As Kevin Hill of FreightWaves writes, “Technology is now the primary differentiator for freight brokerages. Luckily, for freight brokerage businesses of all sizes and budgets, technology continues to become more powerful and less expensive each year.” Using technology in your freight broker or 3PL operations isn’t just about keeping up with your competitors, however. Real-time, scalable technology offers you opportunities for growth and increased profitability that the old ways of doing business just can’t match. Implementing a comprehensive digital platform in your business can improve the service that you provide shippers. It also can help you expand your customer base and increase revenue without increasing your headcount. Technology can make it easier for carriers to do business with you, as well, which is a key component of growth.
Read on to learn more about how to grow rapidly with technology.
Real-Time Load Tracking Technology Improves the Customer Experience
If you can’t meet your shippers’ needs, it can be difficult to retain them, let alone expand your customer base. One of the best ways to improve customer retention and to attract new shippers is to use a real-time freight tracking software that can deliver on its promise of continuous, real-time digital load visibility. Many shippers — especially larger shippers — have specific visibility consistency and compliance KPIs that you must meet in order to keep their business. If you can’t meet their load tracking requirements, shippers will look elsewhere.
In a recent webinar with Trucker Tools entitled “How Ryan Transportation Accelerated Access to Visibility Information,” Jeff Henderson, Senior VP of Operations for Ryan Transportation, echoed how crucial real-time digital visibility has become as a service offering — and the role it can play in growth.
“Real-time visibility is not a nice to have service anymore,” said Henderson. “It’s a requirement. First and foremost, Trucker Tools’ freight tracking has truly increased our efficiency, which not only helps with reducing those tracking and tracing calls, but it actually has turned into more loads per day for our reps. Those 20 to 30 calls can be used to cover current loads or future loads, so it also has been a big win with our customer base. We know now what is going on with the truck. This always had been a big hurdle with the larger shippers, so this has continually allowed us to move upstream with that customer base. Trucker Tools’ load tracking has been a really big game changer for us.”
Scalability That Can’t Be Matched by Load Boards
If you’re using load boards, mass emails to carriers or phone calls to source capacity, it can be extremely difficult to grow or increase your revenue without increasing your overhead. Why? You have to hire additional employees any time that you want to increase the volume of freight that you move. Digital freight matching technology, whose popularity has soared over the last year and a half, reduces the time required to cover a load. Unlike load boards, phone calls and other manual methods for finding trucks, digital freight matching puts all of your capacity options on one real-time digital platform that helps you quickly identify the best truck for your load and move onto the next one. With digital freight matching, you can offer carriers backhauls and additional loads in a single conversation thanks to the platform’s easy-to-use search functions.
Digital freight matching is a scalable technology that allows you to increase your volume, develop new lanes, withstand market volatility and respond to changing shipper needs without hiring additional employees. Using Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform lets you tap into the more than 165,000 carriers and 1.3 million truckers who are on Trucker Tools’ platform. According to Trinity Logistics’ President Sarah Ruffcorn, Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform helps Trinity connect with carriers quickly in way that is most convenient for them.
“We wanted to offer carriers the ability to use the tools they prefer when working with Trinity,” said Ruffcorn in a recent interview. “Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching gives us greater access to capacity. We focus on making Trinity easy to do business with and the Trucker Tools platform helps us achieve that.”
“We wanted to offer carriers the ability to use the tools they prefer when working with Trinity,” said Ruffcorn in a recent interview. “Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching gives us greater access to capacity. We focus on making Trinity easy to do business with and the Trucker Tools platform helps us achieve that.”
Use Tech To Increase Load Booking Efficiency, Encourage Carriers To Run Your Loads
Trucker Tools’ Book-It-Now® is an innovative automation technology that greatly reduces the time required to finalize rates and bookings with carriers and owner operators. As a broker or 3PL using Trucker Tools’ digital fright matching platform, you can post your loads to the platform as Book-It-Now® loads. Doing so gives carriers and owner operators the ability to digitally book your loads via Trucker Tools’ free carrier software platform or the Trucker Tools app. When a carrier dispatcher or owner operator books one of your Book-It-Now® loads, the appointment is automatically scheduled in your TMS and a confirmation email is automatically sent to the dispatcher/driver. No additional manual communications are needed. Carriers and owner operators also can send you alternate rate quotes on Book-It-Now® loads directly through the carrier platform/app.
Book-It-Now® reduces the time and resources needed to complete a booking — for both you and your carrier partners. Automating this core activity in your business with Book-It-Now® means you can easily increase your freight volume without increasing your headcount. Freight broker Surge Transportation recently completed an integration between the McLeod PowerBroker TMS it uses in its operations and Trucker Tools’ Book-It-Now®. The company previously had implemented Trucker Tools’ real-time load tracking and digital freight matching platform.
“With Trucker Tools’ Book-It-Now®, we won’t have to hire more people to grow,” Omar Singh, CEO and Founder of Surge Transportation, said. “We will be able to double freight volume with the team that we have in place now. As we grow in 2021 and beyond, if we can keep the same number of employees, that will have a huge impact on the company and our profitability.”
“With Trucker Tools’ Book-It-Now®, we won’t have to hire more people to grow,” Omar Singh, CEO and Founder of Surge Transportation, said. “We will be able to double freight volume with the team that we have in place now. As we grow in 2021 and beyond, if we can keep the same number of employees, that will have a huge impact on the company and our profitability.”
