In a recent webinar with Trucker Tools, Loadsmith CEO Brett Suma spoke to Trucker Tools’ Founder and Chief Customer Office Prasad Gollapalli about how digital freight matching is helping his company engage with carriers and become a preferred broker among fleets. The webinar, titled “Reducing One-Load Wonders: How Digital Freight Matching Helps Brokers Become ‘Stickier’ With Carriers,” centered on the multitude of wins Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching has provided to both Loadsmith’s staff members and the carriers with whom they interact. From reducing one-time transactions with owner operators and carriers to putting the right loads in front of carriers and drivers, Loadsmith’s use of digital freight matching is helping the company strengthen its reputation as a desirable broker of choice.
1. Value-Add for Carriers and Drivers
“When we were first digging into where we wanted to position ourselves and how we wanted to be in the marketplace, we were always going to build our company around technology and around emerging technologies,” said Suma. “We can say pretty convincingly that even though the driver population tends to be a little bit older, there’s not an aversion to technology and there’s not app fatigue. It’s about ease of use and the value-add for the driver and carrier. When we think about communication, tracking and the ability to know where our carriers are headed, our carriers love knowing that we have freight there. It’s a lot easier to do that from a technology perspective than to read them a list of loads. You can just do a lot more on the fly when you deploy technology. We have always looked at Loadsmith as a consumer of technology and we want to deploy technologies that enhance the driver’s life and enhance our connectivity with them.”
“When we were first digging into where we wanted to position ourselves and how we wanted to be in the marketplace, we were always going to build our company around technology and around emerging technologies,” said Suma. “We can say pretty convincingly that even though the driver population tends to be a little bit older, there’s not an aversion to technology and there’s not app fatigue. It’s about ease of use and the value-add for the driver and carrier. When we think about communication, tracking and the ability to know where our carriers are headed, our carriers love knowing that we have freight there. It’s a lot easier to do that from a technology perspective than to read them a list of loads. You can just do a lot more on the fly when you deploy technology. We have always looked at Loadsmith as a consumer of technology and we want to deploy technologies that enhance the driver’s life and enhance our connectivity with them.”
2. Builds Relationships Beyond a Single Load
“When you think about digital freight matching and why it’s important to let it do the heavy lifting, when onboarding a carrier you can ask the deeper questions, understand their business more and how that fits in with your network,” Suma said. “It allows us to focus on our network and for us it’s all about the network because 80 percent of our freight is contractual. Let’s invest in the conversations with carriers. It’s not always about the Xs and Os, but it’s often about the Billys and Joes — or it could be Rebecca. With that information, you build a model around carriers’ preferences and you can offer them a load 48 hours in advance or 96 hours in advance as opposed to trying to onboard the carrier and get the load picked up within the next 90 minutes. When you talk about digital freight matching, we want that carrier to say, ‘I’ve hauled 15 loads for Loadsmith and I want to haul 150 more.’ So now they’re just getting notifications of Loadsmith loads. With digital freight matching, it’s about where they’re at currently, where they’re going and what they have done in the past. You know all of those things.”
3. Score Higher on Carrier Scorecards
“When you think about it, the relationship side of things is about digging in with the carrier,” Suma shared. “Unfortunately some brokerages have created maybe adverse relationships with carriers, but you have to treat the carrier as the customer and you have to engage with them as a customer. It’s even deeper than a vendor relationship. It really is like a customer relationship and I don’t know how you can expect to have a super high level of customer service with your end customer as a broker if you’re not treating the carrier with that same level of customer service because it will follow to your customer. I love getting our carrier scorecards from our customers. I love getting them because they’re always so good, but the only reason they’re good is because you’re doing all the other things right on the carrier side of things. It’s not just necessarily about digital freight matching, but digital freight matching is a part of it. It’s about building trust, how well you pay, how timely you pay, how easy is your detention process and how timely are you with all of the other things. You get that carrier scorecard from your customer and you have a 100 percent primary tender acceptance, tracking in the 90s and the upper 90s for on time delivery.”
“When you think about it, the relationship side of things is about digging in with the carrier,” Suma shared. “Unfortunately some brokerages have created maybe adverse relationships with carriers, but you have to treat the carrier as the customer and you have to engage with them as a customer. It’s even deeper than a vendor relationship. It really is like a customer relationship and I don’t know how you can expect to have a super high level of customer service with your end customer as a broker if you’re not treating the carrier with that same level of customer service because it will follow to your customer. I love getting our carrier scorecards from our customers. I love getting them because they’re always so good, but the only reason they’re good is because you’re doing all the other things right on the carrier side of things. It’s not just necessarily about digital freight matching, but digital freight matching is a part of it. It’s about building trust, how well you pay, how timely you pay, how easy is your detention process and how timely are you with all of the other things. You get that carrier scorecard from your customer and you have a 100 percent primary tender acceptance, tracking in the 90s and the upper 90s for on time delivery.”
4. Trucker Tools: The Glue Binding Carriers and Brokers
Together
“If you were to look at my notebook from three years ago when I first started working on Loadsmith, there is a note in there that talks about being an aspirational brand for carriers,” Suma said. “Underneath that note there’s a bunch of different notes about things that we have to do to be an aspirational brand and what I mean by aspirational brand is to be the broker of choice. Well that’s great, but how do we get our loads to the drivers and carriers and let them see that in a very easy way? At some point it becomes a distribution problem more than anything. That’s why digital freight matching, tracking and Trucker Tools’ holistic application is so beneficial to our relationship with our carrier. You have a an individual or a group of individuals and then you have us and we have all these loads, but then how do we dial into it? Trucker Tools is like the glue that kind of like binds us together. It doesn’t matter how much freight you have if you can’t distribute it.”
For more of the conversation, watch the webinar on demand. Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity including digital freight matching, real-time load tracking and Book It Now®.
