In today’s freight markets, speed and efficiency matter, particularly when demand outpaces available capacity and when freight rates are historically high, as they are now. Optimizing and improving the efficacy of your capacity searches can help you better meet the needs of your customers and keep you ahead of your competition, of which there is plenty. With the digital freight matching technology included in Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity platform, you can target your capacity searches to those carriers and owner operators who are likely to have the capacity you need. The technology allows you to search for capacity first from among your already-onboarded carriers, as well, which can reduce operating costs, help you cover loads faster and minimize new carrier onboarding. If relationship-building is your number one goal, you also can use Smart Capacity to search for trucks from a customized list of specific carriers first.
Optimize Capacity Searches with Real-Time Truck Data
If you’re like most freight brokers, you use a combination of methods to locate and secure truck capacity. You dial for diesel, running through your list of carriers and calling each one to find out who has a truck to cover each individual load. The problem with this approach to capacity procurement is that it is too broad and extremely inefficient. Before you pick up the phone to call an individual carrier, you don’t know whether or not the carrier has a truck in the lane when you need it. It’s a true cold call. You also may use load boards for capacity procurement. Of course, the problem with load boards is that they generally aren’t a real-time technology. When capacity has been taken by another broker, it’s not necessarily removed from the load board. The end result is that you may be wasting time pursuing capacity that is no longer available.
Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity uses real-time truck availability data drawn from the Trucker Tools app, which has been downloaded more than 1.6 million times, and transaction data between brokers and carriers to tell you where truck capacity is available now and where it’s likely to be available in the future. If you perform a capacity search with Smart Capacity see a truck marked available, you already know that it’s likely that carrier has a truck available in the lane you need it in. Instead of starting the conversation with, “Do you have this kind of truck in this lane on this day?” you can start the conversation with, “Let’s talk rates.” When you use Smart Capacity, you only pick up the phone and call carriers that are likely to have capacity, your phone conversations with dispatchers are shorter and more to the point, and you’re not wasting time calling carriers that have nothing available for you.
Customized Search Options That Help You Strengthen and Grow Your Carrier Network
In addition to helping you cover loads with greater efficiency, Smart Capacity can be a valuable tool for building your carrier network. When you search for trucks within Smart Capacity, you can search by lane, dates, pickup/drop off locations, weight, type of equipment needed (flatbed, reefer, dry van, etc.) and other factors. You also have the option to search for capacity from among your own customized list of carriers. This capability is huge. It means that if you’re trying to develop relationships with specific, top-performing owner operators and carriers, that you can look for their capacity first in your searches. Making specific carriers’ capacity a priority in your searches is a great way to cultivate on-going relationships and build out your network. Of course, you always have the option to look for capacity in the general market outside your customized carrier list, too.
Even though it only may take five or 10 minutes to onboard each new carrier, those five and 10-minute increments add up over time. With Smart Capacity, you also can target your capacity searches to only those carriers and drivers that have already been onboarded with your company. The advantage of re-using already onboarded carriers is that you can cover loads faster because you don’t have to onboard the carrier first. Increasing carrier utilization also reduces your per load costs because you’re spending less time covering each individual load. Limiting your capacity searches only to those carriers who’ve already been onboarded can help you strengthen and grow your carrier network, as well.
Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity.
