In this blog series, Trucker Tools Smart Solutions, we’re helping freight brokers and logistics providers like you solve major operational challenges, increase productivity, boost profit margins and create a technological foundation for your business that will serve you well in the future. The biggest challenge right now, of course, is capacity. When capacity markets are tight as they are currently, providing a positive experience for drivers and carriers can help you keep them sticky and running your freight as part of your network. Whether or not an owner operator or carrier has a positive experience with your company is often determined by the technology you use with them. If the tech you require them to use is clunky and ineffective, owner operators and carriers may not be inclined to work with you again. On the other hand, if you provide a streamlined technology experience and make it easy for carriers to do business with you, they’re often more inclined to book repeat loads with you.
In this blog, you’ll find out how to keep carriers sticky and provide a better carrier experience with digital freight matching, while also reducing your operating costs. Digital freight matching can decrease or even eliminate the manual telephone calls and emails that you’re currently using to find capacity, providing increased efficiency not only for you, but also for carriers.
Search for Capacity from Carriers You’ve Already Onboarded
Onboarding a new owner operator or carrier every time you need capacity is extremely inefficient and ultimately costs you as a freight broker/3PL. Carrier onboarding takes time and human resources. Every time that you onboard a new carrier, it eats up valuable time and resources that could be better used on generating additional revenue. If you’re like most brokers/3PLs, however, you find it difficult to re-use capacity from carriers that you’ve already onboarded because you’re likely using a combination of different loads boards, daily phone calls and emails to source capacity. When you use these different methods to find capacity, you don’t have a centralized place from which to search for real-time capacity from these already-onboarded carriers.
Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform puts all of your capacity choices on a single platform, making it easier and faster to cover loads, and to keep carriers sticky. With digital freight matching, you can quickly search in real-time from a list of already-onboarded, preferred carriers when you need capacity. If it turns out that you need out of network capacity, you can find that quickly, too, with digital freight matching. Using Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform gives you access to the 1.4 million truckers who’ve downloaded the Trucker Tools app and the 165,000+ carriers already on Trucker Tools’ technology platform. You also can use digital freight matching to research capacity availability in specific lanes when you’re trying to bring on a new customer.
Book Reloads, Repeat Loads Easily in Single Conversation with Carrier
Once you’ve found a truck for your load from within your customized list of preferred carriers, you can call the carrier on the phone to discuss rates. While you have the carrier dispatcher on the phone, use the digital freight matching platform to quickly search for backhaul opportunities or future loads for the carrier in a matter of seconds. When you’re able to book multiple loads with a carrier in a single communication, that increases your efficiency and helps you further reduce onboarding of new carriers. It also signals to the carrier that you’re speaking with that you value the service they provide and that you want to make it easy for them to do business with your company, which can further increase the sticky factor.
“I think it goes without saying that it’s so important to be easy to do business with for retention across the board,” said Hayley Dobson, Trinity Logistics’ Group Vice President, in a recent webinar with Trucker Tools. “We need to keep carriers moving and productive. Carriers don’t have a lot of extra time in their day to make a call to find a load or to check in, so any way that we can give them to connect with us that doesn’t disrupt their current process is really critical in retaining them. Carriers have a tough enough job as it is and the whole purpose of our role as a 3PL/broker is to make their job easier, which requires that our interactions with them are as seamless as possible.”
“I think it goes without saying that it’s so important to be easy to do business with for retention across the board,” said Hayley Dobson, Trinity Logistics’ Group Vice President, in a recent webinar with Trucker Tools. “We need to keep carriers moving and productive. Carriers don’t have a lot of extra time in their day to make a call to find a load or to check in, so any way that we can give them to connect with us that doesn’t disrupt their current process is really critical in retaining them. Carriers have a tough enough job as it is and the whole purpose of our role as a 3PL/broker is to make their job easier, which requires that our interactions with them are as seamless as possible.”
Reduce Manual Phone Calls, Emails to Carriers
Carriers struggle with inefficiencies just like you, so when you use technology that saves them time, they’re going to be more inclined to work with you again. Digital freight matching technology reduces or can eliminate the need for carriers to use load boards, respond to your email messages or answer your phone calls about what they have for available capacity. In a recent Trucker Tools survey, 67 percent of the owner operators and carriers surveyed told us that they pay monthly app and load board fees to find broker loads, most of which cost $30 or more each month. Using Trucker Tool’s digital freight matching can eliminate these monthly fees for carriers, as well, as they can access loads via the Trucker Tools app for free.
To provide an even better experience for carriers, post your loads as Book It Now® loads on Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform. Doing so gives owner operators and carriers the ability to book your loads in the Trucker Tools mobile app or via Trucker Tools’ carrier platform. Book It Now® lets carriers book your loads at times that are most convenient for them. It also eliminates the time-consuming back and forth phone calls that often can occur when you’re finalizing a load booking manually. You can personalize the experience for carriers even further with Trucker Tools’ Broker Advantage. Broker Advantage creates a “one-stop shop” for your company in the Trucker Tools mobile app that carriers can visit to view and book your loads, view your discounts and promotions, and communicate with you quickly.
Are you looking to build a strong, reliable carrier network? Be sure that you read How Trucker Tools’ Digital Freight Matching Builds In Network and Out of Network Carrier Loyalty.
Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform, Book It Now® and real-time load tracking platform.
