Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/625735
50 commercial carrier journal | january 2016 TECHNOLOGY: NEXT-GENERATION SPOT MARKET gy companies with brokerage authority have mobile apps that carriers use to accept loads and provide shipment status, among other functions. These apps also can be used by fleet managers to message drivers and capture proof-of-delivery documents for billing. Transfix, an on-demand freight logis- tics marketplace and trucking mobile applications company with brokerage authority, has such an app for over-the- road drivers. Transfix presents loads to carriers based on the real-time location of their equipment and load preferences. The mobile app works in conjunction with Transfix's load management system to automate the tracking and payment process. The app's trip planner generates top route options after drivers input their starting point and destination. Each route option displays corresponding real-time data from truckstops, rest areas, weigh stations and more. DAT Solutions and Truckstop.com, the two largest online load boards and freight matching services, also have mobile apps to speed up search functions. The free DAT Trucker Services app gives drivers a way to automate load searches within their vicinity and provide real-time location of capacity to brokers, says Greg Sikes, vice president of product management. Truckstop.com is focusing on expand- ing the connectivity options for its online freight matching community of brokers and carriers. "Load tracking and telematics have been a separate entity, but we want to take all of those features and bring them into one marketplace to have them work in a more synergistic manner," says Thayne Boren, general manager of uDrove, a business and compliance management tool offered by Truckstop.com. Instant booking Uber's mobile app gives passengers instant rates between any local origin and destination and connects them to drivers to make a pickup within minutes. How could booking a truckload shipment ever become this easy? In 2013, Abtin Hamidi co-founded Cargo Chief, a data company with bro- kerage authority. Its first year in business was spent developing a proprietary search engine, among other technologies. The engine's algorithm receives inputs from 30,000 sources every day to predict where capacity will be located – and at what cost. "When processing that much data, we think we can be within 3 percent of accu- racy for pricing," says Hamidi. "Brokers that have a technology advantage have a real value to shippers. By aggregating data, we can see things that shippers can't see." In 2014, Ricardo Salgado started a technology company with brokerage authority. The goal for the startup, LoadSmart, was to create a different – and more efficient – experience for shippers to book loads with carriers. Ideally, the experience would be as easy as buying an airline ticket or a ride across town. LoadSmart's algorithm uses real-time and historical data to determine pricing. All a user does is enter the origin and destination of a shipment, and a price is shown instantly for the nearest pickup and delivery dates. If interested, the user clicks a "Book" button, at which point the website asks for additional information about the load and the shipper. "We want to make this as easy as possi- ble," Salgado says. The company has enough confidence in its pricing and service capabilities that the instant "Book" option is available for about 50 percent of lanes in the United States, with a heavy concentration of loads east of the Mississippi River. If not enough information is available on whether LoadSmart can meet the load's service requirements, users still see an instant price – but instead of a "Book" option, they get a "Talk to Agent" button. Carrier retention The reputation of any technology compa- ny with brokerage authority hinges on the quality of the motor carriers it uses. Besides monitoring U.S. Department of Transportation safety ratings and in- surance credentials of carriers, brokerage companies use other online tools to deter- mine load offers. To help attract and retain good carriers, several companies now offer free online TMS systems for fleets to dispatch their equipment and drivers. Transfix currently is developing its own free TMS system for carriers. "As a dis- patcher, you can track trucks for free and assign them to one of our loads," says Jon- athan Salama, chief technology officer of Transfix. "Very soon, you can also manage loads that have not gone through us." The company is developing an algorithm that will determine if trucks in the system are loaded or empty. This information will help narrow the loads presented to carriers to make the tender- ing process more efficient, Salama says. Speed and trust are essential for spot market success, and many technology companies want to accelerate the deci- sion-making process by creating more transparency in freight transactions. This coming year, it will be interesting to see who gains the upper hand. Chino, Calif.-based Sunset Pacific Transportation uses Project44's application programming interface for pricing to automate communications with brokers and shippers. Trucker Path is adding automated load searches to its trip planning app.