A brokerage is only as good as its shippers with a lane that repeats. One load for a stranger pays once. A shipper with a Tuesday and Thursday run from the same dock to the same distribution center pays every week. So the target is not "more shippers." It is small shippers with one lane you can quote tomorrow.

Here is a 45-day log for a fictional two-person brokerage going from an empty list to a first trial load. It makes no promises about rates or truck capacity, because nobody can. The figures are illustrative, but the arithmetic is what you would do on your own numbers.

Two people, one authority, no customers

Rowe & Lund Logistics is two partners, Camille Rowe and Jon Lund. They hold their operating authority and the required surety bond, they have a relationship with about thirty carriers, and they have no shipper who pays them. They want a first recurring lane within 45 days. They'll work dry van, regional, within about 500 miles.

The buyer is the logistics manager or traffic manager at a small shipper, or the owner when the shipper is small enough. Those people already move freight. They already have a broker or a carrier or two. What they don't have is a spare reliable option when the first one fails, which makes you attractive on exactly the day you are most useful: when something goes wrong.

Week 1: list 50 small shippers by name

The partners want manufacturers, distributors and importers with 20 to 300 employees within the region, shipping full truckloads at least a few times a month. They looked in the state manufacturers' directory, at trade-show exhibitor lists, and at the loading-dock photos and warehouse addresses on company sites and map listings. A company with a visible dock, a "shipping and receiving" job posting or a location near a rail ramp is shipping something.

They listed 50: 22 manufacturers, 18 distributors, 10 importers. For each, they wrote the logistics or traffic manager's name (or the owner's), what the company ships, and the likely lane from the shipping address. They used decision-maker steps to confirm names and B2B lead sources for the lists. It took the two partners about 9 hours between them.

Week 2: the first email to logistics managers

Subject: Backup option for your Dayton to Atlanta runs

Hi Beatrice, I saw Kellerman Foods ships out of the Dayton facility on a regular schedule. We're a small brokerage that quotes dry van lanes in the Midwest and Southeast, and we're looking for a few shippers who want a backup when the usual carrier falls through. Could I quote you one lane, Dayton to Atlanta, with a trial load before you commit to anything? Camille Rowe, Rowe & Lund Logistics, [mailing address]. If someone else handles freight, point me to them. Reply "no" and I won't write again.

They sent 50 over five days, and a short follow-up four days after each: "Still glad to quote one lane. What's your toughest one to cover?" That question gets more replies than "checking in" because it asks for something specific. For follow-up cadence they used the follow-up sequence.

Week 3: calls and the one-lane quotes

Nine of the 50 replied. Three said they already had enough providers. Two asked them to call back in January. Four wanted a conversation. Jon took the calls and asked the same five questions: how many loads a week, which lanes, what equipment, what causes trouble, and how long they take to pay. Three of the four gave a lane and a rough weekly volume. He quoted each one the same day.

One quote worked like this. Camille called three carriers for the Dayton to Atlanta lane and the best price came back at $1,640 for a standard dry van. They quoted the shipper $1,950. Gross margin is $310 per load, about 16 percent of the shipper price. That margin is what pays for the carrier vetting, tracking, claims handling and the days the broker waits to be paid.

Weeks 4 to 6: the first trial loads

Two shippers agreed to a trial load. The first, Kellerman's, gave them a single Dayton to Atlanta load, picked up Tuesday. The carrier arrived on time, the delivery was clean, and Jon sent a message confirming delivery with the photo of the signed proof of delivery within the hour. The second shipper, an importer, tested a local drayage-adjacent move, which the partners passed on because it was outside their carriers' experience. That is the right call: declining a lane you can't cover protects the first one.

By day 45, Kellerman's had given them five more loads over three weeks, two per week on the same lane. The partners were paid by the shipper on net-30 terms and paid the carriers within a few days. That gap needs cash: five loads at $1,640 carrier cost each is $8,200 out before the shipper pays $9,750 in about thirty days. Plan your cash for that before you ask for volume.

The scoreboard at day 45

  • 50 shippers listed (9 hours), 50 emails, 50 follow-ups.
  • 9 replies, 4 calls, 3 lane quotes, 2 trial offers, 1 recurring lane.
  • 6 loads moved on the one lane: 6 times $1,950 is $11,700 billed, against $9,840 carrier cost, for $1,860 gross margin.
  • A steady two loads a week on that lane is about $620 a week, or $2,680 a month at $310 per load.

One lane at $2,680 a month does not pay two partners. It does prove the method. At that rate, four or five similar lanes cover a modest salary each, so the work is repeating the 50-name list four or five times. See also courier clients for the local-delivery side of the same buyers.

Adjusting the plan to your lanes

Copy the single-lane quote and the question "what's your toughest lane?" Change the region and equipment to match your carriers. Never quote a lane you can't cover, and never promise a rate that holds beyond the day you quote it; markets move.

Fifty names and two follow-ups each is a lot to run alongside live loads. Rocketship finds logistics and traffic managers by name, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the call on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. See the AI workers.