Vine Line Logistics Taps Parade to Help Scale Their Brokerage

Vine Line Partnered with Parade to Scale Their Business

Vine Line Logistics started in 2008 as a produce logistics brokerage.  Despite excelling in the produce industry, they had limited growth opportunities with existing customers and carrier partners. Vine Line leadership decided to diversify their service offerings to achieve the growth they were aiming for, and last year, the brokerage became an independent company. Today, produce loads account for 15%-20% of Vine Line’s total volume, while the remainder stems from a variety of commodities on van, reefer, and flatbed equipment. This rising star’s lofty goal? While Vine Line is currently trending toward $20M in annual sales in 2023, they have their heart set on reaching $100M in annual sales within the next 5 years and filling out their new office with 25 people. 

Vine Line has invested a considerable amount of time and energy over the last 12 months building their tech stack integration with their cloud-based TMS, provided by Turvo. All the tools they decided to invest in needed the ability to work together to streamline processes through automation – helping the team leverage their network without replacing the human element.

The team believes that technology should enhance the process, not replace the need for their valuable staff, supporting their team in providing the above-and-beyond experience they offer their customer and carrier partners. In order to showcase this vision to current and future partners of the brokerage, they needed to dramatically improve their carrier network which consisted of 86% of its members being utilized 3 or fewer times over the past year. Parade is going to drive carrier reuse with a smarter system to put the right loads in front of the right carriers at the right time.

Parade Will Help Vine Line Reach Their Ambitious Goals Quicker

Parade will help Vine Line leverage its current network of carriers in a couple of ways.

First, Vine Line needed access to a steadier stream of capacity to tackle the additional freight they plan on earning this next year. With market volatility continuing, their team needs to rely on their carrier network more than ever to offer solid, affordable service to their shippers. Parade will help the Vine Line team improve carrier reuse and bolster its network of core carriers. A broader, deeper, and better-utilized capacity network will allow Vine Line to cover its customers’ loads with efficiency and security.

Second, reps at Vine Line needed a way to be more efficient so they had time in their day to handle the extra loads. Parade is streamlining the booking process for them, with many of the repetitive tasks reps handle every day being automated by the system. By serving as a repository for the Vine Line team’s collective capacity knowledge, Parade will reduce reps’ reliance on tribal knowledge to give customers and carriers a more consistent experience when they’re working with Vine Line.

Vine Line Had No Problem Getting Carriers Onboard with Parade

Many brokers wonder how they’ll get their carrier network to buy into Parade since this buy-in is such an integral part of the Parade platform working at its peak. At Vine Line, they had no such concerns.

When the initial invitation to join Parade was sent to Vine Line’s carrier network, they found about 33% of their carriers were already using Parade, making the onboarding process much less intensive than originally anticipated by their team. Parade’s outreach and integrations with the load boards they use mean that carriers are being prompted to get set up with a login for the Parade platform at every interaction.

Parade is Already Generating Results for Vine Line

Vine Line Logistics hasn’t even been live with Parade for a week, but they’re already seeing positive changes. The integration of Parade with their TMS (Turvo) was a smooth process.

Steve Lyons, President of Vine Line Logistics LLC, said,

“From the first demo all the way through the integration and launch process, the Parade team was a true partner. They wanted to ensure that this fundamental change to the management of our carrier network was handled with care and professionalism. We are already seeing positive carrier reuse and margin results within the first week!”

With Parade, the first step to getting a load covered is no longer to send it directly to a load board and hope it gets covered quickly. Instead, Vine Line Carrier Sales Representatives are utilizing freight matching. Parade outreach is bringing carriers to them by sending the right loads to the right carriers. Because so many carriers are already on Parade, the Vine Line Logistics team has been able to book loads digitally. The brokerage is already seeing an improvement in margins after just a few days with Parade.

By partnering with Turvo and Parade to build their tech stack, Vine Line is a well-rounded modern brokerage set up for success.

Be on the lookout for an update on Vine Line Logistics’ journey with Parade!

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Are you wondering if Parade is the right tech to get your brokerage on the path to growth? Reach out to our team to get a demo.

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Vine Line Logistics Llc 

Steve Lyons | President

E: Steve@vinelinelogistics.com