How To Become A Freight Broker: The Art Of The Vacation

I just returned to work following a couple weeks off after the delivery of my child , Cruze. Throughout those 2 weeks I actually realized in excess of $5,000 by means of moving freight. I didn’t accept 1 call, shoot I actually didn’t in fact take a single email. How then was I able to still work my personal book of business?

Returning to work, I actually had 300+ e-mails it’s taken me pretty much all morning to go through them all and I reckoned I’d touch on the subject of how to easily take a family trip or time off.

In many instances as Brokers we don’t get the luxury of spending time off without negatively affecting our working relationships or so the vast majority of Brokers think. Of course your brokerage house probably gives you time off but that time off may really affect your book of business and the revenue that you bring in….You may even lose some clients mainly because if you can’t help them and they require a product moved they’ll move on to the next guy if you don’t have a rock solid relationship or a back-up plan.

It is very important to take the following steps when you know you are planning to be out of the workplace for a day, a full week, or for a longer time.

1) Let your primary clients know before you go.
2) Change your voice mail to let them know that you're out of the office and present them a means by which to get in touch with you personally or perhaps even you’re assistant.
3) In the instance that you are working at a brokerage get a logistics representative or account coordinator to support you when you’re out….when you get back make sure you say thank you to them with regard to assisting with your accounts (buy them a beer) [This is the approach I took as well as step 5 below]. Get their extension or phone number and present that as an option in your voice mail greeting.
4) Change your e-mail to have an out of office message and make certain to present them an alternate method of getting their quotes or move their freight.
5) If your brokerage offers a webpage for your customers to obtain quotes and book their own freight make certain that you’ve provided your clients a walk through of the site and answer any questions they might have and make sure they are aware of their freight classes.
6) In the instance that you work for yourself then you should really plan your time away. I’d think about hiring somebody to take your telephone calls and get your quotes taken care of. If you then have a load you will need to move….present your new hired hand your phone number/email and you’ll have to conduct a little work on your time away. Nature of the beast to be able to enjoy the benefits associated with operating for yourself.

If you take the following actions you shouldn’t forfeit any customers when planning on taking some time away for yourself and your loved ones. Till next time….Keep on keeping on!