Leader CRMAuto transport CRM guides for broker owners and sales teams
How a car-shipping CRM should handle quotes, follow-ups, Central Dispatch, calls, AI, lead distribution, payments and the owner view.
What an auto transport CRM is and what it does all day
An auto transport CRM is the system a car-shipping broker's sales desk works in from the first lead to the delivered car. It differs from a generic CRM because it knows routes, carrier prices and order stages, and from a load board because it holds the customer side of the deal.
Read the postWhat an AI sales responder can and cannot do for a broker
An AI sales responder in an auto transport CRM can answer customer texts on a salesperson's line when nobody is at the desk, quote by your company's rule, take the booking details and email the contract. It should pass anything outside its job to the salesperson, and choosing and dispatching a carrier should always stay with a person.
What an auto dialer for car shipping brokers needs
An auto dialer for car shipping brokers needs a call queue that shows each customer's last message, a way to work that queue without dialing by hand, a recorded voicemail drop and a board of missed calls nobody has returned. It should run on the phone and texting app your desk already uses, so a salesperson calls or texts with one button.
How to set up an auto transport CRM in your first week
Set up an auto transport CRM in this order: connect the load board, lead vendors, phone and texting app and Gmail, then add salespeople with sign-in codes, then set lead distribution, templates and the follow-up plan. Close the week by checking that the owner dashboard shows every connection working.
Auto transport lead providers: how buying car shipping leads works
Auto transport lead providers run quote-request websites and sell each request to brokers, either shared with several brokers (up to ten on the seller sites below) or exclusive to one. Whether bought leads pay off comes down to your cost per booked car, and that depends on how fast your desk makes first contact and how long it keeps following up.
How automated follow-up should work in a car shipping CRM
Automated follow-up in a car shipping CRM should send every quoted customer a planned series of texts and emails from their own salesperson, a morning touch and an evening touch, until the customer answers. It should wait the moment the customer writes, never text a number that sent STOP, and give the owner one switch that pauses it all.
What the Central Dispatch API lets your software do
The Central Dispatch API lets a broker's software create, update and delete Central Dispatch listings and handle dispatch documents on any plan. Managing dispatches, carrier offers and event notifications takes Premium, and the Market Intelligence pricing API is a paid add-on.
What a Central Dispatch integration should do in your CRM
A Central Dispatch integration should show your salesperson what carriers were paid on the lane before they quote, post the load from the signed order with one button, and keep posted loads in their own list. If your desk still copies the route, vehicle and price into Central Dispatch by hand, you have two systems and no integration.
Central Dispatch pricing in 2026: what each plan costs and includes
Central Dispatch lists its Core plan for shippers and brokers starting at $139.95 a month and Premium starting at $214.95 a month, plus applicable tax. Enterprise pricing comes from Central Dispatch sales, and the Market Intelligence API add-on has no public price.
Central Dispatch vs Super Dispatch: what brokers get from each
Central Dispatch is Cox Automotive's auto transport marketplace, sold to brokers on Core and Premium plans starting at $139.95 and $214.95 a month. Super Dispatch sells brokers one Shipper Pro plan starting at $159 a month, built around its Super Loadboard, eBOL, GPS tracking and SuperPay carrier payments.
How a broker CRM catches payments headed to the wrong account
A broker CRM protects customers from payment fraud by keeping a list of the company's own payment accounts and alerting a manager within minutes when a text or customer email names any other Cash App, Venmo, Zelle or bank account. With that alert and a few desk habits, you can reach the customer before the money moves.
How e-sign and payments should work on a car shipping order
In a car shipping CRM, the contract and the money should live on the order: send the contract for e-signature from it, charge the deposit on it, and log every payment between customer, broker and carrier on it. The order then shows its stage from Not Signed to Delivered.
How to choose a car shipping CRM for your brokerage
Choose a car shipping CRM by testing it against your desk's real day: Central Dispatch on the quote and the order, calls and texts from the CRM, follow-ups that respect STOP, e-sign and payments on the order, an owner view, lead distribution and AI that hands off. Take the demo questions below and ask the vendor to show each answer on screen.
How to start an auto transport brokerage in 2026
To start an auto transport brokerage, form your company, apply to FMCSA for a USDOT number and property broker authority ($300 per type of authority), file a BOC-3 process agent designation and a $75,000 BMC-84 surety bond or BMC-85 trust fund, and register for UCR. Then open a Central Dispatch account and set up lead sources, a contract, payments, a CRM and a registered texting line before you quote your first car.
How a CRM should split car shipping leads across your salespeople
A car shipping CRM should hand each new lead to the next salesperson in line by rules you set: how many in a row, how many a day, which hours, and who is paused. It should also know when a customer you already quoted comes back from another lead site.
What a brokerage owner should see in the CRM every day
An auto transport owner should open one screen and see whether phones, texts, email, Central Dispatch and follow-ups are working, how today compares with yesterday, and which salespeople are booking, without asking anyone.
Moving your car shipping desk off spreadsheets and into a CRM
A car shipping desk outgrows spreadsheets when follow-ups depend on memory, two salespeople quote the same customer, and the owner has to ask for numbers. To move, start every new lead in the CRM on a set day, enter your open quotes, and let orders already on a truck finish in the old sheet.
TCPA and 10DLC texting rules for car shipping brokers
A car shipping broker may call or text a customer who gave consent, must stop within ten business days after a STOP or other opt-out, and may make sales calls and texts only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the customer's local time, with some states stricter. Business texts also have to go out from numbers registered to an A2P 10DLC campaign, or the mobile carriers may not deliver them.
What is Central Dispatch, and how do brokers use it?
Central Dispatch is the auto transport marketplace owned by Cox Automotive, where shippers, brokers and dealers post vehicles that need moving and carriers find and accept those loads. A broker posts the customer's car with the route, dates, trailer type and price, then dispatches a carrier electronically.
Guides
What an auto transport CRM should do
A checklist for car-shipping brokers choosing a CRM: leads, quotes with carrier prices, follow-ups, STOP handling, calls, e-sign, Central Dispatch, payments and the owner view.
How to follow up on car shipping quotes
A follow-up routine for car-shipping brokers: reply fast, send the quote in writing, follow up morning and evening for a week, stop when they answer, respect STOP, and call with context.
See Leader CRM on your own leads
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