Posting freight, pricing lanes, working carrier bids, and getting your team set up.
Succeeding with Cargado9:36 · the full walkthrough
Four parts, about nine and a half minutes end to end. Every part stands on its own, so if you only need one, take one.
Part 1 · 1:43
Set up your account
Everything you need to set up lives behind your profile picture, bottom left. The top half of that menu is your company. The bottom half is you.
What to do
- Open your profile menu and set your own notification preferences. Bids, chats and posting updates can reach you by email, WhatsApp or push. Our most responsive customers turn on WhatsApp.
- Invite your team under Organization, then Members. Every plan includes unlimited users, so there is no reason to ration seats.
- Name two or three admins. Enough that someone is always available, few enough that settings drift.
- Send your success manager your carrier onboarding link. Every match then tells the carrier to onboard with you first.
- Block carriers yourself on any posting under Do Not Use, by name, MC number or DOT number.
Teams and workspaces are not the same thing
| What it is | What it holds |
|---|
| Team | A group of people who work a lane together — everyone who works Laredo, say. |
| Workspace | Freight, not people. One per office or agent. Mark it private when an office's freight should stay separate from the rest of the company. |
Cargado vets every carrier before it can bid, and that does not replace your onboarding — it runs before it. The short version: Cargado finds the carrier, your onboarding approves it.
Read the full articlePart 2 · 1:53
Price it first
Market Rates are built from carrier bids placed on Cargado. The same data reaches you three ways: on the Rates tab and on every posting, in Excel for a whole RFP at once, and through the API inside your own system.
Read the band, not the number
| Figure | What it means |
|---|
| Low | Where a quarter of carrier bids came in at or below. |
| Mid | The median. Start your target near here. |
| High | The top quarter. You cover faster and give up margin. |
| Confidence | How many carriers and how many bids stand behind the band. |
What to do
- Look the lane up before you quote it, not after.
- Got an RFP with two hundred lanes? Use the Excel add-in instead of looking them up one at a time. Your Microsoft 365 admin deploys it to the whole company once, from AppSource.
- No rate on a lane means too few recent bids to publish a band. It does not mean no carriers run it — post it, and the bids that come back tell you where it prices.
These are carrier bids placed on Cargado over the last twelve weeks. Not what another broker paid, and not bought from a third party. It is a guide, not a guarantee — quote inside the band, and tell your customer why.
Read the full articlePart 3 · 3:06
Post it right
Two questions decide how you post. Is it one shipment, or recurring volume? And do you own the freight, or are you still quoting it?
Four ways to post
| Post type | When to use it |
|---|
| Load | You own it, one shipment. Comes down when you accept a carrier. |
| Lane | You own it, recurring. Stays live after a match, so you can book more than one carrier. |
| Potential Load | Still quoting, one shipment. |
| Potential Lane | Still quoting, recurring — the RFP case. |
What to do
- Name the commodity, weight and packaging. "Brake pads · 44,000 lb · palletized", not "general freight".
- Check only the certifications the shipper actually requires. Every extra box removes carriers who could have bid.
- Give real pickup windows — "Thursday 08:00 to 12:00", not "Thursday".
- Use the custom message. It is the first thing carriers read: volume, how fast you pay, whether it repeats.
- Message three to five suggested carriers as soon as you post. This is the single habit that separates accounts that cover freight from accounts that watch a posting sit.
When a posting gets no bids it is almost always the posting, not the market. Check five things: a target rate below the band, requirements the load does not need, recurring freight posted as a single Load, old bids left unanswered, and a Friday posting that closes Monday.
Read the full articlePart 4 · 1:36
Work your bids
Every bid deserves an answer. There are only three, and all three are better than silence.
What to do
- Accept and you book that carrier. The commitment is between you and them.
- Counter and you name your number. They take it, counter back, or pass. If the gap is big, ask why in chat — fuel, the crossing or timing usually explains it.
- Reject with a short note when it is not a fit. Saying no fast, in writing, keeps that carrier bidding on your next posting.
After the match
- Both teams get the match message, with the carrier, the rate and the next steps.
- The carrier onboards through your own link. Your process, not ours.
- You send your rate confirmation and dispatch.
- You pay the carrier directly, on your terms. Cargado never touches the payment and takes no cut.
Matched on a Lane? The posting stays live for your next carrier. You do not need to repost.
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Guides grouped by what you are trying to do. More topics land here as we publish them.
When you get stuck
That is the whole loop: set it up, price it, post it, work the bids. When something is not working, bring us the posting — it is the fastest thing for us to fix.
- Email success@cargado.com.
- Bring it to your success manager: a lane with no bids, a TMS to set up, a new teammate to train.
- Or click Help in the app and start a chat.
