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Getting The Most Out Of Your Freight Broker Software

11/28/08

Getting The Most Out Of Your Freight Broker Software

Good freight brokers in today's market are consistently finding new ways to add value to their services or improve the value of their current service to both their customers and their carriers. One of the easiest ways freight brokers can do this is through their freight broker software.

Freight broker software, like any true business solution, should empower its users by providing useful, current information. It should include easy to use tools to execute and communicate decisions. Whether you're bidding freight with a customer, assigning freight to a carrier, or looking for LTL opportunities, your freight broker software should provide you with the visibility and tools to quickly evaluate, decide, act and communicate. If a freight broker finds that he is entering load and carrier assignment information at the end of the day, or when it "quiets down", there is a good chance that either he is not using his freight broker software to its full potential, or the freight broker software is not what it should be.

Your freight broker software should be more than a word processor and database. Your freight broker software should do more than generate carrier confirmations and invoices. It must provide you with the information you need to make good on-the-spot decisions, with the screens and tools to quickly and efficiently communicate with your customers and carriers in real-time.

Good freight broker software can create value for your company by sharing the power. In all organizations there are star performers, those people that are always just a little more aggressive, always going after one more customer, booking one more load for the day, going the extra mile for a carrier. Freight broker software can not only empower these people, but can provide ways to support their efforts and duplicate their processes. If you have a star performer, odds are you want more. Good freight broker software allows these stars to easily train others on their success-proven methods and measure their performance.

Expand the visibility of your operation. Your freight broker software should allow you to provide visibility of shipments and shipment status' to your customers and carriers through websites, and custom electronic communication such as EDI or even email. While load and truck posting sites have proven valuable, they should be a last resort. Most brokers know that it is much better to have good relationships with a number of good carriers, so that your customer's shipments are covered when you accept them. Brokers who accept freight then gamble on their ability to post and find new carriers to cover their customer’s shipments often have multiple service failures, which leads to a spiraling path of less freight at lower rates. Brokers who provide their carriers visibility of their shipments on their own websites, and who can provide their customers the security of real time visibility of their shipments status', build trust, commitment, and long term business relationships.

Evaluate your freight broker software, decide if it is simply formatting and storing data, and take action to either improve your use of it, or get with TruckMaster today and we will show you a true solution.

Kurtis Brown
VP Sales
TruckMaster Logistics Systems, Inc.
TruckMaster Your Freight Brokerage™

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