There’s a difference between finding a load and finding a customer.
The load board answers the first question. You need freight today, you search, you book. That’s what it’s built for, and it works.
LaneMakers answers the second one. It shows you which brokers are consistently active on a lane, so you know who to call before you need anything. That turns a lane you don’t run yet into a list of people who already move freight there.
Every DAT load board subscription includes it.
What it actually shows you
Enter an origin and destination, pick your equipment, and LaneMakers returns the brokers most active on that lane. Basic covers the past 30 days of load postings. Premium extends the history and adds which brokers have been searching for trucks, not just posting loads.
You can leave the origin or destination open to look at a whole market instead of a single lane, and you can search by key market area, extended market area, or region depending on how wide you want to look.
If you’re breaking into a new market
This is the harder version of the problem. You’ve decided to start running a lane you haven’t run before, maybe because rates look better, maybe because a customer moved, maybe because you’re tired of the market you’re in. And you don’t know a single broker there.
The load board will show you what’s posted today. It won’t tell you who posts there every week.
LaneMakers will. Run the lane, get the list of brokers with consistent activity, and start calling before you need the freight. A week ahead is better than the morning you’re empty, because you’re having a business conversation instead of asking for a favor.
The relationships are the point. A broker who moves freight on that lane every week can keep you loaded for years. A load you found on a Tuesday keeps you loaded until Thursday.
If you’re a fleet with holes in your network
Contract freight creates a specific problem. Your routing guide commits you to lanes, and covering those commitments puts equipment in places where you don’t have freight going the other way. You end up repositioning trucks to get back to a contract origin, and nothing pays for the move.
Those gaps are known and repeating. You can name them.
LaneMakers lets you work them deliberately. Run the lanes where you reposition, find the brokers most active in that geography, and build relationships that turn repositioning legs into revenue. Same for lanes where your contract coverage is thin: knowing who’s active there gives you somewhere to go when a routing guide fails, instead of paying whatever the spot market asks that day.
This is network planning, not load searching. You’re deciding who to build around in the places your contract book leaves exposed.
What premium adds
Broker search activity. Basic shows you who’s posting loads. Premium also shows you which brokers have been searching for trucks on your lanes. A broker searching for capacity right now is a warmer call than one who posted last week.
A 365-day lookback. Basic gives you 30 days. A full year shows seasonal patterns and which brokers have been steady over time rather than busy once. If you’re deciding who to build a route plan around, a year of behavior tells you more than a month.
Tighter targeting. More history means you can be selective, focusing on brokers with demonstrated, consistent activity instead of a single good week.
Separately, and not tied to a tier: LaneMakers works alongside DAT Company Profile, so you can check a broker’s credit score and days to pay before you spend time on them. Active and slow to pay is still a problem.
How to use it this week
- Pick the lanes that matter. Two or three you want to grow into, or the repositioning gaps you keep eating. Run each one and write down the brokers that show up consistently.
- Call ahead of the need. Reach out about a week before you want to run the route. You’re introducing your equipment and your lanes, not asking for a load right now.
- Check who you’re courting. Run the names through DAT Company Profile before you invest time. Consistent posting and slow payment is a bad trade.
- If the lane pair doesn’t work as a round trip, use TriHaul to find a triangular route that does, then run each leg through LaneMakers to see who’s active on it. Use the pair for planning rather than live load searching.
- Keep posting your truck. LaneMakers works both directions. Regular posts and searches in your target lanes make you easier for those brokers to find.
Start with one lane
Open LaneMakers from the Tools menu in DAT One and run the lane you most want to be running a year from now. The brokers on that list are your prospect list.
