{"id":3117,"date":"2019-07-19T17:25:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/?p=3117"},"modified":"2019-07-19T17:25:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T15:25:00","slug":"how-logistics-technology-is-helping-small-carriers-and-brokers-compete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2019\/07\/19\/how-logistics-technology-is-helping-small-carriers-and-brokers-compete\/","title":{"rendered":"How Logistics Technology is Helping Small Carriers and Brokers Compete"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Trailer<\/p>\n

Trailer pools allowing access to drop and hook freight is one way logistics tech is helping smaller carriers. Photo courtesy J.B. Hunt<\/p>\n

How Logistics Technology is Helping Small Carriers and Brokers Compete<\/h2>\n

Technology is allowing the small carriers that make up the vast majority of the trucking industry to become a more integral part of the supply chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a lot of smaller carrier companies that are able to bid on and compete for larger shipper contracts or freight just because technology has enabled them to be a player in that marketplace,\u201d says Bryan Coyne, general manager of visibility for Trimble Transportation.<\/p>\n

Take Elizabeth Orton, owner of Find a Way Shipping, a family-based business she started with her cousin last year in Dayton, Ohio. They specialize in moving high-end furniture shipments.<\/p>\n

Starting with one cargo van, she soon added a trailer, a second cargo van, and a box truck, and reports being able to keep all her vehicles full and running using uShip, a company that connects retailers with truckers who have extra space to carry additional goods. It\u2019s the kind of small-fleet success story that would have been a lot harder before the use of technology to find loads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry is so fragmented \u2013 90% of companies are small ones,\u201d says Lidia Yan, CEO of Next Trucking, which offers a technology load-matching solution for the drayage industry in southern California. \u201cMost of them don\u2019t have the latest technology. Now they can take advantage of that technology and become more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

ELD-Driven Telematics Helps Make it Possible<\/h3>\n

One thing that\u2019s driving that? The electronic logging device mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to recognize the most fundamental change in the last two years is that small carriers are now online,\u201d says Shoaib Makani, who founded KeepTruckin, a company that started out as an electronic log provider and since has moved into fleet management technology solutions. \u201cThe ELD mandate essentially catalyzed the adoption of telematics devices. It brought connectivity to a segment of the market that was totally disconnected. The small carriers were offline, and they\u2019re the ones that are carrying spot freight, brokered freight, so the shipper experience was poor because they couldn\u2019t get visibility. Now small carriers are online, they\u2019re connected, so it actually has improved the prospects of small carriers and the end user shipper experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Using
Using uShip to get freight has helped Find A Way Shipping grow from one to four vehicles in a year’s time. Photo courtesy uShip<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Makani says KeepTruckin\u2019s smart load board is positioned, \u201cnot as a replacement of a 3PL, but an enabler, allowing small brokers and asset-based carriers to access connected capacity and deliver a better experience to shippers, which allows them to compete in this new world. I don\u2019t think the small broker or mid-size asset-based carriers go away in the new world; by leveraging technology and accessing connected capacity they can actually thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

EKA Solutions, for instance, says its affordable, cloud-based Omni-TMS software platform allows brokers, carriers, and shippers to manage their entire business from beginning to end \u2013 from assigning and tracking loads to back-end billing and financial functions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a step change in affordability for small- and medium-size customers to conduct their business in a manner that\u2019s competitive with large companies,\u201d says J.J. Singh, EKA Solutions founder and CEO.<\/p>\n

Mark Walker, EKA president, points out that unlike most industries that are dominated by a few large players, trucking is made up primarily of small businesses \u2013 many of which are still not using any kind of transportation management system software.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether shippers, brokers or carriers, there are a very high number of them still on spreadsheets and paper,\u201d he says. \u201cWe felt the first move was to try to digitize the players that were in the industry, because there\u2019s no other way to get to a transparent or visible supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Trailer Fleet? No Problem!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In addition, some companies have developed trailer pool systems that allow small fleets to participate in drop-and-hook freight that traditionally would only be available to larger carriers with large numbers of trailers.<\/p>\n

Convoy, for instance, has leased thousands of trailers and placed them at shipper facilities, where they are pre-loaded. Truckers using Convoy Go<\/a> can just bring a power unit to pick up a preloaded Convoy trailer instead of bringing a tractor-trailer and waiting while the trailer is loaded.<\/p>\n

\u201cOptimizing trailer pool movement is a difficult data science project. Computers can do that more efficiently than humans can,\u201d says Nikhil Jaipuria, Convoy\u2019s director of product, carriers.<\/p>\n

J.B. Hunt and Uber Freight recently launched trailer pools as part of their freight-matching platforms, as well.<\/p>\n

Having determined that what it terms\u00a0the \u201ctraditional trailer pool model\u201d to be\u00a0\u201cparticularly ripe for reinvention,\u201d Uber Freight last fall launched Powerloop<\/a>. The new company is described as affiliated with Uber Freight, and will rent trailers to eligible Uber Freight motor carriers and \u201cin doing so, enable them to participate in an innovative new trailer pool model,\u201d said the company.<\/p>\n

J.B. Hunt Transport Services\u2019 trailer pool and drop-and-hook service, called J.B. Hunt 360box<\/a>, is starting out with a pool of 500 additional 54-foot trailers that can be reserved for drop trailer purposes. Carriers can make offers to transport the trailers using Carrier 360 by J.B. Hunt, the company\u2019s digital freight-matching platform. As demand grows, J.B. Hunt plans to accelerate the available units.<\/p>\n

Author<\/h4>\n
\n
\n
\"Deborah<\/a>Deborah Lockridge<\/a><\/h5>\n

Editor-in-Chief<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reporting on trucking since 1990, Deborah is known for her award-winning magazine editorials and in-depth features on diverse issues, from the driver shortage to maintenance to rapidly changing technology. 28 Jesse H. Neal honors.<\/p>\n

View Bio<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.truckinginfo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/h3>\n

Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n

Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n

\"fleet<\/p>\n

Graph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n

The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n