When your business is self-sustaining, it generates enough revenue to cover all of its expenses, and also does not need outside additional investments in order to expand. Self-sustaining businesses are lean and efficient, capable of maximizing revenue without diminishing the customer experience. In freight brokerage and third-party logistics, the shortest path to making your business self-sustaining usually requires the use of real-time technology. Real-time technology like Trucker Tools’ automates the most repetitive, manual aspects of your operations and increases internal productivity. Trucker Tools’ real-time technology also is scalable, meaning that it’s built to grow and adapt with your business as it grows — and you won’t need to hire on dozens of more employees when you expand.
Check out these seven ways that Trucker Tools’ tech can help you build a self-sustaining logistics business.
1. Fewer Check Calls Required To Track Loads
If you’re still using check calls to track loads, you’re missing out on an opportunity to make your business more self-sustaining. Tracking loads digitally in real-time with Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform reduces or can even eliminate manual check calls that your team currently is making to track loads for shippers. Trucker Tools’ load tracking platform uses the Trucker Tools driver app and the driver’s smart phone to provide you with load location updates every five to 15 minutes. With the time gained from fewer check calls, productivity and profits often can increase. Also, if you increase your load count in the future, you don’t need to hire on additional staff members to make check calls to track loads because you already have an automated load tracking process in place.
2. Automatically Share Visibility Data with Shippers
Trucker Tools’ real-time load tracking platform integrates with most of the visibility software platforms used by shippers, including MacroPoint, 10/4, Project44 and FourKites. These integration capabilities are powerful because they allow your company to automatically share visibility data with shippers in real-time. Without Trucker Tools’ digital load tracking system, your team may be manually updating shippers with ETAs multiples times on each and every load. The integration capabilities of Trucker Tools’ load tracking platform simplify employee workflows, increase productivity and give your customers instant access to the information they need to better run their own operations.
3. No More Cold Calling for Capacity
Being more strategic with which carriers you contact for capacity also helps you build a self-sustaining logistics business. If you’re like many logistics businesses, your team members have a list of preferred carriers that they call or email when they need to cover loads. If they can’t get one of your preferred carriers to transport the load, your team members may turn to load boards to cover the load or send mass emails to every carrier in your address book to find capacity. Even though brokers and 3PLs have been covering loads this way for a long time, it’s far from an efficient process. What differentiates Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform from manual methods is that you can search within the platform first to find out who among your preferred carriers likely has capacity when and where you need it. When you do call a carrier, you already know based on the information in the platform that they’re likely to have the right kind of trailer in the lane you need. This makes for a much shorter conversation and greatly reduces the time and resources needed to cover a load.
4. Shorter Rate Negotiation Process
When all of your processes are manual, everything takes time to accomplish. Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform and Book It Now® together reduce manual tasks, shorten the rate negotiation process considerably and make your business more self-sustaining. When you post loads to the platform, carriers can submit rate quotes to you digitally through Trucker Tools’ free software platform for carriers. If you post your loads as Book It Now® loads to the platform, carriers can instantly book your loads digitally — no phone calls, email messages or load boards needed. A shorter, digitized rate negotiation process further increases operational efficiency, employee productivity and scalability for future growth.
5. Build Carrier Relationships by Increasing Carrier Utilization
Another way that Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform helps you build a self-sustaining logistics business is that it can be used to increase carrier utilization, i.e. help you use carriers who’ve already been onboarded. Onboarding a new carrier every time you need a load covered is woefully inefficiency. With Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform, you can search for capacity from within your own customized list of carriers. This makes it much easier for your team to secure capacity with carriers who’ve already been onboarded or with your highest-performing carriers. Booking repeat loads with carriers is a big part of building relationships with them. It also saves you time (which translates into dollars) and human resources when your team doesn’t have to constantly onboard new carriers.
6. POD/BOL Document Upload Capabilities for Drivers
The Trucker Tools driver app is an all-in-one tool designed to provide truckers with everything they need. With the app, truckers can trip plan and find the cheapest fuel, weigh scales, parking, rest areas, truck stops, food, repair shops and more. They also can use the app to find and book loads with their favorite brokers and track loads for brokers. When a driver tracks a load digitally with the Trucker Tools’ mobile app, once they reach their final destination, they can scan and send BOL and POD documents to your team through the app. This is much faster than having the carrier submit paper copies of these documents. Your team members won’t have to spend time chasing down these documents with carriers. Instead, your team members can receive digital copies of these documents within Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform.
7. Insights into Future Capacity with Predictive Load Matching
The predictive load matching included with Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform is a powerful tool that can help you stay ahead of your competitors. Trucker Tools’ predictive load matching allows your team members to see where capacity is going to be available in the future before it actually is available. If a member of your team knows that a reefer trailer with one of your preferred carriers is going to be available two days from now in Phoenix, they can book that capacity immediately and then move onto their next task. In the current environment in which truck capacity is hard to come by, predictive load matching helps you get to carriers before your competitors and increases operational efficiency, two building blocks for any self-sustaining logistics business.
Read Five Ways To Diversify and Grow Your Carrier Network with Trucker Tools’ Broker Advantage to discover how your team can build lasting relationships with carriers using technology.
Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching, real-time visibility platform and Book It Now®.
