Can You Check All of The Boxes For Load Automation?
A question for freight brokers: Wouldn’t it be cool if you could issue quotes for twice as many loads as you can currently manage, without spending any more time than you currently do?
I think it’s safe to assume that the answer is a resounding “yes”.
Now, what if we asked, wouldn’t it be super cool if you could issue five times as many quotes as you can currently manage, without spending any more time than you currently do?
We’re imagining an even more enthusiastic “hell yeah!”
Well, before we send brokers parading through the streets in celebration (because - spoiler alert - “five times as many quotes” is small-time compared to what’s actually possible), let’s just take a breath and start with the basics.
How Does Truckload Quoting Work?
How It Started
Let’s say a shipper has a load that they want to put on a truck. Shippers don’t have time to call truckers themselves, so they’ll employ a broker to do this for them. Brokers will find a handful of quotes from truckers and relay them back to the shipper, who chooses the quote that best suits them.
Traditionally, this has been a completely manual process. Brokers can only obtain as many quotes as they can physically collect from individual truckers. Each step of the process is inherently inefficient, with delays and human error being common occurrences.
How It’s Going
As technology has developed, so too has the truckload quoting process. As communication methods have become faster, the quoting process has become streamlined, meaning brokers can obtain more quotes, more accurately than before.
However, despite advances in digitization and improvements in quoting efficiency, this is still a mostly manual process.
Live, Instant and Automated Quoting
As we’ve discussed, truckload quoting - and freight management systems in general - have come a long way in recent times. Many outdated and labor-intensive processes have been streamlined through tech, much to the benefit of shippers, truckers and brokers.
When it comes to truckload quoting, the pinnacle of this tech is bitfreighter’s LiveQuote platform. LiveQuote allows shippers to see many quotes at the click of a button, in real-time.
How Does LiveQuote Truckload Quoting Work?
LiveQuote allows truckers to set rates using a variety of parameters (such as size, distance, destination, etc.). LiveQuote then connects to shippers’ systems via an API, allowing them to access these rates instantly.
With this setup, when a shipper has a load that they want to put on a truck, they simply enter their freight, and at the click of a button, they get immediate quotes.
For brokers too, manual quoting is a thing of the past. Once they have set their parameters, their rate will appear every time a matching load is submitted for a quote.
Quoting Is Just the Start
LiveQuote can have a transformative effect on the quoting process for any business that still obtains its quotes manually, but this is just the start of the automation potential. When you combine bitfreighter LiveQuote with bitfreighter EDI, amazing things start to happen.
Full Load Automation
Automated Quoting - RTR API
Automated Acceptance - EDI or API
Automated Updates - EDI or API
Automated Invoicing - EDI
For example, when you win freight using LiveQuote, the freight is automatically pushed out into the broker’s system and set up as an order without having to do anything manually. Then, bitfreighter EDI handles the messaging and invoicing.
So wouldn’t it be cool if you could issue a hundred times as many quotes as you can currently manage, without spending any more time than you currently do? Well, you can - and you can quote us on that!
Learn More About LiveQuote
To see how you can automate your truckload quoting, book a demo.
