Truck brokers

Cross-border carriers lack a load board analogous to the widely-used tools available to drivers on US domestic moves, something the broker and technology provider Forager is attempting to address.

Investment continues to surge into technologies that enable small truckload carriers to improve administrative and operational aspects of their businesses, with SmartHop’s $12 million funding round the latest example.

Fewer trucking companies are responding to shipper bids, as contract truckload pricing rises by high single-digit percentage rates, Transplace executives said Tuesday.

A significant number of truckload shippers delayed annual bids with the largest US truck freight broker in the fourth quarter to avoid spiking contract rates.

Software providers say the proliferation of integrations between transportation management systems and domestic freight brokers in 2020 hints at a future in which a TMS will no longer be merely a static system, but a living platform.

European truckload broker sennder has vaulted into the upper reaches of venture capital-based logistics startups with a $160 million funding round and a $1 billion valuation.

The integration between AscendTMS’s widely-used transportation management software with predictive pricing and historical benchmark trucking data from DAT Solutions is a signal that users of such systems want more value piped directly into the platforms on which they rely.

The truck driver turnover rate is rising at truckload carriers as they compete for employees; that is spurring a new round of pay hikes for drivers.

Convoy is integrating with AscendTMS, another sign of the importance of enabling small truckload carriers with software to manage driver dispatch and scheduling, which helps give shippers electronic access to more capacity.

A technology-based freight broker has spun out its technology as a standalone transportation management system (TMS), signaling the need to better connect small carriers to surface capacity for shippers.

Interest in drop-and-hook programs continues to grow, with the broker Transfix now offering an “asset-like” service that it says it uses technology to find the right capacity for its shipper customers.

A tighter focus on transportation and technology following a corporate split will improve the service and experience XPO offers to shippers globally, the company and transportation analysts say

Although trucking employment is rising, the year-over-year gap is still large enough to throttle back capacity and keep pricing pressure on shippers.

XPO Logistics will be spun off into two separate businesses, one solely focused on US transportation and the other focusing on US and European contract logistics.

Freight broker Transfix will integrate predictive visibility data from project44 to augment its existing app-based GPS location data as part of a long-term agreement with the multimodal visibility provider.

Loadsmart more than tripled the amount of capital raised through a $90 million round announced Friday as it seeks to automate the brokerage and optimization of US domestic transport modes.

Convoy has seen considerable volume growth for a program under which loads are pre-staged for drivers, prompting the freight broker to develop more predictive capability to route empty equipment to shippers’ facilities.

Shippers will need to look not just at multiple transportation modes, but across modes, to secure capacity in 2021, digital broker Loadsmart said.

Rebid freight now or wait for what may be a calmer first quarter? That’s the question US truck shippers face, Echo Global Logistics chairman and CEO Doug Waggoner says.

Freight brokerage software provider Parade has set up direct integration with two companies that focus on digitally enabling small carriers, which gives brokers using Parade access to that capacity.

Margin transparency is taking root among early-stage freight brokers, with cross-border 3PL Forager saying Wednesday it will provide clear pricing and service fees on any quote provided on its platform.

The long run-up in spot market truckload rates and truck freight demand may be reaching its peak, but don’t expect a quick descent, speakers at the Transplace Shipper Symposium said Wednesday.

Shippers are modifying their approach to truckload contracting, using more short-term “mini-bids” than ever before and turning to technology to improve a process that often breaks down when market prices swing quickly.

Logistics executives do not expect spot truckload rates to soar much higher, but they do not think they will drop either, forcing shippers to collaborate more.

The freight broker Transfix is providing small carriers with free standalone operational technology to align their capacity availability with needs from the company’s shipper customers.

A private equity group has plunged $500 million into Uber Freight, signaling that longer-term investors believe the business model of digital freight matching will gain traction in the years ahead.

The new rate differential tracked by DAT chief scientist Chris Caplice is rising at a faster pace, a sign that shippers will see a greater increase in truckload contract rates.

Shippers moving to mini-bids as truck capacity tightens need more detailed and near-real-time data to match freight lanes and tractor-trailers.

Criticism of the truckload broker Convoy for using venture capital to expand its market share reached a fever pitch this week based on a new offering that helps shippers sidestep the annual bid process, a product incumbent brokers claim is not as innovative as Convoy suggests.

US shippers are returning to the ‘shipper of choice’ model as a peak season unlike any other looms ahead, trucking executives told the virtual CSCMP 2020 Edge conference this week.

A new service from C.H. Robinson could replace the annual truckload bidding process with a more dynamic approach to procuring trucks and increasing savings across networks of freight lanes.

Shippers using third-party vendors to help them manage auditing and paying their freight bills see a sizable advantage in process costs versus those that manage the function in-house, new research has found.

Convoy is providing shippers an avenue to avoid what it considers unnecessary procurement costs associated with negotiating annual truckload bids that aren’t generally honored by either the shipper or carrier.

By acquiring a Chicago-based logistics provider and freight broker from R.R. Donnelley, Canada’s TFI plans to better integrate and scale US operations in freight and e-commerce.

Uber Freight on Tuesday said it is providing large shippers with tools meant to complement their existing transportation management systems (TMSs), products that might signal an evolution from broker to software provider.

The flood of imports to Los Angeles and Long Beach this summer is squeezing truckload and LTL capacity on inland truck routes, more than doubling spot rates to Chicago, as intermodal capacity and e-commerce deadlines remain tight.

Shippers need quicker access to carrier, rate information as lanes, customers, and pricing shift under COVID-19, C.H. Robinson says.

Uber Freight and CH Robinson announced links with accounting and ad hoc project software providers, a sign they need to extend their range of services to reach pools of small shippers.

A tech-enabled cross-border truckload marketplace is giving shippers access to instantly bookable contract rates for up to a year as it seeks to build density with enterprise customers.

A Miami startup intends to create a software platform that levels the playing field for small truckload carriers by giving them a backbone system that also makes their interactions with brokers more consistent.