One strategy that trucking businesses often overlook is hauling partial loads—a practice that can open up new revenue streams, optimize capacity, and improve overall profitability. Understanding how to effectively offer partial load services can position your trucking business to tap into a growing market, meet diverse customer needs, and increase your bottom line.
Here’s how to make partial loads a valuable new revenue source for your trucking business.
What are Partial Loads?
A partial load (also known as a partial truckload) refers to transporting freight that does not fill an entire trailer. This is different from a full truckload (FTL) shipment, where the entire truck is reserved for one customer, and less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping, which involves many small shipments from different customers that are consolidated together. Partial loads typically range from 5,000 to 20,000 pounds, which is more than what qualifies as LTL but less than an FTL.
Benefits of Hauling Partial Loads
Offering partial load services provides several benefits that can contribute to growing your trucking business:
Increased Utilization: Partial loads help you fill unused space in your trucks. Instead of running with empty or half-full trailers, you can combine multiple partial loads to maximize your capacity, ensuring more efficient use of your equipment and trip.
Higher Revenue Potential: By combining several partial loads, you can charge multiple customers for close to the same trip, boosting revenue. It’s important to note that each customer must be aware that their load will be sharing your trailer with another customer’s freight.
More Flexibility: Many customers don’t need a full truck for their shipments. By offering partial loads, you can accommodate smaller freight needs and reach a wider customer base, including small businesses that may not have enough cargo to fill a truck but still require faster service than LTL shipping offers.
Faster Turnaround for Shippers: Partial loads allow shippers to move freight more quickly than LTL. Since LTL shipments involve multiple stops and longer transit times, partial loads typically have fewer stops with direct-to-destination service—offering a faster and more reliable solution.
How to Make Partial Loads Work for Your Business
1. Understand Your Equipment and Capacity
The first step in offering partial loads is understanding the capacity and specifications of your equipment. Knowing how much extra space and weight capacity is available in your trailers will help you identify opportunities to take on partial loads. This also involves careful load planning to avoid overloading.
2. Leverage Load Boards
To find partial loads, use load boards where freight brokers post available freight. Load boards can help you identify and fill any available space with additional loads that align with your route and available capacity allowing you to build a more profitable haul.
3. Work with Freight Brokers
Freight brokers can be a valuable resource for finding partial loads. By developing relationships with brokers, you can gain access to smaller loads that they may have trouble fitting into traditional LTL or full truckload capacity. Brokers are often eager to work with flexible carriers that can accommodate partials and offer expedited service.
4. Optimize Routes for Multiple Loads
Successfully handling partial loads requires efficient route planning. When taking on multiple partial loads, ensure that the pickup and drop-off points are compatible to avoid unnecessary miles and meet shipping and receiving schedules.
5. Offer Flexible Pricing
Since partial loads fall somewhere between LTL and full truckload pricing, offering flexible pricing can attract more customers. You can base pricing on the amount of space used, the weight of the cargo, the complexity of the freight, and the distance of the haul.
6. Educate Your Customers
Many customers may not be aware that partial loads are a viable option. Educate your current customers on the benefits of partial loads compared to FTL or LTL shipping, especially if they regularly ship freight that doesn’t fill a truck.
Example: Maximizing Profit with Partial Loads
Imagine your trucking business already has a contract for a full truckload from New York to Chicago. However, there’s a significant amount of extra space in your trailer. You request permission from the shipper to transition the contract to a partial load. After receiving permission from the first shipper to contract only a portion of your equipment at a reduced price, you can then locate an additional load that aligns with your available capacity and current route. By utilizing load boards or working with brokers, you find a partial load that needs to be delivered to Cleveland, which is along your route. By adding this partial load, you can charge both customers a partial load rate, which can increase your revenue with minimal additional expenses. Please note that all parties must be aware that the load is partial and the trailer will be shared with several customers.
Challenges of Partial Loads
While partial loads offer many opportunities, they do come with challenges:
Managing multiple partial loads with different pickup and delivery times can be tricky.
Partial loads require careful planning when loading the truck to avoid damage or delays during unloading.
Delays are highly possible with partial loads. Communicate clearly with customers about delivery times and potential delays.
Adding partial loads to your service offerings is an excellent way to optimize capacity, increase revenue, and provide flexible shipping solutions to your customers. By understanding your equipment, utilizing load boards and brokers, and efficiently managing routes, you can make partial loads a new revenue source for your trucking business while offering a valuable service to shippers. As the demand for more tailored shipping options grows, being able to accommodate partial loads will give your business a competitive edge in the marketplace.
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Soshaul Logistics LLC and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. It is meant to serve as a guide and information only and Soshaul Logistics, LLC does not assume responsibility for any omissions, errors, or ambiguity contained herein. Contents may not be relied upon as a substitute for the FMCSA's published regulations. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction or operation.
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