Winning your first shipment can take persistence. The data shows that the drivers who succeed early usually do a few simple things consistently: they bid often, bid quickly, price competitively, communicate well, and complete the most important trust signals on their profile.
Here are 10 actions you can start using today.
1. Aim for at least 20 bids a day
The biggest predictor of getting your first shipment is simply bidding on enough opportunities.
Drivers who placed 400 bids were far more likely to win within their first month than drivers who did not. The study found that bidding volume was the strongest factor by a wide margin.
What to do:
- Aim for at least 20-25 bids per day and keep going even if the first few do not convert.
- Don’t judge your chances after 5 or 10 bids. Winning your first shipment often takes dozens of attempts.
2. Check for new shipments throughout the day
It isn’t only about how many shipments you bid on. How quickly you find them matters too.
Drivers who bid soon after a shipment was posted had a better chance of winning than drivers who waited.
What to do:
Set up your notifications. Check CitizenShipper regularly and use your search settings and notifications so you can spot new shipments quickly.
Here is quick link to set up your notifications, so you don’t have to constantly check for new updates:
Or if you are seeking more control at your fingertips, I would advise using the search shipment tool
Your goal should be to bid within 4 hours of a shipment being posted at least half the time.
3. Don’t wait for a shipment to become “old”
A shipment that has been sitting on the marketplace for several days can still be worth bidding on, but your odds generally decrease the longer you wait.
The study found:
- Under 15 minutes: 1.06% bid win rate
- 4–8 hours: 0.71%
- 1–3 days: 0.61%
-
7+ days: 0.25%
What to do:
Prioritize freshly listed shipments first, then work through older opportunities afterward.
4. Price close to the going rate
New drivers often struggle with pricing because they have not yet learned what different routes typically pay. The research found that bidding above the going rate roughly cuts your odds of winning in half.
Before placing a bid, look at what the shipment appears to be worth in the current market. You do not need to be the cheapest driver, but if most competitive bids are clustered around $800 and you are asking $1,100, you should have a very strong reason for that premium. Otherwise, you are making it substantially harder for the shipper to choose you.
There is an equally important flip side. Our data science report does not demonstrate that the solution is to bid $650 just to beat everyone else. New drivers were also more likely than experienced drivers to price well below the median, which is part of the same calibration issue.
A simple real-life example would be this:
Suppose a pet shipment from Dallas to Denver receives several bids, and the market for that specific job settles around $800.
An experienced driver might quote 775–850, which keeps them close to the going rate.
A new driver, still learning how to price routes, might look at the mileage, fuel, hotel cost and time involved and quote $1,100.
There may be perfectly reasonable reasons behind the $1,100 calculation, but from the shipper’s perspective they are now seeing something like:
- Driver A: $790
- Driver B: $820
- Driver C: $850
- New Driver D: $1,100
The new driver is not just a little more expensive; they are clearly outside the range the shipper is seeing from the rest of the market. That makes it much harder for their profile, message, or quick response to compensate for the price difference.
The statistical finding essentially says that situations like that happen often enough that, across the dataset, pricing above the going rate has a large negative relationship with conversion, even after the model accounts for those other behaviors.
So the behavior you use is not “bid low.” It is:
“Understand the competitive range, price within it, and then compete on speed, communication, profile trust and persistence.”
What to do:
Before submitting your bid, ask yourself:
- Is my price reasonable for the mileage?
- Is it competitive with the type of shipment?
- Am I pricing much higher than similar drivers might?
You do not need to be the cheapest driver. The goal is to avoid being significantly overpriced.
5. Avoid random pricing
One interesting finding was that new drivers were not consistently too expensive or too cheap.
Instead, their prices were simply less consistent than experienced drivers, suggesting that new drivers are still learning how to price different routes.
What to do:
Develop a repeatable pricing method based on:
Mileage + route + time + pet requirements + your operating costs
Avoid dramatically changing your price from shipment to shipment without a clear reason.
6. Always send a message with your bid
Do not let your bid amount do all the talking.
Drivers who proactively messaged customers when submitting a bid were more likely to win, even after other factors were taken into account.
What to do:
The recommended milestone is to send a proactive message with at least 90% of your bids.
Your first message can be simple:
Keep it short, personal and easy to reply to.
7. Reply to customers as quickly as possible
Once a customer messages you, speed becomes especially important.
Drivers replying within 15 minutes had a 15.2% win rate in those conversations, compared with just 6.6% for drivers who waited a day or longer.
What to do:
When possible, reply within 15–60 minutes.
Even if you cannot write a long response immediately, acknowledge the customer and keep the conversation moving.
For example:
8. Add a clear, professional profile photo
Customers are trusting a driver with something extremely important to them, especially when transporting pets.
Having a profile photo showed a measurable positive relationship with early success. Drivers with a profile photo won within 30 days much more often than those without one.
What to do:
Make sure your profile photo is clear, professional, and well-groomed. A polished profile picture helps build trust and shows customers that you take your business and their shipments seriously.
Upload a photo that:
- Clearly shows your face
- Has good lighting
- Looks friendly and professional
- Avoids sunglasses, heavy filters or distracting backgrounds
Trust starts before the customer even reads your message.
9. Complete your USDA verification and pet transport requirements
USDA verification and pet transport standards acknowledgement are mandatory requirements in order to use the platform without any interruptions and the quicker you apply and acknowledge them respectively, the quicker you can focus on other aspects of your profile.
Trust signals matter, particularly for pet transportation.
The analysis identified both USDA verification and signing the Pet Transport Guidelines Agreement as positive indicators of early success.
USDA verification was one of the strongest individual milestones in the study.
What to do:
Complete these as early as possible:
- USDA verification
- Pet Transport Guidelines Agreement
- Profile photo
- Other relevant profile information and verifications
Think of your profile as your online résumé.
10. Treat your first 30 days as your launch period
Your first month should be an active period of bidding, messaging and learning.
Drivers who won within their first 30 days placed a median of 169 bids, compared with just 10 bids among drivers who did not win.
And among drivers who eventually won, half won within roughly one week of their first bid, while 75% won within about three weeks.
What to do:
For your first 30 days, focus on a simple routine:
Find opportunities → Bid competitively → Send a message → Reply quickly → Repeat
Do not wait for the “perfect” shipment before participating.
Your First-Shipment Checklist
Before finishing your first 30 days, aim to:
Bid on 20+ shipments per day
Complete USDA verification
The most important takeaway is consistency. Drivers who completed all 10 core milestones identified in the analysis won a shipment within 30 days 77.2% of the time, compared with only 1.6% among drivers who completed none.
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