Freight broker power dial playbook: shipper blocks, cadence and KPI ranges

The call block, in two shifts

Freight prospecting is a lane business. A rep who calls fifty shippers in fifty different markets is learning nothing, while a rep who calls fifty shippers that all ship out of the same origin market builds a coherent capacity story and a recognizable reputation.

Morning, prospecting block. New shippers grouped by origin market, then referrals. Expect mostly front desks and voicemail. The deliverable of this block is names and lane facts, not covered loads.

Late afternoon, quote block. Everyone you promised a rate to, everyone with a load in the next three days, and seasonal callbacks. This block converts at a much higher rate and it is the first thing that gets skipped.

List hygiene

Load shipper lists with company, contact where available, phone, industry and any lane notes. Deduplicate by company phone and by ship-from address, because a single shipper often appears on a directory list, a trade show list and a prior quote record.

Screen the internal do-not-call list before the block loads. An entity-specific stop request is absolute and goes into suppression the same day. Freight reps move between brokerages, so make sure suppression travels with the account and not with a rep’s private spreadsheet.

Attempt cadence

Five touches over three weeks, then park for a quarter.

• Day 1 lane questions: who handles outbound freight, lanes, equipment, volume, current setup, pain.
• Day 3 referral or contact confirmation: get the right name and the direct line.
• Day 7 rate quote: a specific lane, a specific pickup window, a named day for the number.
• Day 12 quote follow-up: confirm it arrived, ask what would make it workable.
• Day 21 close-out question: “Is there a lane where you would want a backup quote?”
• Then park for one quarter unless a stop request arrived.

Quiet hours follow the contact’s local time. Keep the voicemail short and specific: name, brokerage, the lane you cover, and a callback number.

Dispositions in freight terms

• Quote requested: lane and due date.
• Send lane sheet: interest without a load.
• Got referral: name and extension.
• Gatekeeper, call back: with the best time.
• Uses asset carrier only: long callback.
• RFP later: with the month.
• Not a shipper: remove from shipper lists.
• Left voicemail: standard message.
• Do not call: permanent.

Working three lines on a shipper list

DialBreeze rings up to three numbers per rep and the rep takes the live answer, with a recorded voicemail dropping on the rest. Shipper lists are heavy on main lines and auto-attendants, so three lines buys conversations per hour rather than raw dials. Two people can occasionally answer at once; pick a line count a rep can handle without dropping a shipping manager mid-sentence.

Recording is the input to the AI summary, so calls you want summarized need to be recorded. Several states require every party to consent before a call is recorded, and an interstate freight call often touches two of them, so keep a short disclosure. On the dialing side, business-to-business calls fall mostly outside the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule under 16 CFR 310.6(b)(7), but TCPA restrictions on autodialed and prerecorded calls to wireless numbers under 47 CFR 64.1200 still apply to the cell phones many small shippers use. DialBreeze applies your internal lists, quiet hours and attempt caps; it does not decide whether a number may be called.

Where the AI summaries go

The summary should make the quote possible without a second discovery call. Lanes, equipment, loads per week, seasonal pattern, current setup, pain point, the vendor-approval path and the agreed next step. Before you build the rate, check the lane and equipment against the recording, because a quote built on a misheard city pair wastes a shipper’s week and your credibility.

Keep shipper and carrier records apart. A carrier check call and a shipper sales call need different fields, and merging them makes both reports meaningless.

DialBreeze is not a TMS or a load board. It does not track loads, verify carrier authority or post freight. It is the calling seat next to those tools, and the AI summary is a note rather than a dispatch record.

KPI targets as ranges

Reference points measured in DialBreeze production use (last 90 days to 2026-09-26, three-line sessions, one operator per session): median of about 85 dials per active calling hour, about 600 dials per operator day, and a 17.8 percent person-connect rate. Aggregate measured values, not a promise.

For a brokerage desk:

• Dials per rep day: 400 to 700 on three lines.
• Person-connect rate: expect a wide band on main-line lists.
• Quotes sent per rep-week: 10 to 30.
• Test loads covered per rep-week: 2 to 8 is a working range while building a book.
• Quote-to-covered rate: 10 to 30 percent on named lanes.
• Repeat covered loads from a shipper: the number that shows a lane is real.

Authority, disclosure and the parts that belong to compliance

Broker authority and financial security sit outside the dialer but inside the first real conversation. 49 CFR 387.307 requires a surety bond or trust fund of 75,000 dollars and prescribes the BMC-84 and BMC-85 filings, so have your MC number and your surety details ready before a shipper asks. On the calling side, keep the internal suppression list current, honor every stop request, use a recording disclosure, and route anything involving state-specific solicitation or recording rules to counsel. This playbook is an operating guide, not legal advice.