In the past, it took a lot of work to ensure that the freight brokerage business was able to run smoothly. The employees had to check everything from billing and carrier settlements to checking on fuel taxes, tracking the drivers, arranging pick-ups, nailing down delivery details, and, oh yes, of course, paying them. But we’re in the 2020s, which means that there are a lot of things like LoadPilot, which is a type of freight broker software. Here’s how things like this can help the Freight Brokerage Business. 

It Automates Things

Those things that were listed above? Now the employees can input certain data parameters, along with things like employee ID numbers, and it can automatically set things up to happen without you having to constantly monitor them. That will allow you and your employees to think about other ways to make your freight brokerage business a successful one. It’s important that you have certain people monitor that software to make sure that things are working as they should and that the software has all the correct data — so that it won’t do something like try to pay someone who isn’t working there anymore.

It Streamlines Things

On top of it making it easier to ensure that people get the right work assigned to them, it can make the entire process go much easier. The software might notice that there are a couple of unnecessary steps and eliminate them, which will then make everything be able to go run much smoother and quickly. What might have previously required five steps might now only need three. It makes it easier for any employees since they will have fewer things to remember when they are doing their daily tasks.  

What To Look For

There are certain software functions that should be included. They include things like

• Accounting Software – You’ve got to keep track of your financial transactions. There’s no getting around that, and trying to do it in your head is a recipe for a very quick disaster. You can use this software things for automating invoices, and keeping historical records of things like accounts payable and receivable, expenses, revenue, and trends
• Customer Relationship Management – You need something that can help you cultivate relationships with business partners, carriers, and shippers. This type of software does that, while tracking things like communication, contact information, and lane preferences. You need to make sure that you pick the best one that helps you grow your company
• Freight Load Boards – You’ll be able to use this to find drivers and also check market freight rates. It helps you keep your trucks out on the road 
• Transportation Management Software – You feed data into it for it to analyze and then automate and improve any processes. You want it to make sure it does things like analysis well, along with tracking shipments and deliveries, generating compliance documentation, and issuing reports

All of these things work together seamlessly to help manage your company. You can get individual programs, or you could get a suite that includes all of them together. It might take a little bit of experimenting at first, but you can quickly figure out which ones you need. 

There are other things you need the software to do, like loaded search and posting, which can help you match carriers and shippers that you have already vetted – that is, make sure that they have the proper credentials, safety ratings, and compliance records – with the freight that they need to carry. That allows them to book the loads right away. 

You need to make sure that you did vet the carriers. If they don’t have the right insurance or CSA scores, then they could wind up costing you money in terms of liability after an accident or if they lose product. You will protect yourself from risk if you vet these carriers. 

Once you’ve vetted them, you need to onboard them into the system. This is like onboarding an employee. You put their records, payments, and any other information into the system. Once that happens, they can accept loads. There’s software out there that can do this automatically for you, which can cut the time by as much as 80%. Look around for ones that do that. 

Yes, you vetted the carriers, but it’s not like you’re going to just let them go do whatever they want. You need to monitor them to make sure that they keep following safety standards. There’s software that can alert you if something happens to change that status. Then you can decide what you want to do. 

Invoicing, which the accounting software can handle, needs to be done for every shipment. You should be able to use the software to make an invoice within minutes and only requires a few clicks of a button. That way, you will be able to send them out and keep your money coming in, which is important for your freight brokerage business. 

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why if you work in the freight brokerage business, you should seriously think about using this software. Your competitors are almost surely using it. Don’t get left behind. That could result in your having to find a new company to run. You need to make sure that it’s a specialized software solution for you, not something generic. 

There’s not denying that there are a lot of things that go into this business. But if you use this software properly and hire people who are good at using it too — delegation is important — you can be successful. You just need to do some research at first to find the correct types of software, but then it should be easier after that. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t ofay attention to whether there are new innovations that are coming out. Then you might be able to adopt something better. It’s time to use technology for your best interests.

Jane