I Can’t Find a Good Load
Last updated:
The board’s full and none of it works. That’s usually one of three things: your filters are hiding the freight, you’re looking at the wrong time, or you’re in a market that genuinely doesn’t have it. Each has a different fix, and it’s worth knowing which one you’ve got before you widen your radius and take something bad.
Work out which one it is
Filters
Check your radius first. A wide default hides good nearby freight in a wall of loads 200 miles out. Then check your rate floor: if it’s set on gross rate rather than net, it’s filtering out loads that actually pay and passing loads that don’t.
Timing
Good loads post and cover fast, often within twenty minutes. If you’re checking the board three times a day, you’re seeing what’s left after everyone else looked.
Most freight posts early morning. If you’re searching in the afternoon you’re competing for leftovers.
Market
Sometimes there genuinely isn’t freight. Every market has weeks like this, and no amount of searching creates capacity. This is the case where repositioning beats waiting. More on that trade-off.
Equipment filters
Freight is posted inconsistently. A step deck load shows up as flatbed with the deck height in the notes, reefer freight gets posted without a temperature, and plenty of loads carry no equipment type at all. Filter strictly on your trailer type and that freight never reaches your screen.
Loosen the filter one notch rather than switching it off: flatbed and step deck together, or reefer plus loads with no equipment listed. Then read the load detail (dimensions, temperature, securement) rather than trusting the category. It is more reading per load, and it surfaces freight nobody else is filtering for.
Equipment-specific guides: reefer, flatbed, step deck and power only.
What to do today
- Tighten the radius to 40 to 50 miles from where the truck actually is. Fewer results, better ones.
- Set your floor on net RPM, not gross. If it’s gross, you’re filtering the wrong loads out. How to calculate it.
- Loosen equipment filters one notch and read the load details rather than trusting the posted category.
- Check who’s posting, not just what. Brokers you’ve run for before will often work with you on a rate they won’t post.
- If the market is genuinely empty, price a repositioning load rather than waiting for something that isn’t coming.
The fix that isn’t searching harder
The underlying problem is usually that searching is something you do between other things. Freight doesn’t post on that schedule. A load that appears at 6:40am and covers by 7:05 was never available to someone checking at nine.
The carriers who consistently find better freight aren’t better at searching; they’re searching continuously, or they have someone who is.
Plan the next load before you need it
The worst position to search from is empty. You’re at a fixed point, at a fixed hour, with no leverage and no time. Starting the search while you’re still loaded, against your delivery ETA, means you come off the dock with options instead of urgency.
Where Hey Bubba! fits
Hey Bubba! is an AI back-office automation platform for fleets. It searches DAT, Truckstop.com, 123Loadboard and direct broker networks continuously, including at 6:40am, filters on net RPM against your cost per mile, and plans the reload before the current load delivers.
Frequently asked questions
Usually radius set too wide, a rate floor set on gross instead of net, or checking the board after the morning postings have covered.
40 to 50 miles from the truck’s actual position. Widen only when the market is thin.
Start before delivery. Search against your ETA while still loaded, so the truck has somewhere to go when it comes off the dock.
Self-service load boards, direct broker relationships, or automating the search so it runs while you drive.
Last updated:
Meet Bubba,
AI Back-Office
Automation for Fleets
Dispatch, paperwork & compliance - automated.
Just say Hey Bubba!