If you’re currently on a Freight Forwarder premium plan, not only can you send booking confirmations to carriers, but you can also allocate loads that you’ve won on the Exchange to any of your registered company vehicles or subcontractors.
Winning loads and allocating loads are two slightly different things and happen in two ways.
- As a load poster, you would send a booking confirmation to a chosen carrier.
- As a transport company (or a freight forwarder with registered vehicles), you would receive the booking confirmation from the load poster if your quote was accepted, and you would then allocate that load to a chosen vehicle or driver within your company to complete the booking using the CX Driver app.
If you’re posting a load and have a chosen carrier in mind, you can assign it to them directly by using the ‘Book Direct’ feature, saving you time and helping you strengthen relationships with your existing subcontractors.
IN THIS ARTICLE
- How to send a booking confirmation to a chosen carrier
- How to book a carrier directly
- How to allocate loads to your company vehicles or subcontractors (Premium feature)
How to send a booking confirmation to a chosen carrier
To review all quotes received on posted loads:
Step 1) Click ‘Quotes’ from the top menu bar. 
Step 2) The page will display all the quotes received on active loads (recently posted), by default. To view old quotes (cancelled or completed), click ‘Archive’.
Step 3) Your quotes will appear alongside the load card, so you have a single view of all quotes received. 
Step 4) If you hover your mouse over an active load, you have the option to either ‘Dismiss’ or ‘Book’ (accept) the carrier’s quote.
Click ‘Book’ if you accept their quote.
If you choose to dismiss their quote, it will change to grey, and you won’t be able to make any further actions on it. 
Step 5) After tapping ‘Book’, the booking form will appear with the carrier’s information already completed. 
Step 6) Click ‘Send Confirmation’ to initiate the booking with that chosen carrier. They will then receive this confirmation, which will be visible in their Diary as well as yours. 
How to book a carrier directly
You may have preferred carriers who you want to assign loads to. In this case, you wouldn’t need to post a load and review quotes from different carriers, you would instead, book a carrier directly using the ‘Book Direct’ button.
The book direct feature is available on the following tabs:
- ‘Directory’
- ‘Live Availability’
- ‘Return Journeys’
- ‘Loads’
- ‘Quotes’
- ‘Diary’
- ‘Freight Vision’
Step 1) Click on the green ‘Book Direct’ button.
Step 2) At the top of the Book Direct form, select the type of load for which you are booking your subcontractor.
- ‘On Demand’ – Loads that are posted as and when they are needed.
- ‘Regular Load’ – Loads that have a regular posting schedule like every Monday to Friday, available on each of these days.
- ‘Daily Hire’ – Loads that require your services for a full day.
The ‘Customer’ section of the form is where you enter your customer’s details along with the agreed price. Details in this section are private unless you choose to reveal them to your subcontractor. If you have an internal reference or customer reference for the loads, you can include them, although it is not essential.
In the ‘Who do you want to book this load to?’ section, select who you want to book:
- An Exchange member;
- A driver or subcontractor not on the Exchange (you must add their details if you haven’t already);
- A company vehicle (premium feature).
Make sure to set your payment terms for the completed load, currency and agreed rate submitted by your carrier.
Continue filling out the form by moving to the ‘Pickup Details’ section, followed by the ‘Delivery Details’ section.
Finally, move onto the ‘Job Details’ section and choose the Job Description from the list of options provided.
Fields on the load form marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory, although other fields are optional, we encourage you to fill in as much information about your load requirements as possible.
If you have no additional details to add to the form, you can go ahead and click ‘Send Confirmation’ to initiate the booking with your chosen carrier. Alternatively, you can add a note for the carrier if you have any specific instructions or important requests for the load being completed.
You can send ‘Smart Alerts’, also known as, ‘Pro Alerts’, to a chosen email address. These en-route updates are sent to you based on the chosen timeframe (if you want to be notified when the vehicle is within 1 mile of pickup and 1 mile from the delivery location, for example).
If you have any additional documents about the load booking that you’d like your carrier to see, you can upload them in this ‘Documents’ section.
When you’re happy with all the information on your form, click ‘Send Confirmation’.
How to allocate loads to your company vehicles or subcontractors (Premium feature)
Your freight forwarder premium subscription gives you more opportunities to develop your business. The premium subscription allows you to also quote on loads using your own dedicated subcontractors or registered company vehicles.
If your quote was successful, or you’ve received a direct booking from another member and you want to allocate this load to one of your subcontractors or company vehicles, this must be done manually via desktop or the CX Fleet app.
How to allocate a load on desktop view:
Step 1) From the top menu bar, click ‘Diary’.
Step 2) Locate the booking you wish to allocate. The diary is ordered by most to least recent bookings.
You can use the ‘Unallocated’ tab to find the loads you want to allocate quickly.
Step 3) After locating the correct load, click ‘Book/Allocate This Job.’
Step 4) Choose whether you want to allocate the load to a subcontractor or Company Vehicle.
If you allocate the load to a company vehicle, it’s best to make sure the vehicle has been integrated with tracking so the load poster can be kept updated, otherwise they won’t be able to benefit from real-time tracking and updates.
Step 5) Click ‘Allocate This Job’ to complete the booking confirmation.
If you allocate the load to a subcontractor who has access to the CX Driver app, they will provide you with real-time status updates which will also reflect in your Diary.
How to allocate loads on the CX Fleet app:
Step 1) Open the CX Fleet app. If you’ve received a booking, you’ll see a red notification mark on the ‘Bookings’ tile.
Step 2) Tap ‘Received’ to view the load you’ve won from the load poster that you want to allocate to a driver.
Step 3) All of your received bookings will appear here. Find the load you want to allocate and tap on the green ‘Allocate’ button.
Step 4) Choose who you want to allocate the load to and to which vehicle.
Step 5) Tap ‘Allocate’. The driver will now receive the confirmation and see the booking in their Diary on the desktop and in ‘My Bookings’ on their mobile app.