The trucking industry is quite accustomed to legacy processes of running operations, be it manual calls or working with shippers via e-mails. However, the expectations of consumers have continued to evolve, pushing the industry to chase efficiency — which is now about seizing every opportunity to optimize operations and stay competitive.
With the advent of digital platforms and logtech solutions like freight broker software, the industry is on the path to change. The real challenge lies in understanding how adopting logtech can bring agility and resilience to today’s supply chains. In this article, we’ll explore how technology is revolutionizing operations for freight brokers and helping them build better, more effective businesses.
While freight brokers have access to an ever-growing number of solutions to enhance visibility over operations, recent years have offered an unprecedented slew of challenges to the maintenance of reliable operations. In a supply chain plagued by persistent challenges, freight brokers are under significant pressure to adapt quickly as traditional methods struggle to meet the growing demands of today’s market. This shift has led many to embrace tech-driven freight software to stay competitive and efficient.
Key drivers of this shift include:
Freight brokers are burdened with managing unpredictable challenges, including port congestion, fear of labor strikes, fluctuating fuel prices, and driver shortages while ensuring customer satisfaction.
As technology evolves, freight brokers are seeing an increase in customer expectations around visibility, accountability, and communication. Delivery used to be simple -- get the correct goods to the customers at the correct time. However, as expectations have shifted, customers have become accustomed to faster delivery times, as well as full transparency throughout the process. It falls on the freight brokers to ensure carriers deliver as promised, highlighting the need for logtech solutions like freight broker software to ensure complete accountability throughout the transportation process.
Seasonal demand spikes create massive surges in volumes that can wreck a freight broker without the right infrastructure. To succeed during periods of high demand, freight brokers must be agile and able to implement flexible, scalable solutions. Without these capabilities, coordinating with carriers to meet tight deadlines would be nearly impossible.
Agility is no doubt needed to enhance the ability of modern logistics operations to deliver as they should, but it will be nigh impossible to establish that without technology solutions.
Here are some of the tech innovations driving agility and resilience in logistics operations across the world.
Solutions that enable operational visibility allow freight brokers to track their shipments in real time. This way, they can monitor progress and make informed decisions on risk mitigation and other issues when necessary.
With EKA’s business intelligence and analytics solutions, freight brokers can effectively forecast and plan for capacity demand, aside from identifying new opportunities, improving proactive decision-making, and enhancing overall resource allocation.
Automation is crucial in accelerating logistics and supply chain operations, and freight broker operations are no different. Automation also reduces human errors in documentation, loading, scheduling, and other critical areas where mistakes could prove costly.
People-centric automation and workflows like EKA allow brokers and dispatchers to work through the same system, staying informed with real-time data and the context needed to run seamless operations.
While tech adoption can be challenging for SME freight brokers, especially regarding costs and change management, cloud-based broker and logistics platforms offer a more accessible solution. Unlike legacy systems that require heavy infrastructure investment, cloud-based platforms like EKA allow brokers to scale easily while minimizing upfront costs.
Leveraging cloud-based platforms for freight broker software or TMS helps level the playing field. It is cheaper to maintain as there is little to no physical infrastructure, and brokers can enjoy scale and flexibility. More importantly, stakeholders can access the platforms and communicate in real time, ensuring smooth coordination and seamless execution across the logistics operation.
Process optimization technology has enabled businesses to enhance processes like route optimization, vehicle maintenance, and loading and unloading operations by analyzing vast amounts of data. The resulting insights empower businesses to make data-driven decisions, improving efficiency and reducing operational costs.
Freight brokers leveraging tech solutions like EKA can improve demand forecasting, risk mitigation, fraud detection, and customer service operations, leading to higher operational throughput.
Although technology can greatly enhance the agility of the logistics process, its success still depends on the broker’s ability to integrate the solution properly into the operations.
Here is how freight brokers can use it to improve their overall logistics process.
With the right tech tools, more freight brokers can identify potential disruptions on time and take the correct approach to quickly adjust to the challenge. From large-scale strikes to geo-political strife, today’s supply chain is rife with potential sources of disruption. In an era of disruption, is your business prepared?
Effectively implemented freight broker software is more than capable of ensuring carriers can schedule or reschedule capacity allocations and allow them to scale as necessary to meet the volatile demands resulting from that strike. This way, despite the potential massive disruptions, shipments can circumvent it to flow steadily. Other examples where the freight broker software plays a key role include sudden regulatory changes and shifts in supply chain demands.
Peak seasons almost always come with massive demand surges, meaning that brokers need a lot of flexibility and the ability to scale up operations easily. A freight broker platform can make this easier to manage by ensuring access to a vetted list of carriers. This way, they can engage the services as and when needed.
With the right TMS software, freight brokers can also ensure that each logistics process runs seamlessly, even when managing multiple processes for different clients. The freight software also allows them to allocate the right amount of resources based on predictions.
Brokers, especially those managing clients across multiple industries, can find it challenging to pair them with the right carriers, especially those whose operations and past records are tailored to the customers' needs. However, freight broker software can largely mitigate that problem through a vetted list of carriers analyzed for capability and experience, ensuring customers are paired with the right one.
There is also the issue of transparency. Through the TMS software, brokers can ensure seamless communication with customers and other stakeholders. Transparency is key for ensuring customer satisfaction.
The freight world is constantly evolving, and sometimes, it can be difficult to keep up with the changes as a freight broker walking a tightrope between carriers and shippers. That is why EKA's solutions are so important for freight brokers, as it enhances their agility and strengthens their ability to meet rising customer expectations. Our platform optimizes overall operations by seamlessly integrating with existing systems, providing real-time insights and strategic freight management solutions to help brokers stay ahead in a fast-changing industry.
At EKA, we empower freight brokers, carriers, and shippers with a Transportation Management System that’s built for scalability and performance. Experience smarter management, sharper insights, and stronger growth potential. Our automated workflows and plug-and-play integrations facilitate seamless growth transitions, enabling you to change the game and improve the work experience through our innovative digital freight ecosystem. Contact us today to feel the difference.
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