ROI gained by using Parade’s Book Now feature goes deeper than you might imagine.
Here’s How Parade’s Digital Booking Tool, Book Now, Increases ROI
1. Book Now Saves Time and Therefore Money
This is the most obvious way Book Now gives brokerages a better ROI, right? The value of digital booking through Book Now is clear. Digital booking is one of the reasons many brokerages turn to Parade in the first place. They want to save time and money.
Brokerage reps spend less time to set up a Book Now than they would to get a typical load booked, even with all the automation and tools that Parade offer to simplify booking.
Book Now loads also allow freight brokers to get business done outside of business hours without adding a night shift. Since the carrier pool is so segmented and slanted towards owner-operators who are finding their loads while on the road, this feature not only serves the brokerages, but also the carrier networks of Parade brokerages.
The vast majority of Parade brokerages are able to get at least 10% of their loads booked digitally and many brokers that use this tool exceed 30 or even 60%. Since these loads take very little time and effort to book for reps, they
2. That Time Saved Can Be Re-Invested
When it takes up less of your rep’s time to get a load booked, that rep suddenly has more time on their hands during their workday. What could they possibly do with that time? They may use it to reach out to carriers and build better relationships with them (an investment in future load booking), or they might move on to the next load so they can improve their booking stats (and maybe commissions).
You can think of Book Now loads like an investment into your brokerage’s time bank, and you can compare that time to money because, well, time is money. What do investment advisors suggest you do when you earn money from an investment? Re-invest it!
3. Book Now Inspires Carrier Interaction, Even When the Carrier Doesn’t Want to Book Now
Say you’ve got a Book Now load posted and a carrier, whether they’re already in your network or outside of it, sees it. They can’t quite work with the terms listed in the Book Now, so they reach out to see if there’s room for negotiation.
While on the call with that carrier, the rep collects information like the carrier’s capacity in given lanes, the types of loads they like to take, the rates they would generally charge for that specific load, or even just that they have a backhaul in Atlanta every Tuesday morning.
This type of data is exactly what Parade needs to get even better.
These interactions can also help put reps in the perfect position to utilize that carrier’s capacity, maybe even with better margins. Reps learn what the carrier needs, enter that information into the system, and then the system provides even better freight matches for that carrier. Next time the rep interacts with that carrier, they’ve got just the ticket.
That ability to offer up the perfect match can also result in better margins. Take that backhaul in Atlanta we just talked about. If you can use that carrier’s capacity and get them to their backhaul at just the right time, they can afford to give you a little better rate on the load.
Parade Reports Provide Visibility into the System’s ROI
Beyond offering proof of the system’s value, this data visibility can be used to improve performance and get more Book Now loads done in the future. The Overall Performance Dashboard pulls data from every load in the TMS and maps it back to the most important event seen by Parade, whether that’s a Book Now, a carrier who reached out with a quote after seeing a digital booking, or a Book Now that didn’t work for technical reasons.
Brokerages can learn a lot from that data. They can learn when pricing is working for a Book Now, when that load pricing is maybe missing the mark a little because the carrier needed to negotiate, or when carriers may need some guidance on how to use digital booking.
Want to learn more about Parade’s Book Now feature? Reach out to our team to set up a demo and learn how much ROI your brokerage could be getting with Parade.