Here’s how brokers are using tech to build better relationships with their carriers.
One of the key issues digital freight matching holdouts have with solutions like Parade is that they assume that technology might have a negative impact on more traditional relationships between brokers and carriers.
In reality, one of the key benefits of digital freight matching solutions is that it allows brokers to build more meaningful relationships with their carriers.
How Does Parade Do That?
Parade tools can help brokers build deeper relationships with carriers in several ways.
It Enables Simple Carrier Reuse
When a broker uses a carrier for a single load, they don’t have much of a chance to build a relationship. They go through onboarding, booking, tendering, and the actual hauling of the load and that’s it. Even if the carrier did a great job and was able to offer a fair rate, that’s often the end of the relationship. It’s almost purely transactional.
When brokers go back to that carrier that did a great job on a single load and show them with another one (whether that contact occurs via email, phone call, or private load board), they begin to build a real relationship.
When that carrier can book loads easily with very little back and forth, the nature of communication between carrier and broker is more personal since both sides have more time to spend on the relationship.
Parade lets you send loads specifically to a private network of carriers with whom brokers have already begun building a relationship. The more business a broker and carrier do together, naturally, the more loyal they are to one another. That loyalty means that a broker may be willing to not take the lowest quote they receive on a load to work with one of their preferred carriers. It also may mean that their preferred carriers are willing to go out of their way a little to cover a load or provide a quote that works with the broker’s budget when the need arises.
It Simplifies Operations for Brokers and Carriers
Parade has several tools to help simplify operations for brokers and carriers. For instance, the Book Now tool lets carriers get a load booked in minutes rather than the hours or even days of back-and-forth emails or phone calls that are often required to get a load booked using more traditional methods.
Even when brokers opt to send a load to load boards via Parade, the booking process is simplified for carriers, allowing them to easily send an adjusted quote if the terms don’t quite work for them or go ahead and book the load as-is.
It Gets Loads in Front of Carriers Faster
Digital freight matching puts brokers’ loads in front of carriers faster, but more than that, it can show carriers loads where they prefer to look for them. This helps carriers find loads within the scope of their own operations, not requiring them to change their processes or go out of their way to find freight.
When you get your loads in front of carriers faster, the odds that they still have capacity are higher, you can get the load booked earlier, and it can keep you from paying spot market rates. Plus, that carrier doesn’t miss out on your business, giving them yet another reason to give you the first whack at their capacity the next time.
Carriers like to be booked out ahead of time. No one wants to guess where their next load is coming from, and Parade tools can help you give carriers peace of mind.
It’s About Building Relationships by Improving Carrier Experience
When it’s easy to do business with you, carriers are more likely to want to do just that. Carriers who have a good experience working with your brokerage may just be on the lookout for the next one of your loads that comes along.
By cutting out the busy work, getting your loads in front of the carriers you love to work with and that love to work with you, and helping carriers gain security because they know they have your business.
Would you like to learn more about how one of Parade’s customers is using our digital freight matching tools to build more meaningful relationships with their carriers? Check out this FreightWaves webinar where our Head of Product, Lindsay Watt, talks with FreightSaver CEO Ryan Renne about building better carrier relationships.