Freight volume continues to grow, driving a projected peak in spot and contract rates. And that can force people in the transportation industry to feel as though they fall behind in some areas. One area of concern, notably with e-commerce booming, seems to be carrier selection and digital freight matching.
It can be challenging to find carriers on last-minute notice, especially with consumers demanding faster delivery times by the day. A way to combat this particular challenge would be to implement digital freight matching.
Digitization of freight matching integrates the use of carrier matching with a TMS. This saves time, money, and a whole lot of stress.
The Challenges of Traditional Load Boards
Traditional load boards have become more outdated as e-commerce and direct to consumer (D2C) retail boom. With business at an all-time high and shippers needing to deliver faster than ever, integrating new tools and platforms becomes a must.
Without new technology leading the way, shippers run the risk of getting left behind. Traditional load boards do not contain the same benefits as digital matching capabilities. And those load boards leave great room for error in both tendering and forecasting freight rates, which are grave concerns during periods of significant market volatility.
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Digital Freight Matching Empowers Shippers to Do More With Less
Shippers always look to technology for a faster, more beneficial experience. By implementing digital freight matching programs, businesses maximize their services.
From carrier matching for last minute, overnight deliveries through LSPs finding available loads for unused assets, digital freight matching holds power in the industry’s future. This also reduces the amount of time shippers search for freight transportation. Time is money, and this saves more time!
Best Practices in Deploying Digital Matching Capabilities
- Connect your new digital freight matching solution to the TMS. Utilizing both systems in tandem will reduce the stress of using two different methods and keep all data in one area for everyone. This creates a clear picture throughout the transportation process.
- Use API and EDI to share data in real-time. Sharing data in real-time creates a clear picture of the process while it happens.
- Eliminate the hassle of manual service calls with real-time status updates. Manual entries or data slows down work. Using real-time status updates provides everyone with information faster than one person can relay.
- Use waterfall tendering to find the best carrier for each load. Embedded, digital matching compares all carriers and finds the right one using its technology, applying the process in vice versa for carriers too.
- Encourage carriers to accept loads within digital portals, reducing your work. Reducing the amount of manual paperwork will decrease the workload and increase productivity. If all levels of the supply chain utilize these functions, the same will follow.
- Let carriers choose appointment times for pickup based on your schedule, reducing your workload as well. That has the net effect of offloading some of your redundant, back-office workloads.
Overcome Barriers to Efficiency With the Right Load Matching Systems
With the correct systems in place, efficiency will increase exponentially as volumes soar. Manual processes that can integrate into automatic data systems will dramatically increase profitability and efficiency. Gaining insight allows for the supply chain industry to lose the excess work holding them down.
And the booming state of e-commerce will leave any business behind if they do not consolidate their systems and move to a more efficient way of monitoring their transportation processes. The best strategy, all working together via a centralized TMS and embedded freight matching process, will rocket the supply chain to the moon.
