What a Central Dispatch integration should do in your CRM

Brokers post loads to Central Dispatch so carriers can find them, and a carrier takes a load when the pay is right for the lane. A quote only holds if a carrier will take the load at that price, so the CRM your salespeople quote from should read the board.

What a Central Dispatch integration should show before you quote

Customers compare several quotes. Your price has to be low enough to win the customer and high enough that a carrier will take the load. The best guide is what carriers were paid on that lane recently, and your salesperson should see it on the quote screen, next to the route and the vehicle, without opening another tab.

Ask where the number comes from. An average of loads that were paid tells you more than prices that were posted and never moved. The screen should also show how many loads went into the average, so a salesperson can tell a lane with plenty of history from a lane with almost none. And the number is for the salesperson only. It should never print on the customer's quote.

Can a CRM price car shipping leads from Central Dispatch?

Yes, if the lookup matches the job. A running sedan on an open trailer and a non-running SUV in an enclosed trailer pay carriers differently on the same lane, so an automatic price has to match the vehicle, the trailer type and whether the car runs.

You also want to choose how far the automation goes. Some desks want the price shown to the salesperson only, and the salesperson still sends the quote. Others want the price written on the quote for a salesperson to check. Some want it written and sent to the customer.

We built Auto price in Leader CRM with all three modes (show only, write, or write and send). It prices a new lead from what Central Dispatch shows paid on the lane for the same vehicle, trailer and running state.

Posting to Central Dispatch from the CRM order

After the customer signs, the load goes on the board. Without an integration, someone opens Central Dispatch in another tab, types the pickup and delivery cities, the vehicle, the trailer type, the dates and the carrier pay, then goes back to the CRM to note that the load is posted. Every field typed twice is a chance to post the wrong year, the wrong city or the wrong pay.

A good integration posts the load from the order itself. The salesperson checks the order, presses one button, and the load goes to Central Dispatch without a second round of typing. The order should already hold the tariff, the deposit, the carrier pay and the COD to carrier.

How to see which posted loads still need a carrier

Once a load is posted, the desk needs to see it in its own list. If posted orders sit in the same list as everything else, a load can wait on the board for days before anyone raises the carrier pay or calls the customer about the pickup window.

Look for an order list split by stage, so the loads that are posted with no carrier yet are one click away. A car-shipping order usually moves from not signed to signed, posted, dispatched, picked up and delivered, and each stage deserves its own tab.

How to avoid posting the same load twice

Double posts happen when two people work the same order, or when an automated tool posts a load that a salesperson already put up. Carriers call about the copy, and someone has to find it and pull it. Ask every CRM you look at what it does when a load is already posted for that order.

In Leader CRM, the AI sales responder can post the loads it books to Central Dispatch at the carrier's part of the total. If a load is already posted under that order, the responder links to it and does not make a second post.

How to know the Central Dispatch connection is working

An integration can stop working without making any noise. When the link to Central Dispatch breaks, lane prices stop updating and posts stop going through, and the desk may not notice until a customer asks why no driver has called. The owner should see the connection's status every morning, on the same screen as phones, email and follow-ups.

The Leader CRM owner dashboard does this in one panel. It lists Central Dispatch next to phone lines, outgoing texts and email, automatic follow-up, AI jobs, backups and lead vendors, and says whether each one is working.

Does the CRM work with Super Dispatch?

Leader CRM connects to Super Dispatch as well. If your carriers and drivers work in Super Dispatch, Brian sets up the connection with your brokerage's own Super Dispatch account on the demo call.

Central Dispatch questions to ask on a CRM demo

Use these next to the rest of the buyer checklist in how to choose a car shipping CRM.

What to do on your next CRM demo

Bring one lane you quoted this week. Ask the vendor to show the lane price on a quote for it, convert the quote to an order, post the load and then find it in the posted list while you watch. If any step needs a second tab or a copy and paste, write that down next to the vendor's name.

See how Leader CRM handles Central Dispatch on the integrations page.