01/26/09

  09:34:35 am, Categories: efficiency , Tags: be prepared

Freight Broker Software – Being Prepared

Are you prepared for what your customer is going to ask for next? Having a good freight broker software system will ensure that you are.

Just this week I spoke with two different freight brokerage companies who stood to lose customers due to their inability to communicate electronically. Their customers are demanding to have either website visibility of their shipments and/or EDI capabilities for shipment tendering, acceptance, and status updates. Both brokerages had no or very limited freight broker software and were furiously looking for a solution to provide their customers what they needed.

In both cases these broker's long time customers were very happy with their over-all services. However with ever increasing demands for efficiency and demands from their own customers for shipment visibility and faster communication they are being forced to work only with transportation service providers that offer website and/or EDI shipment management options.

The bottom line, the brokerage or trucking companies that had made investments in quality freight broker software and trucking software are in a significant competitive advantage. Despite the brokerage companies that had worked hard for years to provide excellent service, their failure to invest in quality software has them in a precarious situation. Not only do they have to invest in freight brokerage and trucking software but they have to do it quickly in order to retain the business they have worked so hard to build.

Providing freight broker software is much more than just providing an efficient environment from which to manage your business. Today it is about expanding that power to your customers and vendors to ensure you are offering the best service, and maximizing your profitability. While EDI transactions are old school technology these standardized formats are still very much in use, and of course the Internet is providing more opportunities to share information in near real time. Your freight broker software of choice should have the ability to easily provide you solutions for these and other custom forms of communications.

As our economy continues to struggle there is a unique time of opportunity for companies to improve their technologies so that they are better positioned for the inevitable recovery. As I mentioned in an earlier blog regarding improving business practices, improving your ability to communicate with your customers and vendors electronically, providing near instant visibility of their information is another step toward improving your future profitability and success.

For more information on how your freight brokerage can offer electronic communications to your current and future customers, please contact TruckMaster today.

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

11/28/08

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™

11/18/08

It is our intent to offer timely and insightful articles dealing with freight broker software.

What should you watch for when looking to purchase freight broker software? What should you watch out for? How much should you expect to pay for a good freight broker software system?

These are all questions that you will see addressed by this blog.

My company, TruckMaster Logistics Systems, has been developing freight broker software solutions for over 18 years. We know the industry, and we have seen many of the good and bad products that are on the market. We understand how devastating an uninformed freight broker software purchase can be for you, whether your company is large or small.

Should you at any point have a freight broker software question you would like to have us research and write about, please let us know. We will research the topic and provide you with the best information possible.

Thank you for visiting. We hope you will take the time to subscribe, contribute, and help us make this an informative and helpful resource for transportation industry professionals.

Greg Dodson

Founder - TruckMaster Logistics Systems, Inc.

::

March 2024
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            
Thinking of making a freight broker software purchase? Already have a freight broker software system, but looking to find out if your software has the tools to make your freight brokerage run as efficiently as possible? Subscribe to this blog to get the goods on freight broker software issues.

Search

  XML Feeds

b2