Call reporting for freight brokerages

What the report tracks for a brokerage

• loads booked and gross margin by rep, against the prior week and the same week last year
• quotes given and how many turned into loads, by rep and by lane
• why quotes didn’t book, taken from the last call on each quote
• shippers who sound like they’re about to move freight elsewhere, in their own words
• inbound calls missed by hour, and which callers gave the load to someone else

Why quotes don’t book

Most brokerages know their win rate. Fewer know why the other loads were lost, because the reason lives in a phone call nobody wrote down. The weekly review reads the last call on every quote that didn’t book and sorts the reasons.

In the sample review for a brokerage with four reps, 81 quotes didn’t turn into loads: 29 went to a cheaper broker, 17 had no truck at the time the shipper asked, 14 were covered by the shipper in-house, 12 got no answer after the quote and 9 loads were cancelled. Each group has a different fix, and the report lists the shippers in each one.

Track and trace calls

Shippers calling to ask where a truck is aren’t sales calls, but they cost sales. In the same sample, 19 inbound calls in one week were shippers asking where a load was, and one shipper called four times about a single late delivery. The report counts these calls by shipper so you can see who needs updates before they ask.

Lunch and late-day calls

Broker desks get thin at lunch and late in the day, when reps are covering carriers. In the sample, 11 of 27 missed calls came at noon or after 4 PM, and two of those callers named a load they then gave to another broker. The report shows missed calls by hour so you can see where coverage is short.

Daily page or Monday review

For a brokerage the Monday review is often the better place to start, because margin and win rate settle down over a week. It runs two or three pages and is written for the weekly sales meeting. The daily page adds each morning’s follow-ups: open quotes, shippers waiting on a call back and missed calls.

Common questions

Does it work with our TMS?

If your TMS can export loads with the shipper, the rep, the rate and the carrier cost, the report can use it. Loads are matched to calls by phone number and shipper account.

Do carrier calls count?

You decide during setup. Usually shipper calls are reported and carrier calls are left out or counted separately.

What does it cost?

$395 a month for up to 5 people on the phones and $595 for 6 to 15, month to month. The Monday review adds $150 a month.