Digital Freight Benefits for Shippers and Carriers

Digital freight benefits include instant connection to digital freight capacity.

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
Carriers also find modern freight dynamics challenging. They need to secure consistent freight volumes in desired service lanes. At the same time, they face intense competition for freight volumes at profitable rates, and they have limitations of market presence as well as disparate access to freight volumes.
If they waste time on time-intensive tasks like email communication and other manual tasks, they can lose out to competition and reduce efficiency. Carriers and digital freight providers need to gain broad rate visibility to remain competitive and continue growth.
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

A digital freight marketplace creates significant benefits for different types of users.
For MercuryGate TMS Shipper Users
A digital freight marketplace offers these users easy access to enough capacity from pre-onboarded, multi-modal carriers. If needed, they gain the ability to access additional freight volumes to fill their in-fleet capacity. A digital freight marketplace includes a range of capacity alternatives to choose from and provides real-time market awareness and cost control benefits.
A modern digital freight marketplace uses API-based solutions that skip phone calls and emails in favor of cost- and time-effective options. Shippers gain a consolidated view of thousands of carriers to choose from, allowing them to book quickly according to available capacity and real-time market rates.
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.

Participating in this program can enhance productivity and minimize manual activities through the use of automation. Carriers and digital freight providers can reduce empty vehicle miles and find ways to consolidate loads. Through this marketplace, they can also maintain awareness of real-time market rates.
For MercuryGate Broker and 3PL Users
Broker and 3PL users benefit through the various capacity alternatives available in the API-driven Digital Freight Marketplace. They can use it to fill capacity as a digital freight partner and to open the door to new relationships with freight shippers. The marketplace provides them with access to capacity from thousands of multi-modal carriers that are pre-onboarded and ready to go.
They also gain awareness of the market in real time to control costs and improve profit margins. All of these benefits help them meet the capacity demands of multiple customers as they are able to aggregate and source capacity from a single marketplace.

A Model With Benefits to All Freight Stakeholders

A digital freight marketplace benefits all stakeholders in the freight industry.

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.

As all stakeholders adopt the digital freight marketplace, in time, the freight industry can become more efficient, cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and beneficial to all parties — including shippers, carriers, logistics service providers, and consumers.

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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. 

Connect with MercuryGate for more information and a demo of its TMS and Digital Freight Marketplace solutions.

Learn about Navigating Digital Freight Marketplaces

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