How to Cover Freight with LoadBetter
By LoadBetter Team, Content Team
Industry Insights
5 min read
See how brokers and shippers use LoadBetter to work private carrier networks first, then reach the public marketplace when more capacity is needed.
Most freight teams do not have a carrier problem.
They already have carriers they know, carriers they have worked with before, and carrier contacts spread across their TMS, inboxes, spreadsheets, phone contacts, and internal lists.
The harder part starts when a load needs to be covered.
Who should see it first? Which carriers responded? What rate did they offer? Is the load still available? When should it be opened to a broader market?
LoadBetter brings that workflow into one freight marketplace.
Brokers and shippers can work with their existing carrier network privately, collect bids and counteroffers, award freight, and then open a load to the LoadBetter Public Marketplace when they need additional capacity.
Carriers get their own side of the platform, where they can access private freight from brokers and shippers they work with, browse public marketplace loads, submit bids, use Book Now when available, and access freight coming from supported external loadboard sources.
The idea is simple:
Start with your carrier network. Go broader when you need to.
Here is how it works.
- Bring Your Existing Carrier Network Into LoadBetter
For most brokers and shippers, the best place to start is not with thousands of unknown carriers.
It is with the carriers they already know.
LoadBetter lets freight teams create a dedicated private carrier network where they can organize and work with their existing carrier relationships.
Brokers can start with LoadBetter's free plan and invite carriers into their network. Shippers can set up a dedicated shipper workspace based on their operation, carrier network, facilities, users, and workflow requirements.
Once your network is in place, you have a private environment where loads can be shared directly with the carriers you want to work with.
Instead of starting every load on the open market, you can give your existing carriers the first opportunity.
That matters because many freight teams already know which carriers they prefer for certain lanes, equipment types, regions, customers, or facilities.
LoadBetter gives those relationships a structured place to work.
Your private carrier network can become the first step in your coverage process
When a new load comes in, your team does not have to immediately send it everywhere.
You can first make it available to the carriers already connected to your business.
Those carriers can review the load and respond directly through LoadBetter.
This creates a simple workflow around the carrier relationships you already have rather than replacing them.
- Post Loads Privately to Your Carrier Network
Once your carrier network is set up, you can begin publishing private loads.
A private load is only visible to the carrier network you choose to work with. It is not automatically published to the wider LoadBetter marketplace.
That gives brokers and shippers more control over how freight is offered.
Your carriers can review the load details and respond through the platform with options such as:
a bid
a counteroffer
Book Now, when available for that load
Your team can then review the responses and decide which carrier should receive the freight.
This is especially useful when you already have a group of carriers that regularly handles your lanes.
For example, a broker covering a Chicago-to-Atlanta dry van load may already have several carriers that frequently run the lane.
Instead of immediately posting the load broadly, the broker can publish it privately and allow those existing carriers to respond first.
If one of them can cover it at the right rate, the load can be awarded without going any further.
One place to see the load and the responses
A major part of the LoadBetter workflow is keeping the process together.
Instead of having:
one carrier respond by email
another carrier call
someone send a rate through a text message
another person update a spreadsheet
and the operations team try to determine which quote is still current
the bidding and award workflow can happen around the load inside LoadBetter.
The goal is not to change the carrier relationships your team already has.
It is to make those relationships easier to work with.
- Post Freight to the LoadBetter Public Marketplace
Sometimes your private carrier network is enough.
Sometimes it is not.
A carrier may already be committed. Capacity may be tight on a particular lane. A customer may send you freight outside your normal network. Or you may simply want more options before awarding a load.
That is where the LoadBetter Public Marketplace comes in.
Brokers and shippers can choose to publish freight to the public marketplace, making the load available to a broader group of carriers using LoadBetter.
Carriers can browse available marketplace freight, review the load details, and respond according to the options available.
That may include placing a bid or booking the load directly when Book Now is enabled.
The public marketplace gives freight teams another source of capacity without requiring them to move the load into a completely separate workflow.
Private and public freight can live in the same platform
This distinction is important.
LoadBetter is not designed around the idea that every load should immediately become public.
A freight team can decide how much reach a load needs.
Some loads can remain inside the private carrier network.
Other loads can go directly to the Public Marketplace.
And a private load that is not getting covered can be opened to the public market later.
That gives brokers and shippers more flexibility over how they approach capacity.
- Start Private, Then Move the Load to the Public Marketplace
This is one of the core workflows behind LoadBetter.
A load can start privately and go public only when you decide that it needs more reach.
Imagine a broker receives a new load from Dallas, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee.
The broker already has a group of carriers that regularly covers freight in the region.
The workflow could look like this:
Step 1: Publish the load privately to the broker's carrier network.
Step 2: Give those carriers the opportunity to bid, counteroffer, or book the load.
Step 3: Review the responses.
Step 4: If an acceptable carrier is available, award the load.
Step 5: If the load remains uncovered, open it to the LoadBetter Public Marketplace.
The broker can now reach beyond the original private network and make the same freight available to a broader carrier audience.
This creates a natural progression:
Private network → carrier responses → broader marketplace capacity when needed.
Your existing carriers get the first look, but your team still has another option when those carriers cannot cover the freight.
Nothing has to go public automatically
A private load does not need to appear on the public marketplace unless you choose to send it there.
That allows brokers and shippers to keep more control over their freight distribution strategy.
For a regular lane, you might keep the load private.
For a difficult lane or urgent shipment, you might move to the public marketplace quickly.
For another load, you may choose to publish publicly from the beginning.
The workflow can change depending on the freight.
- Collect Bids and Counteroffers in One Place
Finding a carrier is only part of the process.
Freight teams also need a practical way to manage responses.
