The Battle of the Peak Season

How FreightSaver is Using Parade to Overcome Peak Season Challenges

Peak season isn’t quite as daunting a prospect at FreightSaver this year, despite that we’re entering our second holiday season of the pandemic and brokerages are busier than ever. The tools they’ve gained by implementing Parade’s capacity management solution are giving them a leg up.

FreightSaver and Parade’s own Lindsay Watt, Head of Product, met with Freightwaves to talk about how Parade’s capacity management tools are making this year’s peak season a little smoother at FreightSaver.

Carrier Reuse and Book Now is Helping FreightSaver Win the Battle

FreightSaver CEO and Co-Founder Ryan Renne says he hasn’t seen a peak season this hectic in years. Despite the season’s high load volume, FreightSaver has been making progress towards their organizational goals.

FreightSaver Added Parade to Help Their Team be More Productive

Adding Parade was a move intended to empower members of the FreightSaver family. They wanted to provide their team with the tools they needed to be successful, booking more loads and building better relationships with reliable carriers.

Parade Tools are Paying Dividends

The processes FreightSaver had laid out for carrier reuse prior to bringing Parade on board were clunky and time-consuming. While team members were encouraged to reuse carriers and they had a process in place to do just that, it wasn’t convenient and the team struggled to adopt the practice.

By developing dedicated capacity with carriers they’ve worked with before, FreightSaver has saved time in carrier onboarding. They’ve also been able to provide customers with better service because they’re working with more carriers they know they can trust and those carriers are familiar with their shippers.

Parade also helps FreightSaver get loads in front of carriers faster by showing them to the right carriers in their preferred manner. While their processes before had them focused on getting same-day loads out the door, they’re now at a point where they’re pre-booking loads. Pre-booking keeps them from paying spot market rates on every load.

The data collected from Parade has helped them refine their sales strategy, opening lanes they didn’t previously focus on since they know they have the capacity to cover new loads there. Parade’s technology is allowing them to send 1000’s of emails every day to request quotes and therefore keep their rates on par with the market.

It’s Not About Replacing Carrier Contacts

One of the biggest myths associated with capacity management tools like Parade is that they’ll replace the relationships between carriers and brokers. That’s not the case at all! By automating much of the busywork, brokers can focus even more on their time on building relationships with carriers by booking multiple loads with their dedicated capacity carriers and offering them steady business.

FreightSaver still engages carriers using the same processes that they always did, even on Book Now loads. They’re now able to focus on real communication since the preliminaries are out of the way already. When reps contact a carrier, they know they have the capacity for the load. This means they’re able to get loads booked with less fishing.

How Does Parade Do It?

Parade shows carriers the loads they want, where they want them when they have the capacity to cover them. By capturing carrier preferences, Parade matches carriers to loads in lanes where they have capacity, showing them loads wherever they typically find work. Carriers can use the Book Now and quote tools to expedite and simplify the booking process on both ends.