This article explains the need for a digital freight marketplace, as well as the digital freight benefits for all freight and transportation industry stakeholders.
The freight transportation industry faces a volatile balance of customer demand and transportation capacity. Both demand and capacity can shift quickly and be impacted by many factors. It’s important to have a strategy to create predictability and stability out of this volatility. Digital freight marketplace solutions can help.
A digital freight marketplace allows shippers, carriers, and digital freight providers to manage this uncertain nature better and gain more control over the shipping process.
The Need for Digital Freight Marketplace
A digital freight marketplace has benefits for different players in the freight industry.
For MercuryGate TMS Shippers
Shippers need to account for volatility in customer demand compared to transportation capacity. Volatility increases the difficulty shippers face when trying to lock in the capacity needed at the best rates.
A challenge some shipper users face is a need for more capacity within their contracted or owned fleet. This capacity is not always enough, or sometimes it is not priced at the best freight rate. In addition, it may not always be available when needed, so it’s important to have backup options.
For Carriers and Digital Freight Providers
For Broker/3PL Users
Broker and third-party logistics (3PL) users also face the volatility of customer demand balanced with transportation capacity and the insufficiency of contracted capacity. Plus, they have the challenges of identifying, vetting, and onboarding new capacity sources. Many still rely on time-consuming manual methods like email and phone communication.
The Benefits of a Digital Freight Marketplace
For MercuryGate TMS Shipper Users
For Carriers and Digital Freight Providers
Carriers and digital freight providers gain access to new customers within MercuryGate’s Digital Freight Marketplace as part of the same platform with more than $85 billion in freight under management.
For MercuryGate Broker and 3PL Users
A Model With Benefits to All Freight Stakeholders
MercuryGate TMS users can better fill their needs from available multi-modal capacity and freight. Carriers and digital freight partners gain access to those shippers, allowing them to serve new customers and maximize their capacity. They also improve through automation and increased efficiency. MercuryGate freight brokers and 3PL users benefit from access to a single marketplace that allows them to access capacity and improve profit margins.
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Learn More About Participating in a Digital Freight Marketplace as a Provider
Adopting the digital freight marketplace model is a strategic way for digital freight providers to attack their challenges and gain efficiency with instant visibility of available freight volumes and the best rates.
As more major players use this method, it is on its way to becoming the industry standard for managing consumer needs with available capacity at the best rates. Download our eBook, Navigating Digital Freight Marketplaces to se how you can start instantly booking loads at real-time market rates.
