Your operating costs as a broker or logistics provider can balloon when many of your processes are manual. When significant amounts of time and human resources are required to complete a single manual task, you losethe opportunity to move more volume. Automating the most basic aspects of your operations delivers cost-savings and creates opportunities for growth. Instead of spending time on manual tasks such as check calls and load board postings, your team members instead can focus on cultivating new business, carrier development and providing top-notch service to your customers.
Check out the top 10 ways that Trucker Tools’ solutions can provide your brokerage or logistics business with time and money-savings.
1. View the Locations of Trucks/Cargo in
Real-Time
Trucker Tools’ freight tracking software leverages the GPS tech in the trucker’s smart phone and the Trucker Tools driver app to give you real-time, start-to-finish digital visibility of the freight you move. Your team can instantly see where trucks are located with Trucker Tools’ load tracking platform. Visibility data is updated every five to 15 minutes to ensure that you always know where that load is.
2. Reduce or Eliminate Check Calls
Brokers and 3PLs on average make seven check calls per load to track the location of a truck and its cargo. Because you can view the accurate locations of trucks and their cargo on a computer screen in real-time, you can eliminate or reduce time-consuming check calls. Iowa-based logistics provider LTI Delivers has reduced its number of check calls by 40 percent thanks to Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform.
3. Geofencing Technology
Many of the brokers and 3PLs who use our freight tracking platform use the software’s geofencing capabilities to increase operational efficiency even further. Geofencing allows you to essentially set up a virtual boundary around the pick-up and drop-off locations for the load. When a trucker enters the geofenced area, they are automatically prompted to start or stop load tracking via the Trucker Tools driver app — no human intervention required.
4. Platform Integrations with Shipper Visibility
Platforms
When technologies can’t share information, it hurts productivity and can be extremely frustrating. That’s why we’ve designed Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform to integrate with 10/4, Project44, MacroPoint and FourKites shipper visibility platforms. Integration with your shippers’ visibility software allows you to instantly share Trucker Tools’ load tracking with shippers, which saves you and your customers time.
5. Faster Way To Find Capacity
The longer it takes for you to cover a load, the higher your cost per load. Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform reduces the time that it takes for you to find qualified capacity. Our digital freight matching software instantly matches your open loads with the best trucks from within your network of preferred carriers. We show you the best matches at the top of the list to make covering a load as quick and easy as possible.
6. No More Load Boards
Using load boards is often a frustrating process. It takes time for your employees to post a load to multiple load boards, monitor and respond to the posts, and then email or call the carrier or driver to negotiate the rate. Digital freight matching makes covering a load a single-step process instead of a multi-step process. When you adopt Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching, you can say goodbye to load boards for good and allow your carriers to submit quotes digitally through the Trucker Tools driver app.
7. Broker Advantage
In 2020, Trucker Tools released a new option for brokers and 3PLs called Broker Advantage. Broker Advantage lets you customize how carriers communicate with you via the Trucker Tools driver app. With Broker Advantage, you can create a home page for your company in the driver app where carriers can upload documents, see your available loads, and learn about incentives and discounts that you may be offering.
8. Automated Load Booking
Book It Now®, Trucker Tools’ load booking automation tool, flips the script on booking loads. If you designate one of your loads as a Book It Now® load, you give dispatchers and drivers the ability to book your loads via our free platform for carriers or the driver app. When a carrier dispatcher or trucker books one of your Book It Now® loads, the details are automatically recorded in your TMS and a confirmation email is automatically sent to the driver/dispatcher. Book It Now® can be a major time-saver.
9. Digital Rate Negotiation
When truckers view your available loads in the Trucker Tools driver app, they have the option to submit rate quotes to you through the driver app. Truckers like this feature and Book It Now® because both tools are fast and don’t require a lot of time on the phone. Digital rate quotes also save you time because you don’t have to play phone tag with a driver or dispatcher to get quotes on loads.
10. Predictive Load Matching
One of the most popular tools included with Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching software is predictive load matching. Predictive load matching uses real-world transaction data from our broker and carrier platforms to predict where truck capacity will be available in the future. With predictive load matching, you can find and book truck capacity ahead of time, which gives you a major advantage over your competition.
If you’re looking for growth opportunities in the new year, read Five Productivity Tips for Brokers and 3PLs. Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform, digital freight matching platform and Book It Now®.
