According to the American Truck Association, 10.93 billion tons of freight were transported by trucks in 2021, which represents 72.2% of domestic tonnage shipped. With so much product to look after, it can be hard to stay efficient, but truck drivers and freight brokers still find a way.
How Truck Drivers and Freight Brokers Keep Freight Moving
From avoiding truck accidents to a higher ROI, so much can be accomplished with a more efficient supply chain. Here are 5 ways truckers and freight brokers maximize efficiency.
1. Truckers and Freight Brokers Leverage Technology
All transportation sectors are striving for a higher level of supply chain visibility, lower costs, and more efficient processes. The problems can be solved with a high-quality transportation management system and other tech solutions, such as route optimization software and GPS.
Top freight brokers who are interested in exploring the most reliable load board around should consider Truckstop. Not only is its system perfect for carriers, brokers, and shippers, but it turns the manual tedium of posting loads into an automatic process, saving you time and money.
2. Truckers and Freight Brokers Actively Communicate
A siloed process is simply unacceptable if you want to optimize your supply chain. Fortunately, the trucking industry is typically good at generating a healthy back-and-forth dialog with all of its key players. If it weren’t, people the world over would run out of necessary supplies.
The most efficient trucking companies will do everything in their power to avoid communication breakdowns and “he said, she said” excuses. They do this by documenting everything and delegating specific communication channels for trucking, logistics, or freight broker tasks.
3. Truckers and Freight Brokers Forecast Accurately
High-quality trucking companies are forecasters. They know when they’ll experience a busy season, how many staff members they need to get through it, and what to do during a sudden spike in demand. You can’t plan for everything, but great companies can plan for most things.
Since top trucking companies leverage technology to their advantage, they’ll already have years’ worth of data they can use to make the most accurate forecasting projections. What separates good and great companies is their ability to share data with their valued partners.
4. Truckers and Freight Brokers Become a Top Choice
Any busy professional knows that it’s easier to work with a packed schedule than an open or “change-on-a-dime” schedule. When you have enough freight to keep yourself busy, your goal switches from generating more business to optimizing your routes and becoming more efficient.
If you have a sudden delivery, you’ll need to fit that into your schedule by any means possible. But when you’re the top choice, people already want you to ship your goods, which helps you stick to a more reliable schedule. Everything fits together smoothly, like an assembly line.
5. Truckers and Freight Brokers Do Away With Waste
This point plays into the last one because when you’re a customer’s top choice, you inevitably cut down on waste. If you can plan your routes out well, you eliminate downtime between shipments and pickups. Everyone knows their job and can complete it without hiccups.
With that said, hiccups are going to happen no matter how well you plan. If your trucking company has policies in place that allow you to adjust on the fly, you’ll have no problem staying competitive. This includes eliminating complex processes and hiring on-call staff members.
In Conclusion…
Truckers and freight brokers leverage technology, actively communicate, and do away with waste to ensure their products get to their destinations on time. They need a well-oiled system that maximizes efficiency, or they could cause millions of Americans to go without for days.
