Websites for Hauliers and Transport Firms
By CodexierPublished 5 min read
Transport buyers do not browse a haulier's website the way consumers browse a shop. A logistics manager or a procurement officer arrives with a checklist: can they carry this, do they cover that route, are they certified, what is their environmental profile, and how fast will they quote. A site for an åkeri wins when it answers that checklist in the buyer's own order and makes the quote request something your office can price without three follow-up emails. This guide shows how.
What shippers and buyers check
The mechanism behind B2B transport buying is risk reduction. The buyer is accountable if a shipment is late, damaged or carried by an uninsured subcontractor, so the site's first job is to remove those doubts. A photo of a truck does not do it. A list of vehicle types with payloads, a coverage map and a certificates page with dates does.
Fleet, coverage and capacity
Write the fleet page the way a transport planner thinks: by capability, not by brand. A buyer wants to know whether you can move a temperature-controlled pallet load from Gothenburg to Umeå on Thursday, not what make of tractor unit you run. Group vehicles by what they carry and state the limits.
| Section | What to state | Why buyers need it |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle types | Distribution trucks, semi-trailers, curtain-siders, refrigerated, crane, tail-lift; count per type | Matches the goods to the equipment |
| Capacity | Payload, pallet places, loading metres, temperature ranges | Lets the buyer check fit before asking |
| Coverage | Regions, fixed routes, terminals, cross-border countries, daily departures | Answers can you do this lane |
| Special goods | ADR classes, food (HACCP), high value, oversize | Compliance questions in every tender |
| Subcontracting | Whether you use partners, and under what terms | Liability and insurance follow the vehicle |
Certifications and environmental data
Large shippers now ask for environmental data in almost every procurement, and public buyers in Sweden are required to weigh it. A site that already shows the numbers is ahead of the one that has to compile them for each tender. Keep a certificates page with the document name, the issuing body, the scope and the expiry date, and offer the PDFs for download so a buyer can attach them directly.
- Quality and environment: ISO 9001 and 14001 if held, or the industry equivalents, with scope and validity.
- Traffic and safety: community licence, driver training, alcohol and drug policy, accident statistics if you publish them.
- Fleet emissions: Euro class distribution, share of HVO, electric or gas vehicles, and a per-shipment emissions figure if your TMS can produce one.
- Insurance: cargo liability cover and the convention it follows, plus the excess, stated plainly.
- Collective agreement and employment: buyers increasingly ask, and it is a differentiator against the grey market.
Quote requests that are easy to price
A contact form with name, email and message produces a quote request that cannot be priced, followed by an email exchange that takes two days. The form should collect what a dispatcher needs to give a number, and it should route by type so a one-off pallet and a yearly distribution contract do not land in the same inbox.
Spot shipment
Pickup and delivery addresses with postcodes, goods description, number of packages or pallets, weight and dimensions, requested dates, special handling. A price the same day is realistic.
Regular traffic
Lanes, frequency, volumes per week, seasonal peaks, loading and unloading conditions, current supplier and contract end date. Routed to sales, not dispatch.
Tender and framework
A page that says who to contact, what documents you can supply within a day, and the certificates already downloadable. Procurement teams work to deadlines; being easy to include wins invitations.
Recruiting drivers through the site
Driver shortage is the binding constraint for many hauliers, and drivers research employers online the same way buyers do. A careers section is not decoration; it is the second conversion path. Drivers want specifics: routes and schedules, whether nights are home nights, the vehicles, the collective agreement, and how to apply from a phone in two minutes.
- One page per role type: distribution, long haul, ADR, crane, with schedule and home-time stated honestly.
- A short application form that works on mobile: name, phone, licence classes, YKB validity, earliest start. CV optional.
- Photos of real drivers and real trucks, and a line on how you handle overtime and waiting time.
- Auto-reply with a named contact and when they will call back; drivers apply to several firms the same evening.
When you do not need this: a haulier working entirely for one or two contracted customers, with no plans to tender or hire, needs a clean one-page site with contact details and certificates, nothing more. Everything above is for firms that want to be found and evaluated by new buyers and by drivers. That is what our business website launch is built for, with the quote routing and careers flow included; see the packages on the pricing page, or book a call and describe the traffic you run.
Frequently asked questions
Should we show prices for transport services?
Rarely, because price depends on lane, volume and timing. What you can show is the price logic: what you charge per pallet place or loading metre on standard lanes, surcharges such as fuel and waiting time, and how quickly you quote. That reduces unqualified requests without publishing a tariff.
Do we need a customer portal with tracking?
If your TMS offers a customer login or tracking link, expose it from the site; buyers expect to find it. Building your own is only worth it when your system has no portal and your largest customers ask for one in writing.
How do we present emissions without a full carbon accounting system?
Start with what you can verify: fleet Euro classes, fuel mix and the share of renewable fuel. State the method and the date. A short, honest figure is more useful to a buyer than a vague sustainability page, and it can be refined when your TMS produces per-shipment data.
Should the site be in English as well as Swedish?
If you run cross-border traffic or serve foreign-owned shippers, yes, at least for the fleet, coverage, certificates and quote pages. Recruiting pages should follow the language your drivers actually work in.
Want a site your buyers can evaluate you from?
Fifteen minutes: tell us what traffic you run and who you want to win, and we will show how the fleet, certificates and quote pages should be structured for procurement and for drivers.
Book a free 15-minute call