The business of a freight broker is complex, for the broker normally deals with many shippers and truck owners. It is not possible for a freight broker to manually manage the business efficiently.
Furthermore, the freight business is extremely process driven and involves loads of paperwork. It is therefore important to make use of advanced and automated freight broker software.
The customized and user-friendly software streamlines the freight brokerage operations by entering loads, sourcing and qualifying carriers, dispatching drivers, and invoicing. The cutting edge software is designed to make the life of freight brokers easy.
The software effectively handles logistics, accounting, and customer service involved in managing the transportation and shipping business. The state of the art software helps the freight broker to find the right carrier for the goods being moved.
It will let the brokers compare their current carrier data side by side with carrier proposals recently received by them.
Using the software, commission agents will be able to post on a load board across the internet to notify the truck owners and with the work. The software provides real-time visibility of shipments and invoices and settlements.
The software is designed to allow the brokers to easily enter loads, quality carriers, dispatch drivers, invoice customers, and pay carriers, thus saving the time of the brokers and streamlining their work to perfection.
Software Key Feature
It is one of the most important challenges that most agents face. Finding a reliable shipper or truck owner on a commission basis to move the cargo from one place is to another is a challenging job for any freight broker.
The truck owner should be trustworthy and should have good relation with the agent.
At times it so happens the agent loads the truck but if the truck owner does not receive a timely receipt of advance and balance payment, they will hold the truck.
If the agent does not have money to pay the truck owner then the owner holds the truck and this affects the relation of the commission agent with their customers.
The solution to this is to have an automated and customized truck management system.
This system helps the broker to effectively manage their business seamlessly. It has tools like load monitoring and carrier tracking that gives perfect visibility to the broker to plan their loads. From finding loads, managing dispatches to generating invoices, the automated software is a boon for the freight brokers.
The brokers can now easily manage every customer, shipper, and carrier contact without any hassle. Because of the integration with the load board, the brokers can now easily find the right load for clients’ needs.
The load rate confirmation sheet helps the agents to set the right price for the loads. All the reports are generated with high accuracy based on income and expense transactions.
Another challenge most of the freight brokers face is the consignment booking, particularly if they do not have any godown or warehouse.
With the help of easy to use and automated consignment management system, the broker of bookings, and the truck service providers.
The system enables the freight brokers to ensure that the consignment is picked at the right time, shipped safely via an appropriate route, and delivered in the right condition and at the right moment so that all the parties do not face any inconvenience.
The state of the art consignment management system ensures 100% seamless yet efficient consignment management.
The system also enables the agent to track the goods effortlessly and enables them to keep an eye on booking, storage, and dispatching of all the goods so that they can effectively plan their haul with a reliable truck owner.
Another important challenge in a freight business is the commitment to dispatch the goods on the scheduled committed date.
With the automated dispatching system, the broker can easily dispatch their consignment in the scheduled time without any hassle. The software is designed for brokers who deal with the fleet owners as well as the shippers. The system integrates and is compatible with the customers as well as load boards and shippers.
The software also has accounting features and other automated solutions to help the brokers shorter the delivery cycle and reap benefits on time.
With real-time access to different loads and faster bidding for spot rates, the broker can easily complete the dispatch on the scheduled date.
Another challenge that most brokers face is third party payment management. However, with the help accounting module of the specially designed and user-friendly software, the broker can manage the 3PL easily. Both 3PL and freight broker acts as a connection between the shipper and the truck owner. It is important to have good management of 3PL to have seamless operations of the business.
The accounting feature of the system enables the broker to easily handle the 3PL. It also makes it possible for the agents to carry out their payment options ranging from annual and monthly to one-time arrangements.
The broker can get a real-time view and full details of all 3PLs and help them to manage their payment accurately and in time. It gives the broker a bird’s eye view of the amount paid to 3PL on a particular date and the balance any in no time.
The system also enables the agent to retrieve the reports of the 3PL to get the accurate status of their payment details.
For seamless and successful conduct of the freight business, it is important that the brokers need to access the day to day business report. With automated business analytics tools, the agent can check all the daily reports in no time.
All the business analytics tools help the freight broker to gather, process, analyze, and foresee large volumes of past, current, and future data for making valuable business decisions.
The tools include vital features like data visualization, visual analytics, and an interactive dashboard. The tools bring all the relevant information in one picture, show valuable business predictions based on data, eliminates manual tasks, and minimize business costs.
With the daily business reports, the freight broker can get information on goods shipped, the route used, and truck details.
Freight Broker Business is a Type of Transportation Business
Truck owners and freight broker businesses are inter-related with each other.
More than 80% of the truck owners need commission agents for the smooth running of their business.
Any person with a small investment amount can become a freight broker and start their business. A freight broker falls into the category of transportation middlemen or intermediary.
An agent or commission agent is neither a shipper nor an asset owning carrier but plays a role in the movement of cargo. Brokers provide a vital and valuable service to both motor carriers and shippers.
The brokers are not new to the transportation business. They help the carriers fill the trucks and earn a commission for their efforts. They help the shippers find the reliable motor carriers that they might be unaware of. In other words, the freight broker or the commission agents are someone who assists shippers with freight ready to pull by finding the carriers who are ready to pull the load.
An agent is responsible for arranging the transportation and tracking of the load hauled by the freight carrier.
Freight brokers are an important point in the transportation business. They are the matchmakers for truckers that need runs to make and companies that have freight they need to be moved.
The brokers are a connection between businesses with shipping needs and transportation carriers. A shipper has their wants and requirements, and a transportation carrier has their needs and agenda; this includes anything from pre-planned routes to the kind of deliveries each truck can make.
An agent is a person who puts in order the deal between the two and makes sure that they communicate and execute the business effectively. Experienced brokers also provide consulting services to shippers to optimize the best method to ship their products.