Who told you, “Do it right the first time and you won’t have to do it again!” in your life? When it comes to creating rate cons, they were right. If you depend on rate con templates, you’re going to have to do it again. Who wants to do it twice?
Rate cons change after they are sent, too. See how TruckingOffice ELD updates drivers when a rate con changes.
Templates are only half the problem. Learn why brokerage software should produce your rate cons instead of free Google tools.
A rate con template is a pre-made rate confirmation form, often a free online generator that prints to PDF, that a broker fills in to confirm the load, rate, and terms with a carrier. Templates can produce a single rate con, but they don’t save your data, can’t be searched easily, and don’t connect to billing, so every new load means doing the same work again.
Rate cons also protect you from bad dealing. See 3 reasons double brokering hurts you and why a new rate con is required when a load is passed to another carrier.
The details on each rate con are valuable long after the load delivers — see how freight broker software turns shipper and carrier data into better matches.
Rate cons are just the start. Learn which other office tasks you can hand off in our guide to automating your trucking business.
Rate Con Templates on the Internet
We know they’re out there – rate con templates generated as you need them online. Some of them charge, some don’t. Some will let you customize them, some won’t. They print out as PDFs, which sound like a good idea, but it isn’t.
Why not?
3 Reasons Online Rate Con Templates Fall Short
- Numbers
If you have Grammarly or some other proofreading software, it may catch typos for you. There/their/they’re and to/two/too – maybe it’s been a long time since high school, or English is your second language. A rate con is a legal document, and the last thing anyone wants is to look stupid – or get something wrong that will lead to problems in a delivery. But Grammarly doesn’t spellcheck your numbers. You could inadvertently move the decimal point and have a huge snafu over an invoice. Or mix up the weight – 15,000 lbs. is a lot different from 51,000 lbs.
Even if you get the numbers correct, you’re still prey to the most common typo – re-entering data. A rate con template will not transfer those numbers to your billing software. You’ll have to retype them – and there’s the problem. It’s way too easy to mix up numbers and not notice. That will delay your payment from the shipper and paying the trucker who took the load.
- PDFs are not searchable.
Say you’ve got a perfect rate con PDF. It’s just the way you want it. Now you’ve got another trucker to take a load. You remember some details, but not all. Can you find it again?
PDF files are not searchable except by title or date. You might end up spending hours on that search. At some point, it’s just easier to recreate it than keep looking. But I want to kick myself in the butt every time I end up looking for a PDF.
- Rate con templates online may not save your data
There’s a rate con template online (no, we’re not going to link to it) that you can use for free. But you have to re-enter all the terms and fine print every time you use it. Is this really “free” when you have to spend time doing the same work over and over again?
Then there’s the problem of billing. A PDF rate con created by a rate con template doesn’t link to an invoice. How can you track it? Has the trip been billed? Has the driver been paid? Is it tracking the load for you?
The best solution isn’t free, but it will save you money and headaches.
TruckingOffice Brokerage Software creates rate cons
Instead of using a template, use a system that will use and reuse your data without you entering it again (and maybe again.) Enter the load data one time. Enter the terms one time. Enter the trucker one time.
And TruckingOffice Brokerage does the rest. Track the load, store the necessary documents, and handle the billing and payments all in one program.
Complete Software Completes Your Business
Doesn’t it make sense that using a system that does it all for you without extra effort?
Using a complete brokerage software isn’t an optional expense. Trying to start a trucking brokerage company is hard – why make it harder by “making do” with a word processor or spreadsheet you’ve already got.
Brokerage programs don’t work on spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are an invaluable tool, but they’re not a great tool for brokerage. Cells are too limited. Searching is limited and linking to other spreadsheets for shippers and truckers gets complicated. And DO NOT add a new line to a spreadsheet if you have macros or formulas. The world may end. I’m not joking.
TruckingOffice Brokerage software avoids the entire linking problems you’ll have if you try to bootstrap your own system. Sure, you could use free Google Docs and Sheets – somehow – to create a working system. But why reinvent the wheel when you could be spending your time building customer relationships and finding reliable trucking companies to handle the loads?
Rate con templates don’t organize your brokerage business. They make it look organized the way a closet door hides a mess behind it.
Rate Con Template FAQ
What is a rate con?
A rate con, short for rate confirmation, is a legal document between a freight broker and a carrier that spells out the load, the rate, and the terms for moving it from one location to another. A new rate con is required whenever a load is passed to another carrier.
Are free online rate con templates worth it?
Usually not. Many free rate con templates make you re-enter all the terms and fine print every time, print to PDFs that are hard to find later, and don’t link to an invoice, so you can’t easily tell whether a trip was billed or the driver was paid. The time you lose redoing the same work cancels out the “free.”
Why are PDF rate cons hard to manage?
PDF files aren’t searchable except by title or date, so finding an old rate con can take longer than recreating it. The numbers on a PDF rate con also have to be retyped into billing software, and a single typo, like 15,000 lbs. instead of 51,000 lbs., can delay payment from the shipper and payment to the trucker.
Can I manage rate cons in a spreadsheet instead?
Spreadsheets are a useful tool, but not a great one for a brokerage. Cells and searching are limited, linking separate sheets for shippers and truckers gets complicated, and adding a row can break existing macros or formulas.
What is a better alternative to a rate con template?
Brokerage software that creates rate cons from data you enter once: the load, the terms, and the trucker. TruckingOffice Brokerage uses that data to build the rate con, track the load, store the documents, and handle billing and payments in one program, and it comes with a free one-month trial.
Free Trial of TruckingOffice Brokerage
Make the right choice as you start out your truck freight brokerage business. Give TruckingOffice Brokerage a try for free! Our free one-month trial gives you access to the entire program – from customer to rate con to trucker to invoice – without the headaches of building a system that will take time and may not be able to grow as your brokerage succeeds.
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