The benefits of increased productivity can’t be ignored. For starters, increasing productivity in your freight broker business often can expand your profit margins. Upping productivity also can help you increase the volume of business that you do without increasing overhead, which is what every business owner wants to do. Boosting productivity may have the added benefit of increasing commissions for your commission-based employees, as well, which can deepen employee loyalty and improve employee retention.
If you’re interested in achieving all of the above, check out these three ways that you increase productivity in your freight brokerage with digital freight matching, load tracking and Book It Now®.
1. Identify Lane-Specific Capacity Faster with Trucker Tools’
Digital Freight Matching Software
What dooms many digital freight management tools to fail is that they don’t have enough carrier users to reach the scale needed to cover loads and fulfill all of your carrier sourcing needs. That’s not the case with Trucker Tools. What differentiates Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching platform from other digital freight management tools is Trucker Tools’ large carrier user base, which presently includes more than 165,000 carriers, most of which are trucking companies running 10 trucks or fewer. The Trucker Tools driver app, another component of Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching marketplace, has been downloaded by 1.2 million truckers, as well.
With Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching software, you can quickly search for trucks by lane, type of freight, date(s), carrier name(s) and other factors. The Trucker Tools digital freight matching platform provides you with insights into where capacity is located today and where it is likely to be available a few days from now, as well. You won’t have to post to load boards, email carriers, call dispatchers and then enter capacity data into an Excel spreadsheet when you’re using Trucker Tools’ digital freight matching software. You can quickly search for specific types of truck capacity and easily identify and offer reloads to carriers in a single communication.
2. Use Real-Time Digital Load Tracking To Minimize Check Calls
If you’ve been in freight brokerage for any amount of time, you’re no doubt familiar with check calls. You may be making seven or eight phone calls to the carrier dispatcher and/or driver just on one load. Know that there are more efficient ways to track your customers’ loads. You can increase productivity by using Trucker Tools’ free mobile app and real-time freight tracking platform to track loads digitally. With Trucker Tools’ load tracking software, you receive digital location updates from the trucker’s smart phone and the Trucker Tools mobile app every five to fifteen minutes.
Brokers and 3PLs who use Trucker Tools’ real-time freight tracking platform are able to reduce the number of check calls required to track loads. Iowa-based logistics company LTI Delivers has reduced check calls by 40 percent with Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform. Choptank Transport, another 3PL that is using Trucker Tools’ digital freight tracking software, has been able to increase its overall efficiency by 20 percent thanks to the digital, real-time visibility that the Trucker Tools platform provides.
3. Automate Load/Truck Bookings with Book It Now®
You can increase productivity in your brokerage even further with Trucker Tools’ Book It Now®. Negotiating rates and finalizing bookings with carriers can be a lengthy process. Trucker Tools’ Book It Now® automates this process for you and for carriers. When you post a load as a Book It Now® in Trucker Tools digital freight matching platform, you give select carriers the ability to submit rate quotes and/or book the load via the Trucker Tools mobile app or free carrier platform.
When a dispatcher or driver books one of your Book It Now® loads in Trucker Tools’ driver app or carrier software platform, the appointment is automatically scheduled in your transportation management system. At the same time, the trucker/dispatcher receives an automated email message confirming the booking. The confirmation email also includes suggestions for reloads and future loads. Book It Now® gives your preferred carriers 24 hour/day access to your loads, a convenience that most carriers greatly appreciate.
As Tom Curee, VP of Strategic Development for Kingsgate Logistics noted in a recent interview, “Book it Now® greatly simplifies and accelerates the process for how a trucker accepts a load — literally taking it down to one click of a button.”
Read Industry Experts Weigh In: What the Capacity Market Will Look Like for the Remainder of 2021 to find out what you can expect from capacity markets this year.
Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ real-time visibility platform, digital freight matching platform and Book It Now®.
