We subscribe to one non expedite board and this is how we use it.
The main thing is that I don't go there expecting to see an expedite load or anything paying close to an expedite rate. I go there if we have a truck in a difficult area to get out of and we want to find a paid relocation rather than just have the guy deadhead somewhere. You can usually cover your fuel with an LTL and that beats deadheading for nothing. Occasionally the opportunity is there to put 3 or 4 of them on one straight and that can be profitable if you're getting .50 or .75 cpm on each one. We will also look for small ones to throw on with an expedite if the expedite has plenty of time on it or if the LTL is delivering in the same area and the expedite can be dropped first. Here's an example. We have a large straight that picked up yesterday in Connecticut and he's heading out to Boeing in Everett. He's got enough space left for a couple more skids, so we're looking for something that we can throw on with the expedite just for some extra revenue on the way out there.
What happens on these boards is that most of the brokers on there are in truckload and LTL land where the idea of a full rate to anything smaller than 53' is unheard of. Even if they have a specific delivery time on a load and you try to quote them a full rate, you'll get responses like, "But it's only a partial." These are normally brokers who don't handle this kind of freight that much and when a shipper calls them with a load like that, they really don't know what to do with it. They still treat it like a partial load because that's all they know. It can be frustrating trying to deal with them or explain to them that their load is in reality an exclusive use expedite. I had a conversation with one the other day where he told me, "But we're not paying for the whole truck...", and my reply was, "But if you want it delivered when you're telling me, we don't have enough time to sit around looking for something to put with it, so you are getting the whole truck." We couldn't see eye to eye, so we never did the load.
Occasionally you have a company that everyone here sees as an expedite company posting loads on the LTL boards, but most of the time those are true LTL loads, and there are some companies that do primarily truckload and LTL but post expedites on Sylectus from time to time as well. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is someone wanting expedite service for LTL rates, and sadly there are probably carriers out there who will oblige them for whatever reasons, going home, relocating, etc. You will also see people posting LTL loads on Sylectus but in the truck type you're seeing things like small straight, large straight, van, etc. If you're posting it as an LTL and that's all you want to pay, then why list it for anything smaller than a TT?
Anyway, that's the low down on load boards. Of course there are the expedite boards like NLM and Active, but that's a different animal than the boards like getloaded.com where you have to pay money to subscribe. Sylectus is the only expedite board that charges money, but then again you're getting more than just a "load board" with them. NLM, Active, and some of the other expedite sources that post freight on boards don't cost any money to get access to, but lately that freight is about the cheapest freight out there because of the competitive bidding.
