Shippers put their freight and reputations in your hands anytime that you broker a load for them. If for some reason the load arrives late or something unforeseen happens, shippers need to know as soon as possible in order to do their best to keep their own customers happy. That’s ultimately why freight visibility matters so much to shippers: it helps them run their businesses better and often more efficiently.
If you’re looking for a way to maintain a competitive edge in the brokerage market, the best thing you can do is focus on keeping your current shipper customers as happy as possible. A great place to start is with providing them with the real-time visibility they need.
GPS-Powered for Real-Time Accuracy
Being reliable and accurate is vital to shippers, especially when it comes to freight visibility. When shippers have accurate, real-time visibility of their freight, they can increase operational efficiency, maximize their profits and communicate updated ETAs to their customers. Providing shippers with the precise, real-time visibility data they need helps you build positive, long-term relationships with shippers and attracts new customers.
With Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform, the Trucker Tools driver app uses the GPS on the trucker’s smart phone to identify with high accuracy the location of the freight. How accurate is GPS technology? The GPS in most smart phones can identify a location correctly within approximately 30 feet. That level of accuracy ensures that you have continuous real-time visibility of your shippers’ freight. You can view the location of trucks either in your TMS or in Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform. Truck locations are updated every five minutes, which means ETAs can be updated in real-time and shared with shippers immediately.
Transparency for Truckers
In a recent Trucker Tools carrier survey on freight visibility, approximately 55 percent of the truckers surveyed said they’re reluctant to use digital visibility tools because of privacy-related concerns. If you want to raise your visibility compliance to expand your shipper base, it’s important to directly address these carrier concerns by using a real-time visibility tool that provides as much transparency as possible to truckers.
Truckers often prefer to use Trucker Tools’ free driver app for freight visibility over other load tracking technologies because it provides the transparency that truckers are seeking. The trucker must accept the request to track a load in the Trucker Tools’ driver app in order for load tracking to begin. When load tracking is turned on, the trucker can view the name of the broker receiving the load tracking data, as well as the details on the load. Truckers can pause or cancel a load if needed, directly from the driver app.
Trucker Tools’ Driver App Does More Than Just Track a Load
Trucker Tools’ all-in-one, comprehensive driver app has been downloaded by nearly 900,000 truckers. One of the reasons that so many truckers use the Trucker Tools driver app is that it includes 17+ tools and features, in addition to the real-time visibility tool, that help carriers save time and money. The driver app is designed to give carriers a highly efficient, comprehensive tool and to give you, the broker, the real-time visibility you need.
Instead of using seven or eight mobile apps when they’re on the road, carriers can use just one. The Trucker Tools driver app provides carriers with real-time information on fuel prices, available parking, Wal-Mart locations, weigh scales, rest areas, truck stops, repair shops, nearby hospitals/doctors, available loads, optimal routes and more.
Brokers and 3PLs who use Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform tells us that the multi-functionality and usefulness of Trucker Tools’ free driver app incentivize freight tracking for carriers. It’s why some of our broker and 3PL customers have been able to increase visibility compliance dramatically, to as much as 95 percent, while raising their operational efficiency by as much as 20 percent and providing better service to their shippers.
