send him or her an email further introducing ourselves and our web site. When permission was granted, the email was sent immediately so it would be seen while the telephone chat was still fresh in the agent's mind.
In almost every case, the agents said "Wow!" when our web site opened before them. They saw a great looking truck and a happy, professional-looking team. The site is quick, easy and communicates only basic information.
Because there was little else to see, many agents went immediately to the photos and were able to learn all about us from the brief descriptions provided. In that "Wow!" instant, we got into their heads and earned their trust. Thereafter, the emails provided a frequent reminder of the Madsen Team (Truck 3772). This repetition kept us in the front of agent minds.
When getting permission from agents to send them our emails, we asked if the email address we had (from the Landstar list) was the best one to use. As often as not, the answer was no and a better address was provided. In many cases, the address of the agency's dispatcher was provided, or a single address was given that automatically forwarded our email to every agent in the office and/or every sub-agent in a large agency's network.
In about a year's time, we grew our list to over 70 email addresses, but because, in many cases, the messages were being automatically forwarded to others, our daily "blast messages" reached hundreds of agents. It worked out that we might haul freight for one of these agents only once a year, if that, but because our exposure was so wide, we got more load offers than we would have without this marketing effort.
We know these messages were being read. An agent might talk to us three months after we said we were inbound to Topeka and mention that he saw us in Topeka where his mother lives. Or an agent might comment that she had a sweet load bubble up in Seattle two weeks ago only to see us leave the day before she would have called to put it on our truck.
It was not unusual to receive thank-you replies to the emails from agents who could not use us at the time but wanted to say how much they appreciate this technique. For some of them, our messages had a certain entertainment value. They enjoyed watching us move around the country. We'd sometimes hear comments like, "You were in Canada last week and now you're in Florida. You guys are doing it to it, aren't you?"
Recognizing the entertainment value these messages had, we resisted the temptation to make them cute or funny. In the interest of efficiency and so as to not inadvertently say something that might put someone off, these messages were strictly business; using the same format and text every time.
This system was not a total solution. We had our days of sitting between loads as all expediters do. But we believe this marketing effort was well worth the time we put into it.
Emails are free. The cost of maintaining the web site was minimal. Not only did we get more loads because of this marketing effort, the quality of the loads was greatly enhanced. We personally met very few of the agents we worked with, but because of the web site and emails, they were very comfortable using us when a safe, professional team that communicates well was needed to haul an especially important and lucrative load.
Email Text:
We are inbound to Topeka. Will be available after our Tuesday, 08:00 delivery.
Agents: Click here to see what you get when you book this truck and team.
Phil and Diane Madsen
Truck 3772
(000) 000-0000
Truck Specs:
10,000 lbs. payload
16' box (straight truck) 94"H x 92"W inside
Reefer
Lift Gate
Pallet Jack
Roll-up Door (92"H x 88"W)
Wood Floor
Pads, Straps, Bars, Floor Rings, Eight Rows of E-Track, Dollies, Carts
Eight rows of E-Track enables freight decking.
Team Specs:
AA&E, Non-smokers, No pets
10 Years Experience
No Freight Damage Ever
Career on time rate (1,000+ loads): 99.7 %
Skilled in White Glove Work
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