In this new Customer Success Story blog series, you’ll be hearing how Trucker Tools’ technology is helping freight broker and logistics companies become more efficient and strengthen their relationships with customers and carriers alike. In this first blog in the series, we’re highlighting third party logistics provider, Loadsmith. This Colorado-based 3PL began using Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity real-time visibility platform in late 2021 and just recently implemented Smart Capacity’s digital freight matching and Book-It-Now® components.
In the last six months with Trucker Tools’ load tracking technology, Loadsmith has:
- Boosted start-to-finish load visibility by 30 percent
- Reduced phone calls to carriers and drivers
- Increased operational efficiency
- Been better able to meet shipper visibility KPIs
- Provided visibility data directly to shippers that use Trimble or FourKites
- Gained a deeper understanding of detention and driver data
- Become a better partner to shippers and carriers
I. Why Loadsmith Chose Trucker Tools
We recently spoke with Loadsmith Business Analyst Catharine Keown who deploys and manages the company’s technology systems. In her business analyst role, Keown is focused on making Loadsmith’s processes as efficient and effective as possible. She uses metrics and reporting to analyze Loadsmith’s internal processes with the goal of making them more efficient, while strengthening relationships with carriers and shippers.
Here’s what Keown had to say about why Loadsmith chose Trucker Tools as its real-time visibility technology partner.
Strengthens Relationships with Carriers and Customers
“Trucker Tools’ load tracking makes it very easy to work towards our goal of being the best possible partner for our carriers and for our customers,” Keown said. “Trucker Tools makes it really easy to provide visibility to our customers with literally just a few button clicks.”
“Trucker Tools’ load tracking makes it very easy to work towards our goal of being the best possible partner for our carriers and for our customers,” Keown said. “Trucker Tools makes it really easy to provide visibility to our customers with literally just a few button clicks.”
Company Culture Alignment
“In terms of company culture, Trucker Tools also is very aligned with Loadsmith,” Keown shared. “What I mean by that is Trucker Tools also seems to be very much a people first organization. Trucker Tools’ support team has been super supportive and helpful with our team.”
Unmatched Technical Support
“It’s pretty rare that a question or an issue comes up, but whenever it does we’ve always had great experiences with the Trucker Tools support team,” Keown shared. “I work very closely with our customer success manager, Kaitlin Coburn, who’s fantastic. Also, the amount of documentation and resources that Trucker Tools can provide is really unmatched by a lot of competitors.”
“It’s pretty rare that a question or an issue comes up, but whenever it does we’ve always had great experiences with the Trucker Tools support team,” Keown shared. “I work very closely with our customer success manager, Kaitlin Coburn, who’s fantastic. Also, the amount of documentation and resources that Trucker Tools can provide is really unmatched by a lot of competitors.”
II. Easy Implementation
“I was involved with the implementation of Trucker Tool’s real-time visibility platform and to be honest, it was pretty easy,” Keown shared. “Trucker Tools has a lot of great resources and offered some really great training for our team, too. The training was really helpful for our carrier reps because they didn’t need to go into the system and try to figure it out for themselves. I have only positive things to say about the implementation process.”
“I was involved with the implementation of Trucker Tool’s real-time visibility platform and to be honest, it was pretty easy,” Keown shared. “Trucker Tools has a lot of great resources and offered some really great training for our team, too. The training was really helpful for our carrier reps because they didn’t need to go into the system and try to figure it out for themselves. I have only positive things to say about the implementation process.”
III. Results with Trucker Tools’ Load Tracking
Simplified Carrier Rep
Workflow
Simplified Carrier Rep Workflow
“Trucker Tools’ real-time load tracking is super helpful for our carrier reps,” said Keown. “It makes it easy for them to provide visibility to our customers and it is a pretty easy sell to drivers, which is great. Trucker Tools has a really good reputation in the industry and especially with drivers. On top of that, just the ease of use and the level of visibility that Trucker Tools provides our carrier reps is huge. If they’re able to see that a driver is on the way to go pick up a load, they’re not having to make a ton of phone calls to the dispatcher, the driver and whoever else trying to figure out where the driver is. It’s super easy. They can just see where the load is in our TMS.”
Insights into Driver
Detention and More
“Trucker Tools provides very clear data on how long a driver spent at a pickup or delivery location,” Keown said. “On the back end when it comes time to talk about accessorials, it’s usually a pretty cumbersome process to get data on things like detention time. Trucker Tools provides very clear data on detention times and driver pick-ups and drop-offs and that’s huge for us.”
“Trucker Tools provides very clear data on how long a driver spent at a pickup or delivery location,” Keown said. “On the back end when it comes time to talk about accessorials, it’s usually a pretty cumbersome process to get data on things like detention time. Trucker Tools provides very clear data on detention times and driver pick-ups and drop-offs and that’s huge for us.”
More Time for
Relationship-Building
“Taking that a step further, when our carrier reps aren’t having to spend so much time on the phone, chasing down updates and finding out where things are, they can spend their time working on more valuable conversations,” Keown reported. “They can spend more time with our carriers and focus on really building those relationships and those partnerships.”
30 Percent Increase in Loads
Tracked, Tracking Success
“The most telling metric that I pulled was our tracking success percentage and we define tracking success by the number of loads that were tracked completely from pick-up to delivery with no interruptions,” shared Keown. “That percentage has increased by about 30 percent since we onboarded Trucker Tools and that was just six months ago. We’re still trying to get better and better, but we’ve already been pretty successful with it. You can apply that 30 percent increase to the number of loads tracked, as well.”
“The most telling metric that I pulled was our tracking success percentage and we define tracking success by the number of loads that were tracked completely from pick-up to delivery with no interruptions,” shared Keown. “That percentage has increased by about 30 percent since we onboarded Trucker Tools and that was just six months ago. We’re still trying to get better and better, but we’ve already been pretty successful with it. You can apply that 30 percent increase to the number of loads tracked, as well.”
Boosted Shipper Service
Levels
“Being able to provide visibility to our customers is very important, but it also makes conversations a lot easier when we can go to customers — especially those who use FourKites or Trimble — and tell them we can have that real-time visibility data flow from Trucker Tools directly into their software,” Keown said. “We’re able to give our customers this high level of visibility and that is huge. Some of our customers require 80 percent or even 95 percent tracking success and our ability to meet those metrics has definitely increased since we started using Trucker Tools.”
Valuable Reporting
Capabilities
“As a business analyst, Trucker Tools definitely helps me with my daily tasks, too,” said Keown. “The platform offers a great deal of reporting and data and a cool dashboard through which it’s easy to see where we’ve been successful and where we need to improve. The biggest benefit is that we’re able to see overall how successful we are at tracking as a company and at the individual carrier rep level. We have some internal metrics around tracking that we require our carrier reps to hit, so it helps us see how people are improving with their tracking success.”
To learn more about Loadsmith, visit https://www.loadsmith.com.
Read “Four Ways Trucker Tools’ Digital Freight Matching Is Helping Loadsmith Become a Broker of Choice with Carriers.” Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity real-time load tracking.
