The best phone system for hauliers and logistics operators

Shipper prospecting in the morning, subcontracting in the afternoon: one work line for both.

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Hundreds of companies use to make every call pay off

The situation

What holds you back today

01

Finding backloads by phone, one call at a time

02

Shipper prospecting pushed behind the day's operations

03

Personal mobiles used because there is no work number on the road

The answer

What Skipcall changes

Parallel calls to place a load in minutes

The parallel dialer →

A work number on mobile, calls logged away from the office

The mobile app →

History shared between the traffic office and sales

The parallel dialer →

Specific to your industry

When transport actually picks up the phone

A haulier's traffic office starts before a shipper's day and finishes after it. A calling campaign built around normal office hours misses half the target and interrupts the other half at the worst moment of its day.

Before 8am, everybody is in and nobody is free

Traffic planners and freight clerks are at their desks very early, because drivers are pulling out and the yard is loading. They pick up, since they are expecting calls from drivers, but they are dealing with departures and delays. A sales call at that hour gets taken and then cut short.

The window that works is late morning

Once the departures are covered, between 9:30 and 11:30, the traffic office is available for a proper conversation. This is the slot in which spare capacity, subcontracting or a backload can be discussed without interruption.

The shipper does not keep the haulier's hours

A transport buyer, supply chain manager or logistics manager inside a manufacturer works to an office diary, meetings included. Prospecting shippers and ringing round other hauliers for subcontracting in the same calling session is the fastest way to do both badly.

The late afternoon restart

From 4pm, the next day's runs get planned and backloads get chased. In smaller haulage businesses the owner is often still reachable after 6pm, and sometimes easier to catch then than during the day.

The two slots to avoid

Monday morning absorbs the weekend's problems, Friday afternoon the last minute loading. Those are the two moments when an unexpected call has the least chance of landing, whatever the message. From late November onwards, the run into Christmas closes the door on anything that is not operational.

Two audiences, two diaries: better to split the calling sessions than to run the same list at the same hour.

The script

The call to a shipper

You are calling the logistics manager, transport buyer or supply chain manager at a manufacturer or a distributor, late in the morning, once your own departures are covered. The aim of the call is a meeting or a first rate, not a signed transport contract.

The opening

“Hello, [first name last name] from [company]. We are based in [town] and we run [X] to [Y] every day. I am calling because we have capacity on the return leg on that lane. Is the transport planning yours, or is that somebody else with you?”

You open on real capacity and a named lane: in one sentence the shipper knows whether this concerns them, which a company introduction never tells them.

If they say they already have their hauliers

“Of course, nobody changes haulier on a phone call. I am not trying to take anybody's place: I want to be the third name on your list the day one of the other two leaves you with a load on the floor. Which lanes does that happen on?”

Covering the gaps is the only door open when the incumbent is in place, and it is how most accounts get opened.

If they want a rate straight away

“I can give you a rate, but it is worth nothing until I know what I am carrying. Two questions: is it pallets or full loads, and at what frequency? With that I will send you a rate card that holds.”

If they say it goes through an annual tender

“Good, that is exactly why I am calling now and not in the middle of the tender. When does it go out with you? I will note the date, and in the meantime I will take the spot work when you are over capacity, so you know how we work before you put us on the list.”

The tender date is worth more than an agreement in principle: it is what sets the next useful call.

If they only have two minutes

“Two minutes is fine. I will just take your two main lanes and the day of the week that gives you the most trouble. I will ring you when I have capacity on them, and not before.”

The close

“So I will ring you Tuesday around 10:30 with the rates for [lane]. I will leave you my direct number: you get me, not the traffic office.”

Booking the call back for late morning puts you in the only window where the traffic office and the shipper are free at the same time.

At Skipcall, every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so the script gets corrected against what your reps actually say rather than what we imagine they say.

Avoid this

Three mistakes this industry makes on the phone

The mistake

Running the hauliers you subcontract to and the shippers you are prospecting in the same calling session.

Do this instead

They are two different conversations: with another haulier you talk rate per mile and immediate availability, with a shipper you talk service levels, damage rates and delivery windows. Going from one to the other drags the vocabulary of the first call into the second. Split the lists and the slots, subcontracting early and shippers late morning.

The mistake

Quoting a rate on the phone before knowing what you are carrying.

Do this instead

Ask what the goods are, the temperature, the number of pallets or whether it is a full load, the frequency, the collection and delivery points and the booking windows at each end, then send a written rate card. A figure thrown out and corrected afterwards costs more than a rate sent the next day, because it becomes the customer's reference.

The mistake

Committing to a collection slot during the call without checking with the traffic office.

Do this instead

A salesperson who promises a collection for the next morning without checking capacity puts operations in default and burns the account on the first load. The right move is to note the request and ring back within the hour with a confirmed slot. A call that is recorded, transcribed and attached to the contact record also stops the traffic office finding out about the commitment on the day of loading.

A calendar full of meetings starts with a call.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions, Transport & logistics

First you need a tool that follows the salesperson out of the office: a work number usable from a mobile and a history the traffic office can see as well as sales. Then you need volume, because placing a load or opening a shipper account takes a lot of attempts for very few answers. Skipcall dials four lines in parallel, filters voicemails with AI detection, then records, transcribes and summarises every call. Sync is native with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce and Attio, and goes through the API for everything else.
Late morning, between 9:30 and 11:30, is the best moment: the departures are covered and the traffic office is available again. Late afternoon, from 4pm, also works, particularly in smaller firms where the owner still answers after 6pm. Before 8am you will get an answer but not attention. Monday morning and Friday afternoon are the two slots to leave alone.
Business to business calling is lawful, but company numbers have to be screened against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service, and owner drivers and ordinary partnerships against the TPS, with the screening repeated as registrations change. Anyone who tells you to stop goes on your suppression list immediately. UK GDPR covers the named contacts in your list: a documented lawful basis, a privacy notice about where the details came from, and objections acted on. If you record calls, say so at the start of the conversation.
It starts with not using a personal number: a work number carried by the tool lets you make and take calls without exposing the salesperson's own line. Every call is then recorded, transcribed and summarised, and attached to the contact record in the pre-CRM or in your CRM. The traffic office can find what was promised to a customer without having to ring the person who promised it.
Skipcall allows calls to twelve countries. Before starting a European campaign, check that the countries you are targeting are on that list, because a country that is not covered cannot be opened on request. Support is provided in English and French.

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See what it does on your own lists

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