Making just one mistake on a single load, such as paying the wrong carrier, can be detrimental to your brokerage business. Automating and digitizing brokerage activities such as carrier payment processing and load tracking helps you minimize human error and person-to-person contact, which is especially important during the current pandemic. Automation also notably reduces the time (and cost) associated with each load you broker, which is great news for your profit margins.
Trucker Tools’ free driver app includes a powerful document upload feature that reduces human error, eliminates person-to-person contact and speeds up payments to carriers, which is particularly important right now for carriers. Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform reduces the number of check calls required for each load and increases operational efficiency for you and carriers.
Accurate, Real-Time Freight Visibility
Trucker Tools’ driver app, which is free for truckers, uses the GPS capabilities of the trucker’s smart phone to identify the real-time, precise location of the load. That location information is viewable by you, the broker, in Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity real-time visibility platform or right in your transportation management system. You receive freight location updates every five minutes, which means you always know where your shipper’s freight is. It also means you can address service delays as they occur and provide real-time updates to your shippers that are supported by accurate, GPS-based data.
Speed Up Payments to Carriers
When truckers use the Trucker Tools driver app’s real-time visibility tool on your loads, they are prompted to scan and upload BOL and POD documents once they reach the receiver’s location and the load is delivered. This doc upload feature only allows live capture images and is time-stamped to eliminate confusion and ensure the integrity of the documents. You can view these documents almost instantaneously either in Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity real-time visibility platform or in your TMS and initiate payment immediately.
The doc upload feature included in the driver app’s load tracking tool allows carriers to submit their paperwork and get paid as quickly as possible. Owner operators and small to medium sized carriers face cash flow challenges. Digitizing submission of BOL and POD documents helps carriers maintain adequate cash flow and reduces person-to-person contact. Drivers don’t have to stop by your office to drop off documents or find a scanner at the receiver’s location. They simply scan the docs using our doc upload tool and they’re done and can move onto the next load. The scan and send capabilities of Trucker Tools’ driver app reduces the time that you spend following up with carriers and chasing down POD and BOL paperwork.
Reduce Check Calls
One of the other major benefits of Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform is that it typically decreases the number of check calls you need to make to track a load. While most single function load tracking apps claim to reduce check calls, many have trouble delivering on that promise. What makes Trucker Tools’ driver app and its real-time visibility tool different from single function load tracking apps is that brokers often have an easier time getting carriers to use our driver app and visibility tool when compared with single function apps that just track freight.
There are two reasons for this: first, Trucker Tools’ freight tracking is transparent for truckers. The trucker must tap on accept to start tracking a load. Once the load tracking has started, the trucker can easily see the name and contact details for the broker receiving the location information. Drivers also are able to pause or cancel load tracking directly from the Trucker Tools driver app. The second reason that carriers often prefer our driver app is that it does more than track broker loads. The Trucker Tools free driver app includes 17+ other tools and features including a routing and fuel optimizer, a parking tool for reserved and overnight parking, a Wal-Mart locator, truck stop guide, information on nearby rest areas, weigh scale locations and more.
With carriers more likely to actively use Trucker Tools’ driver app and transparent load tracking tool, you can let our real-time visibility platform do the heavy lifting. If most or all of your carriers participate in load tracking, you don’t have to rely on check-calls for load tracking. LTI Delivers recently migrated to Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform and, as a result, has reduced check-calls by 40 percent. Another full-service logistics provider, Syfan Logistics, has reduced check-calls by 30 percent, while increasing accurate pick-up and delivery confirmation by 50 percent — thanks to Trucker Tools.
Are you working on diversifying your shipper base? Learn why shippers value real-time visibility by reading Real-Time Visibility Drives Shippers’ Resource Management, Business Decision-Making. For more information on Trucker Tools’ transparent, real-time visibility platform and doc upload capabilities, schedule a demo with the Trucker Tools sales team.
