3 Ways Brokerages Can Use Parade Capacity Management to Improve Carrier Relationships

1. Automating Busywork Means Brokers Have More Time to Connect with Carriers

Broker reps’ days are often full to the brim. There’s always something to do, a load to cover, tracking and tracing, onboarding, shuffling documents back and forth between customers and carriers. This doesn’t leave a lot of time to truly connect with their counterparts in their carrier network. They must focus on the things they have to do  rather than the things that will help build the brokerage over time.

With our capacity management solution, many of the processes that make up a rep’s day-to-day can be streamlined or even automated altogether. In a recent FreightWaves webinar with our customer Dupré Logistics, Michelle Rogers their Director of Administration of SCS stated that they’ve cut out five steps in the booking process by adding Parade.

The time saved through automation and streamlined processes can then be invested in building stronger, deeper carrier relationships. Reps can take time to reach out to ask about future equipment availability or even just to check in on their counterparts personally. Fewer time constraints mean, simply, that every interaction doesn’t have to be directly about getting the next load covered.

2. The System Constantly Evolves to Make the Best Matches

Because Parade uses AI and ML, the system is never stagnant, helping brokers manage capacity in real-time. It’s always taking in new data and adjusting accordingly. When it takes into account the latest capacity data, it makes better matches. It can send those loads directly to matched carriers and show reps a ranked list of the best matches when they’re searching for capacity for a load.

When the system finds great matches, whether it’s sending those loads directly to the carrier via email or showing it to broker reps through source search, it helps bring brokers and carriers together for a common purpose. Carriers are seeing loads they want, giving them the sense that the broker added a personal touch. Brokers are more likely to get their loads booked when carriers are seeing just the loads they’re likely to want and be able to cover since carriers don’t have to sift through all available loads to find the ones in their lane.

3. Capacity Management Makes Life Easier for Carriers, Too

If Amazon’s 2-day shipping and the grocery delivery phenomenon that blew up during the pandemic are any indications, people like to do business with companies who make doing business with them easy. Though carriers aren’t the customers, they’re no different. They want to work with brokers who make their job easier.

Sure, digital quoting and booking streamline processes for brokers, but they streamline processes on the carriers’ end, as well. When brokers set up a Book Now link, booking a load doesn’t require several emails and/or phone calls back and forth between brokers and carriers. Instead, the broker sets it up, the carrier clicks the link and follows the steps, and voila! The load is booked.

Deeper relationships and engagements benefit carriers as much as they do brokers. When they have a great relationship with a broker, they’re likely to get a higher and steadier volume of freight from them, which means less time is spent onboarding with new brokers and less equipment goes un- or underutilized.

Is your brokerage focused on improving carrier relationships as a part of your business’s overall strategy to grow and improve revenues? Get a free demo of Parade to see how it can help your brokerage improve carrier relationships.