The best phone system for hauliers and logistics operators
Shipper prospecting in the morning, subcontracting in the afternoon: one work line for both.
Hundreds of companies use 
to make every call pay off
The situation
What holds you back today
Finding backloads by phone, one call at a time
Shipper prospecting pushed behind the day's operations
Personal mobiles used because there is no work number on the road
The answer
What Skipcall changes
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.
Frequently asked questions, Transport & logistics
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Every enquiry you fail to call back is a sale someone else makes: Skipcall turns the call back and the follow up into a routine.
Office Equipment & Print
Appointment setting at volume: take a rep from 60 to 200 calls a day.
Accountancy Practices
Chasing eighty clients for their records should not cost a member of staff a whole day: Skipcall turns it into one session.
See what it does on your own lists
A demo runs on your own contacts, not on a sample data set.
Personalized demonstration