LoadBetter gives carriers the ability to respond to available freight through a structured bidding workflow.
Depending on how the load is configured, carriers can:
Submit a bid
The carrier can offer a rate for the load.
Send a counteroffer
If the original terms do not work, the carrier can propose another rate.
Use Book Now
When a load has a Book Now option, an eligible carrier can accept the offered rate and move forward without a long back-and-forth negotiation.
For brokers and shippers, this makes it easier to compare available options before making an award.
Instead of trying to reconstruct conversations from several channels, the team can see the activity around the load in the same freight workflow.
- Award the Load and Keep the Workflow Connected
Once the right capacity is found, the broker or shipper can award the freight.
This makes LoadBetter more than a place to simply advertise loads.
The platform is designed around the process of moving from:
load posting → carrier response → bid or counteroffer → award → confirmation
The carrier knows whether it has been selected, while the broker or shipper has a clearer record of how the load was covered.
As LoadBetter expands, additional workflow tools are being built around this process, including driver functionality, tracking, POD workflows, analytics, carrier groups, and deeper TMS integrations.
The objective is to keep more of the carrier workflow connected while allowing the company's TMS and other existing systems to continue doing the jobs they are designed for.
How Carriers Use LoadBetter
LoadBetter is also built around the carrier experience.
Carriers can join LoadBetter for free.
There are no subscription fees, bid fees, booking fees, or transaction fees for carrier participation.
Once inside the platform, a carrier can potentially access freight from several different sources.
Private Freight From Brokers and Shippers
When a broker or shipper adds or approves a carrier into its private network, that carrier gains access to the freight published to that network.
For example, a carrier may work with three different brokers that use LoadBetter.
The carrier can participate in the private marketplace of each broker whose network it has joined.
When one of those brokers publishes a private load, the carrier can review it and respond.
This creates a direct digital connection between the freight team and the carriers it already works with.
The freight remains private to the appropriate network rather than becoming visible to every carrier using the platform.
Public Marketplace Freight
A carrier is not limited to private invitations.
Carriers can also browse loads published to the LoadBetter Public Marketplace.
That creates another source of freight beyond their existing broker and shipper relationships.
If a public load fits the carrier's equipment, location, lane, and availability, the carrier can review the opportunity and submit a bid or use Book Now when available.
For carriers, that means LoadBetter can serve two purposes at the same time:
Work with companies you already know and discover additional freight in the public marketplace.
External Loadboard Freight
LoadBetter can also surface freight from supported external loadboard sources.
The integration with Loadboard Network, for example, brings additional freight into LoadBetter as an inbound source.
That means a carrier using LoadBetter can have access to more than just loads created directly inside the LoadBetter marketplace.
Over time, this creates a broader freight discovery experience where carriers can access opportunities from:
broker private networks
shipper private networks
the LoadBetter Public Marketplace
supported external loadboard sources
The carrier can spend more time reviewing relevant freight and less time moving between disconnected sources.
A Better Way to Combine Private and Public Freight Capacity
Traditional freight coverage often forces teams into two separate approaches.
You either work your existing carrier relationships manually, or you take the load to the broader market.
LoadBetter connects those two approaches.
Your private carrier network can remain the starting point.
The public marketplace becomes another layer of capacity when you need it.
This is particularly useful for brokers and shippers that want to strengthen their existing carrier relationships without limiting themselves to those relationships when the market gets difficult.
You do not have to choose between a private freight marketplace and a public freight marketplace.
You can use both.
For Freight Brokers
LoadBetter gives brokers a way to create a digital marketplace around the carrier network they have already built.
A broker can:
invite existing carriers
import carrier contacts
publish private loads
collect bids and counteroffers
offer Book Now
award freight
publish loads to the Public Marketplace
move an uncovered private load to the broader market
give carriers access to one place to respond to freight
The free broker plan includes unlimited users and private load postings, making it possible for a brokerage team to begin building its network without adding another transaction fee to every load.
As the platform expands, additional Pro and automation features are planned for teams that want more targeted carrier reach, tracking, analytics, integrations, and automated capacity workflows.
For Shippers
Shippers can use LoadBetter to build a private digital marketplace around their approved carrier base.
Instead of treating every shipment as a new search for capacity, a shipper can organize the carriers it already works with and give those carriers direct access to available freight.
A shipper can:
maintain a dedicated private carrier network
publish freight to approved carriers
collect bids
receive counteroffers
offer Book Now
award and confirm loads
open freight to the Public Marketplace when broader capacity is required
This can be useful for transportation teams that want a more structured way to manage their carrier relationships while keeping an additional capacity option available.
LoadBetter shipper workspaces are scoped around the needs of the operation, including load volume, users, facilities, workflows, and integrations.
Private First. Public When You Choose.
The core idea behind LoadBetter is not complicated.
Your best carriers should have a clear opportunity to see your freight.
And when those carriers cannot cover a load, your team should have an easy way to reach more capacity.
With LoadBetter, brokers and shippers can start inside their private carrier network, collect responses, and then move freight to the Public Marketplace when they need broader reach.
Carriers get one place to participate in the private networks they belong to, discover public marketplace freight, bid or book available loads, and access freight from supported external loadboard sources.
That creates a connected freight marketplace built around both sides of capacity:
the carrier relationships you already have and the broader market you sometimes need.
Ready to Build Your Carrier Network?
Brokers can start using LoadBetter for free, invite their carriers, and begin posting private freight.
Carriers can join for free and access private network freight, LoadBetter Public Marketplace loads, and supported external freight sources.
Shippers can talk to the LoadBetter team about building a private carrier network and marketplace around their transportation operation.
Start with your network. Go broader when you need to.