If you’re a freight broker, you’re expected to provide top-notch service, including continuous load tracking, to your shippers to retain their business. At the same time, you also must foster good relationships with high-quality carriers in order to meet your shippers’ needs. In your role as an intermediary between carriers and shippers, you have to walk that fine line of giving both shippers and carriers what they need to be successful — if you want your brokerage to be profitable.
Instead of being a passive recipient of your shippers’ preferred visibility technology, you can adopt an active, strategic approach to visibility. As a broker, you do have the option to use your visibility solution of choice. Read on to learn how choosing freight visibility technology wisely can help your brokerage flourish in 2020.
The Negative Impact of App Overload
Today’s truckers are inundated with requests to download, learn and use different kinds of freight visibility technology, often in the form of mobile apps. In many cases, each broker load that they haul requires them to use different freight tracking app, i.e. they aren’t given the option to use one freight tracking with multiple brokers. This is in addition to the apps they are using to find real-time information on fuel prices, routes, available loads, traffic, weather, weigh scales and more.
In a recent Trucker Tools survey, we asked carriers about their load tracking preferences and about the barriers that keep them from using digital freight tracking technology. When we asked them for ideas on how best to resolve the industry’s current issues with freight tracking, truckers told us that they frequently feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of broker freight tracking apps they’re required to use. As one respondent put it, “If all the brokers would use the same app, drivers would only have to load one app and would get familiar with how it works.”
Give Your Carriers What They Want: More Than Just Load Tracking
To mitigate carrier app overload and increase visibility compliance, it’s imperative that you choose load tracking solutions that reduce the number of apps your carriers use in their daily operations. It’s also crucial to choose visibility technology that provides real value to carriers and that can be used for more than just one broker load. Solutions like Trucker Tools’ freight visibility platform and companion free driver app meet all three of those requirements.
One of the primary differentiators between the Trucker Tools driver app and the single function tracking apps you may currently be using is that our driver app offers carriers real value that goes far beyond load tracking. In addition to a robust freight tracking tool that can be integrated with your shipper’s visibility platform (more on that later) and your TMS, the Trucker Tools driver app includes 16 other tools and features. Carriers can use our app to access real-time information on optimal routes, fuel prices, traffic, weigh scales, weather, truck stops, DOT locations, repair shops, hospitals and more.
Carriers also can use the Trucker Tools driver app to find and book loads directly in the app. When your carriers use the Trucker Tools driver app, they gain the ability to use its freight tracking tool with multiple brokers, as well, which can further reduce the number of apps they use in their operations.
Provide a Seamless Experience for Your Shippers
The reality is that shippers care most about continuous visibility of their freight and being able to access accurate, real-time freight tracking data. In most cases, shippers don’t care which app you use tocollect freight tracking data, provided it’s reliable. Trucker Tools’ driver app uses the GPS of the trucker’s smart phone to provide pinpoint freight location data that you can view directly in your TMS and that can be automatically shared with your shippers.
Trucker Tools is fully integrated with the visibility platforms used by most shippers, including FourKites, Project44, MacroPoint and 10/4 Systems. With the integration capabilities of Trucker Tools visibility platform, you can automatically push tracking notifications directly to your shippers’ preferred platform. Integration between Trucker Tools and your shippers’ preferred platforms ensures that your shippers have the visibility they need to run their operations as efficiently as possible.
Looking for more insights on how to meet your customers’ visibility needs? Read “Satisfy Your Shippers Visibility Needs with the Trucker Tools App.” To find out how Trucker Tools can increase visibility and efficiency for your brokerage, schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools digital freight matching and visibility tool.
