Freight visibility technology is the X-factor when it comes to beating out the competition, whether you’re a freight broker, logistics provider or shipper. The real-time, automated load tracking provided by freight visibility technology like Trucker Tools digital load tracking platform reduces check calls, facilitates data sharing, automates communications, increases operational efficiency and raises service levels across the entire supply chain.
In this blog, you’ll learn why shippers value load visibility so highly, what digital load tracking can do for your business, and how freight visibility technology is THE competitive advantage that you and your shippers are looking for. We also offer tips on how to choose well-designed, integration-friendly load visibility solutions that benefit you and your shipper partners.
The Competitive Advantage Freight Visibility Technology Offers Shippers
Shippers require real-time freight visibility for a multitude of reasons. Freight visibility allows shippers to monitor, analyze and increase their operational efficiency, which can ultimately raise their profit margins. Load visibility and real-time, accurate ETAs also help shippers increase the level of service they can offer their customers and allow them to manage their resources effectively.
But as American Shipper summarized in its survey of 200+ shippers, “visibility is not seen by shippers purely as a mean to reduce freight costs…visibility is most often seen as a way to build a company’s supply chain agility.” The supply chain agility, i.e. the ability to read and react to changes in markets and supply chains, that is provided by real-time visibility is what keeps a shipper profitable and capable of outperforming its competitors.
Choose Freight Visibility Technology That Benefits You and Your Shippers
Of course, shippers can react quickly to changes in the supply chain and specific markets only if you as the broker or 3PL implement and manage freight visibility technology effectively. As the author of the American Shipper study notes, “shippers now expect 3PLs to give them visibility, and the scope of what they expect grows daily.” The pressure is on you as the broker/3PL to implement freight visibility technology that satisfies your shippers’ needs.
When you’re choosing a freight visibility technology to use in your brokerage or 3PL business, you should ensure that the solution integrates seamlessly with your shippers’ preferred visibility platform(s). Solutions like Trucker Tools’ digital freight visibility platform integrate with shipper visibility platforms MacroPoint, Project44, 10/4 and FourKites. This integration facilitates automated data sharing, which decreases manual communications between you and your shippers. Trucker Tools’ digital freight tracking platform provides automated, real-time location updates every five minutes, so that you and your shipper customers always know the location of freight without ever picking up the phone.
It’s also important to choose freight visibility technology that integrates with your transportation management system, as well. Trucker Tools’ digital load tracking platform can be integrated with all of the major transportation management systems available in the market today. The integration between Trucker Tools’ load tracking and your TMS means you can view the real-time, live locations of trucks directly in your TMS, which further streamlines your process for tracking freight.
The Competitive Advantage Freight Visibility Technology Gives Your Brokerage
Your ability to win and keep a shipper’s business may very well hinge on whether you can deliver real-time, continuous digital load visibility. As Steven Oatley of Freight Broker Live says in Load tracking technologies are changing the game, load tracking technologies are no longer just a “nice to have” service offering — they’re virtually mandatory. If you want to gain and keep an edge in the increasingly competitive freight brokerage and third party logistics markets, you have to be able to deliver real-time load tracking to your shippers.
In addition to giving you an edge over your competitors when it comes to shipper service, freight visibility technology offers your brokerage/3PL other competitive advantages, as well. Well-designed freight visibility technology is capable of reducing the number of check calls you make to truckers and carrier dispatchers, which ultimately improves operational efficiency and can increase load volume and profits for your business.
Automating load tracking decreases the human resources you must allocate to load tracking, which gives your staff members more time to devote to customer service, business development and creating new carrier partnerships. Load tracking data also can be used to better understand your brokerage/3PL operations and identify areas for improved efficiency, which can boost profit margins.
Find out more about how Trucker Tools’ freight visibility technology could provide a competitive advantage for both you and your shippers by scheduling a Trucker Tools demo today.
