Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/699972
60 commercial carrier journal | july 2016 TECHNOLOGY: NONASSET TECHNOLOGY they are trying to build," says Robert Brothers, McLeod's director of product development. Carriers already can post available equipment to load boards, but this manu- al process does not give the shipping community immediate visibility to the current location of trucks for more accu- rate freight matching. TMW Systems, a provider of TMS systems for asset and nonasset transpor- tation companies, sees an opportunity to participate in the evolution of load board functionality. The dispatch and load planning information in TMW's software used by carriers could be shared with third parties to identify when and where trucks will be available, says Brad Young, TMW's principal of brokerage, asset light and 3PL divisions. Automated pricing Perhaps a greater challenge than ship- ment visibility is to obtain instant and reliable pricing information from carriers, particularly for spot-market transactions. Online marketplaces such as Ex- pedia.com are used to search for and book hotel reservations and airline tickets, and a number of companies are trying to create a similar experience for booking truckload and less-than- truckload shipments. Due to the complexity of freight transactions, many companies that have developed sophisticated applications that provide instant pricing and ordering features also have brokerage authority to execute the transactions. Other compa- nies have websites that connect shippers with carriers and provide instant quotes and online orders. Last year, uShip created an online marketplace for LTL shipments that gives shippers instant rate quotes by entering a few parameters about their freight. The rate quotes are provided by 35 major LTL carriers that work with uShip to share pricing information using a web service API. The price quotes can change by day of week, equipment type and other factors depending on how each carrier sets up their pricing and shares that information with the marketplace. LTL carriers use uShip for free and frequently are able to reach a new set of shippers, says Dick Metzler, uShip's chief marketing officer. Currently, 350,000 small- and medium-sized shippers pay a match fee to be registered on uShip, many of which are merchants that sell their larger-than-parcel products through Amazon and eBay. More than half of the shippers' trans- actions on uShip are conducted using mobile devices to eliminate phone calls, faxes and texts to arrange transportation. Shipment tracking information is provid- ed electronically by carriers. Compared to the first quarter of 2015 when its site was in its infancy, uShip has increased revenue by 228 percent, Metzler says. Other services allow fleets to provide real-time rates to the TMS systems used by their customers and prospects. Chino, Calif.-based Sunset Pacific Transportation uses a pricing engine API from Project44 to automate communica- tions with shippers and brokers looking for spot quotes. The 135-truck carrier consolidates par- cels and LTL shipments into truckloads outbound from California to locations nationwide. Its return trips to California are full truckload moves. The API directs rates from Sunset Pacific's TMS system into the TMS systems of its shipper and broker cus- tomers. The fleet also uses the API on its corporate website to present rates to customers and prospects through an instant search tool. The impact of ELDs Companies that purchase transporta- tion are preparing for a capacity short- age caused by the electronic logging device mandate, making visibility to pricing and other data more critical as the December 2017 enforcement deadline approaches. Industry studies show that 53 percent of carriers currently have ELDs, but that means 47 percent of carriers don't have the technology. Studies also have shown that 43 percent of brokers have no knowl- edge of the current usage of ELDs among their carriers. Not knowing which carriers use ELDs exposes shippers and logistics companies to the risk of losing capacity as more fleets implement the technology. Also, some carriers might not be able to sustain their contract rates as they tighten up on hours-of-service compliance. Last year, rates were in favor of carriers, but they have softened considerably TMW Systems' IDSC MatchAdvice shows optimal matches for drivers and loads. The company sees an opportunity to participate in the evolution of load board functionality. The uShip online marketplace for less-than-truck- load shipments gives shippers instant rate quotes by enter- ing a few param- eters about their freight.