My Driver Doesn’t Have the Load Information
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Usually discovered at the gate, which is the most expensive moment to discover it. The underlying cause is almost always the same: the details lived in someone’s phone call rather than on the load.
What a driver needs before rolling
- Pickup and delivery addresses, with appointment windows
- Load and reference numbers: the ones the facility will ask for
- Gate codes and check-in procedure
- Whether it’s FCFS, and expected wait
- Commodity, weight, piece count
- Equipment requirements: temperature setting, securement, tarping
- Lumper arrangements and who pays
- Broker contact, including after-hours
Most of it exists on the rate confirmation. The problem is that the rate confirmation sits in an office inbox, not in the cab.
Why it goes missing
Verbal handoff. Details relayed by phone and half-remembered.
Late changes. An appointment moved after dispatch and the driver never told.
Detail that was never captured. Nobody asked the broker about the gate code, so nobody could pass it on.
Wrong channel. Sent by email to a driver who works from a phone and doesn’t check email while driving.
Fixing it right now
- Send the ratecon to the driver’s phone, not their email
- Send the critical fields as text as well (reference number, appointment, gate code), because a PDF is hard to read at a guard shack
- Confirm receipt rather than assuming
- Get the broker’s after-hours number to the driver too
Fixing it permanently
The pattern that works is that the load record is the source of truth and the driver has access to it, rather than information being pushed by whoever remembered.
That also solves the change problem. When an appointment moves, it moves on the record, and the driver sees the current version instead of the one they were told about on Tuesday.
Capture it at booking
Gate codes, FCFS status, lumper arrangements and dock restrictions are things to establish with the broker during negotiation. If nobody asked, nobody can pass it on, and the driver finds out by being turned away.
Where Hey Bubba! fits
Hey Bubba! is an AI back-office automation platform for fleets. Facility details are confirmed with the broker at booking and attached to the load, the rate confirmation is parsed and indexed, and drivers get updates by voice or text in their own language, from the load record rather than from whoever remembered.
Frequently asked questions
Addresses and appointment windows, reference numbers, gate codes and check-in procedure, commodity and weight, equipment requirements, lumper arrangements, and a broker contact.
To the phone, not to email, and send critical fields as text alongside the PDF.
Change it on the load record rather than relaying it, so the driver sees the current version.
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