Some types of technology truly are transformative, capable of fundamentally changing for the better how business is done. Trucker Tools’ Book It Now®, an automated load booking tool that allows owner operators and carriers to book loads digitally, is one of those transformative technologies. Since the pandemic hit the United States in March of 2020, interest in and use of Book It Now® has increased tremendously — and it’s easy to see why. Book It Now® automates the rate confirmation and load/truck booking process for freight brokers and logistics providers, and for owner operators and carriers. In this blog, we answer some of the most common questions that we receive from freight brokers and logistics providers about Book It Now®.
Check out these top five questions about Book It Now® answered.
1. What Is Book It Now®?
Launched in May of 2018, Trucker Tools’ Book It Now® is a technology that is used by brokers and 3PLs in tandem with Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity digital freight matching platform. Book It Now® enables one-click load bookings and load confirmations via the Trucker Tools mobile app and Trucker Tools’ free carrier software. Simply put, when you post a load as a Book It Now® load to Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity, you give owner operators the ability to instantly book the load via the Trucker Tools’ app and carrier dispatchers the ability to book the load via Trucker Tools’ carrier software platform.
2. How Does Book It Now® Work?
Book It Now® integrates with your transportation management system, pulling load details and your preferred rate directly from your TMS. When an owner operator books one of your Book It Now® loads in the Trucker Tools driver app, the appointment is automatically scheduled in your TMS and the owner op receives an automated email confirming the booking. If a carrier dispatcher books one of your Book It Now® loads in Trucker Tools’ free carrier software platform, the appointment also is automatically scheduled in your TMS and the dispatcher (and driver) receive automated email confirmations, as well.
3. What Benefits Does Book It Now® Provide to Brokers/3PLs?
Book It Now® reduces the time and resources needed to locate and secure capacity. Instead of devoting hours of time to load boards and calling/emailing carriers each week to find and secure capacity, simply post your loads as Book It Now® loads and let Book It Now® do the rest. Reducing the time and human resources you use around locating and securing capacity ultimately helps you reduce your cost per load and increase operational efficiency, enabling you to move more freight volume. Book It Now® offers you scalability and growth opportunities that cannot be matched by manual capacity procurement processes, such as load boards.
4. How Does Book It Now® Help Carriers?
Trucker Tools’ Book It Now® and Smart Capacity both are real-time technologies. This is an important distinction to make because most manual methods for securing capacity aren’t real-time. Owner operators and carriers get frustrated with load boards because the loads listed often have already been taken by someone else by the time they see them or the loads are “ghost loads” that aren’t real at all. With Book It Now®, owner operators and carriers can clearly see what the rate is on the load and know that when a load is booked by another carrier or owner op, it’s automatically removed from Trucker Tools’ app and carrier platform. Using Book It Now® also reduces the number of phone calls and email messages that carriers have to answer and provides them with 24 hour/day seven day/week access to your loads.
5. What Kinds of Results Do Brokers/3PLs Get with Book It Now®?
Freight brokers and 3PLs that implement Trucker Tools’ Book It Now® are able to provide a convenient, digital booking option to carriers, while improving their own internal productivity. The operational efficiency gained with Book It Now® creates an opportunity for you to increase your load count without increasing your headcount.
“With Trucker Tools’ load tracking and Book It Now®, we won’t have to hire more people to grow,” Surge Transportation’s CEO and Founder Omar Singh said in a recent interview. “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.”
According to Trinity Logistics’ President Sarah Ruffcorn, Trucker Tools’ Book It Now® enhances productivity for carriers and also can help you become a broker of choice among carriers.
“Carriers are searching for loads and Book It Now® helps us meet them where they are,” said Ruffcorn. “We focus on making Trinity easy to do business with and the Trucker Tools platform helps us achieve that.” If your goal is to scale up your freight broker or logistics business in the new year, be sure to read 10 Ways To Grow Your Freight Broker Business in 2022 — and Beyond. Schedule a free demo of Trucker Tools’ Smart Capacity digital freight matching platform, Book It Now® and real-time visibility platform.
