Book It Now" Loads and Instant Freight Booking

There is a big push in the transportation industry for load boards to offer a simple "book it now" option that lets carriers book a load with a single tap. Here is what instant freight booking is, how it works, and how it helps the whole industry work faster and smarter.

What is book-it-now / instant freight booking?

The idea behind book-it-now freight is simple: a shipper posts freight to a load board, a carrier sees it and wants it, and all the carrier has to do is tap a button to accept the load.

Typically, carriers sort through one or more load boards looking for the load that works best for them at a rate they think is fair. When a carrier contacts a shipper about the load, it usually kicks off a negotiation: the carrier tries to push the rate up, the shipper tries to push it down. That process can be lengthy and frustrating, and often leaves both parties feeling like they got the short end of the stick.

Instant freight booking allows for more transparency between the carriers booking the loads and the shippers posting them.

What are the benefits?

In the traditional system, carriers and shippers can spend as many as four hours searching for and booking a single load. Book-it-now freight is appealing because it eliminates lengthy negotiations, awkward phone calls, and time-consuming paperwork.

• For carriers: A lot of time is lost searching for loads — time that could be better spent moving freight or at home with family. More loads booked means more money in your pocket.
• For shippers: Getting loads covered faster frees up time for other business tasks, and for many that means room to grow.

Instant booking also helps solve the problem of stale loads lingering on a board. Not every load board is cleaned daily (Doft's is), so old loads can reappear over and over and make a board look fuller than it really is.

How does it work?

A shipper posts a load with the key details — weight, dimensions, pickup and delivery addresses, and a rate. Carriers see the freight on the board and can either accept it as posted with one tap, skip it because the rate or lane is not right, or — if it is close — request a different rate through an online negotiation.

As soon as a carrier accepts the load, they enter the standard onboarding process. If they have worked with that shipper before, they often skip onboarding because they are already an approved carrier.

Book-it-now freight also solves one of the biggest struggles carriers face: not having enough information to do the job easily. Because the shipper must list every detail of the load up front, the carrier knows exactly what they are accepting before they commit.

Where is it available?

Instant booking is part of how Doft connects direct shippers and carriers in the spot market — a neutral freight-matching marketplace where the "easy button" for freight is finally a reality. Post a load or find your next one and book it in a single tap.