How do I find backhaul loads for boat transport?

On this corridor the backhaul is seasonal rather than incidental: the same boats that go south in October come north in April. A listing that owners at both ends can find turns the deadhead leg into a paid one. Listing here is free, takes no commission, and never publishes your phone number.

Is there a fee or commission to list a boat hauling company?

No. There is no fee, no commission and no cut of the job. What you charge is between you and the owner and the site never finds out what it was. There is also no exclusivity and no contract, so keep your own site, your own customers and every other arrangement you have.

How is a carrier's USDOT number verified?

By hand, against the public FMCSA record, with the date of the check shown on the listing. It is the only verified thing on this site. Most boat transport sites show no authority at all, so an active one stated next to your name is worth having on a lane crowded with brokers who own no trucks.

Home › Work › Hauling

Driving Hauling Captaining

For transport companies with their own truck and authority

A boat down.
A boat back.
Quit running empty.

You already know this lane. What you hate is the half of it you run deadhead. The whole Northeast coast moves its boats south in the fall and north in the spring, the same trailer, twice a year, in both directions. List once and owners on both ends can find you, so the run home has a boat on it too.

Put your company up How the round trip works

The short version

What boat hauling work on this lane looks like

Seasonal boat hauling for carriers running their own truck, trailer and authority on the Northeast to Florida lane. The whole coast moves its boats south in the fall and north in the spring, which is the one lane where the return leg has freight on it if you are visible to owners at both ends.

You quote the job all in and keep whatever you charge, because nothing is taken out of it here: no commission, no fee, no cut, and the site never finds out what the number was. Owners come to you directly rather than through a bidding board. Give us your USDOT and we check it against the public FMCSA record and put the date of that check on your card, which is the only verified thing on this site and worth having next to your name on a lane full of brokers with no trucks. See how the round trip works out.

No exclusivity, no contract and nothing to cancel. Keep your own site, your own customers and every other arrangement you have.

The backhaul math

The lane runs both ways on a clock

A general lane leaves you hunting a load for the trip home. This one does not. The boats that go to Florida in October want to come back to the Northeast in April, and there are more of them than there are people to move them. You are not chasing a random backhaul, you are working a route that fills itself twice a year.

Southbound · Oct to Nov

Owners book the fall run through late summer and early autumn
Clusters tight into a few weeks, four or five hauls inside one window
Be visible in August and you fill the truck for the season

Northbound · Apr to May

The spring run has a hard edge: hulls have to be north before hurricane season
Same owners, other direction, the load home you were driving empty for
One listing carries you through both windows; no need to sign up twice

Straight about it

We match boats, not freight, the load back is another owner’s boat, not a pallet
We do not fill your truck for you; we put you where owners are looking
Whether the dates line up is yours to work out with each of them

If you already have a truck and customers

What listing gets you, and what it costs

Most of the outfits working this coast are one or two people who would rather be hauling than doing this bit. If that is you, here is the whole arrangement in four lines.

Your phone number is not on this website. It is not on a listing, not in a search result, and not in anything this site can be asked for. An owner sees where you are based, what you run and when you are free. When one of them wants you, we ask you first and you decide whether to answer. That is the difference between this and being somebody’s lead.
It costs nothing and there is no commission. We do not take a cut, we do not handle the money, and we do not want to. What you charge is between you and the owner, and we never find out what it was.
No exclusivity, no contract, nothing to cancel. Keep your own site, your own customers and every other arrangement you have. Ask us to take your listing down and it is off the same day.
Your USDOT gets checked, and the card says so. We look the number up against the public federal record and put the date on it. Most transport sites show no authority at all, if yours is current, that is worth having stated next to your name.

We are not a broker. The sites that come up first when an owner searches for boat transport are mostly lead resellers with no trucks, no USDOT and a nationwide page for every state. This is a list of people who actually do the work, and the owner talks to you directly.

Put your company up See how a listing looks

What you need

Who owners here are looking for

Your own authority, current. Active USDOT and the cargo cover to suit a hull’s value. The active authority shown on your card is the one verified thing on this whole site.
A rig that takes what these boats are. Wide, tall and long, comfortable pulling oversize and working inside a permit you pulled yourself.
The permit and the quote, all in. Owners who want the whole job carried do not want to touch the paperwork. You pull the permits and price the run end to end.
References someone can actually call. The owner is handing you a boat. Give them a reason to trust you with it.

When

Two windows, and they are short

Southbound clusters into October and November. Northbound into April and May, and that one has a hard edge, hurricane season opens 1 June and a lot of hull policies key their restrictions to it, so the boats have to be north before then.

Outfits that work this corridor commit their windows by the end of August for the fall and the end of February for the spring. If you want the runs, both legs of them, that is when to be visible.

Put your company up Plan a run