Market Intelligence That Tells Your Dispatcher What to Book, What to Pass, and What to Negotiate

The information gap on every booking call

A broker calls. They have a load: Atlanta to Houston, dry van, picks up tomorrow morning, drops Wednesday afternoon, $1,820. The dispatcher has 60 seconds to decide: take it, counter, pass.

What the dispatcher knows: the load board number, maybe a vague sense of the lane, their mood that day.

What the dispatcher doesn't know but should:

• What did this lane pay last week on average across the market? ($2.18/mi)
• What did this customer pay us on this lane last quarter? ($2.05/mi)
• What's our current margin on Atlanta→Houston after deadhead? ($0.42/mi)
• Where else could this truck be sent that pays better? (3 alternatives at $2.30+/mi)
• Is this customer a "yes" we want to maintain or a "marginal" we should push back on?

The dispatcher who books that load at $1,820 leaves margin on the table because they don't have the data. The broker — who does have the data — knows it.

Centrix's market intelligence layer puts the data on the dispatcher's screen at the moment of decision.

What the layer actually does

Live market data

Centrix integrates with DAT, Truckstop.com, and (where carriers have it) Sonar to pull live spot rate data per lane, refreshed continuously. The dispatcher sees: "Atlanta→Houston dry van, last 7 days market rate $2.18/mi (high $2.45, low $1.90, 312 loads observed)."

Your fleet's lane history

The same lane — what your trucks have actually earned vs. moved. Different from market data because it includes your customer mix, your deadhead reality, your detention patterns. "Your fleet's last 30 days on this lane: $2.12/mi net of deadhead, 14% detention exposure, average 32-day pay."

Per-customer pricing history

What this specific customer has paid you over the last 6 months. "Customer XYZ paid $2.05/mi avg on this lane (10 loads), trending up — last 3 loads averaged $2.15."

Real-time bid recommendation

The system synthesizes the three data points into a recommended counter: "Counter $2.10/mi ($2,331 on 1,110 mi), expected acceptance probability 72%."

The dispatcher uses the recommendation or ignores it — but they're never bidding blind.

Where the alternative loads come from

Centrix watches DAT and Truckstop continuously for every truck in your fleet that is empty or about to be. The system surfaces the top 3 alternatives that:

• Match the truck's current location and HOS clock
• Pay better than the truck's 30-day average RPM
• Lead to a position the truck can be reloaded from
• Match driver preferences (lane, route, home time)

Result: the dispatcher isn't choosing between "this load or empty miles to next dispatch." They're choosing between this load and 3 better alternatives.

Negotiation support

When the dispatcher counters, Centrix tracks the broker's response patterns:

• Which brokers accept the first counter vs. negotiate twice
• Average concession per round per broker
• Which customers will pay our target rate vs. which will walk

The dispatcher's coaching note on call 4 with a tough broker becomes the new dispatcher's onboarding context.

Daily ops help — the operations the dispatcher shouldn't be doing

Beyond intelligence at the booking moment, Centrix automates the daily operations that eat dispatcher time:

Status emails and updates

Every customer expects updates per load — pickup confirmation, in-transit, "still on schedule," POD, invoice. Most carriers send these manually (or don't, and the customers chase). Centrix sends them automatically based on load milestones detected from Samsara position + dispatch records:

• "Truck dispatched, expected pickup 14:00" — on book
• "Truck arrived at shipper, loading" — on arrival
• "Loaded at 16:42, en route" — on departure
• "On track for delivery 20:00 tomorrow" — during transit
• "Delivered at 19:38, POD attached" — on delivery
• "Invoice attached" — on invoice generation

The customer feels updated. The dispatcher's inbox is empty.

Rate confirmation generation

A booked load needs a rate confirmation document. Centrix generates these automatically with the broker's preferred format (PDF, email, fax for the rare broker that still needs it), populates the load number, addresses, dates, contact info, rate, accessorials, and special instructions.

Customer follow-up

After delivery, customers expect a thank-you / next-load conversation. Centrix queues follow-ups to the right rep on a per-customer cadence (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) and tracks completion.

Daily morning brief

Each dispatcher gets a 6 AM brief in their preferred channel:

• Trucks empty / about to be empty (top reload opportunities, ranked by RPM)
• Loads at risk (off-route, ETA drift, HOS pressure)
• Drivers needing a check-in (low mileage, missed pre-trip, retention risk)
• Customers requiring follow-up
• Yesterday's performance recap

The brief is a 90-second read that prioritizes the day. No more "where do I start?"

What this changes operationally

A 100-truck fleet running this layer for 90 days:

• Average RPM lift: $0.07–$0.14/mi from better booking decisions =

$56K–$112K of margin per year

• Dispatcher productivity: 22–30% time freed from manual ops (status updates,

rate confs, customer follow-up)

• Booking conversion on alternative loads: 15–25% lift in dispatcher's

RPM-weighted booking rate

• Customer feedback scores: meaningful improvement because customers actually

get updates

Where to start

If you're a 30+ truck fleet booking by gut feel and DAT spot rates:

• Connect DAT + your TMS (Alvys) first. Without lane-level market data, the

recommendations are guesses.

• Turn on automated status emails after 30 days of solid data. This is the single

biggest "felt difference" for both customers and dispatchers.

• Add the morning brief after 60 days. By then the system knows your fleet's

patterns well enough to prioritize correctly.

Book a demo — bring your top 5 customers and 90 days of booking data. We'll show you the margin gap on your actual lanes.