By Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
TruckerTools LLC, a Reston, Va.-based provider of trip planning, shipment visibility and freight matching solutions said today that West Chester, Ohio-based non-asset-based transportation and logistics services provider Kingsgate Logistics Services is now fully using TruckerTools’ “Book it Now” offering, a cloud-based software platform that fully automates the process of booking truckload shipments with carriers.
TruckerTools’ officials said that Book it Now functions as a carrier collaboration tool that automates the process in which a trucker or carrier selects, secures, and confirms acceptance of a broker’s offered load, adding that Kingsgate is one of the first freight brokers to use it. What’s more, it stated that Book it Now is the first automated load booking tool that has entered full commercial production and available to 3PLs, brokers, and carriers, adding that it connects with broker TMS systems in a plug and play integration that does not require major changes in process change to take advantage of its automation benefits that, in turn, reduce the variable cost of covering a load to zero.
As for how Book it Now works, TruckerTools said that it accelerates and simplifies the process for how a trucker accepts a load through one click access to accurate and real-time information needed for a carrier to pick a load. When a shipment is accepted and the shipment is booked, a rate confirmation is then automatically generated, with all other shipment data sent to the driver’s smart phone, at which point the driver clicks on the pickup location and gets the shipment.
And when a driver or dispatcher clicks on Book it Now, TruckerTools said the load is then booked and recorded into a broker’s TMS and a rate confirmation is sent to the driver or dispatcher, with the load scheduled for pickup.
Tom Curee, Kingsgate’s vice president of strategic development, told LM that the main benefits of using Book it Now include: increased capacity to expand our coverage for current clients; visibility into an extended network of carriers who are fully vetted; and quicker response in regards to coverage and service opportunities.
And from a Kingsgate service perspective, he cited the ability to reach additional capacity in an extended carrier base, quicker access to reach additional capacity in an extended carrier base, quicker access to freight for its dedicated carriers, and quicker response times for carriers so they can allot their equipment without waiting on back and forth communication.
As for what drove the need for TruckerTools to roll out Book it Now, Prasad Gollapalli, Trucker Tools founder and chief executive, told LM that it was driven by customers – small fleets, it calls “micro carriers” with 10 trucks or less, and independent owner operators and brokers…[but] mainly by those owner operators and small carriers who already use our Trucker Tools mobile app.”
“They wanted a fully automated platform that aggregates their favorite brokers (not every broker) and puts them in one place,” he explained. “On the broker side, their need was for a system to automate common manual tasks of covering a load and reducing the variable cost of that workflow to zero or near-zero.”
When asked what the biggest competitive advantages of Book it Now from a TruckerTools’ perspective, Gollapalli said that Book-It-Now is unique in that it blends the best of all worlds and doesn’t force the broker or carrier to significantly change their habits yet still gets them close to full automation in way that is easier for them to adopt.
“Unlike the Uber-type (or any digital broker) model, the Book-It-Now platform aggregates, in one place, all the loads from top brokers that the carrier works with,” he said. “This eliminates the need for the carrier to jump from system to system (or app to app) for each broker (which is true with the digital brokers and large brokers who are building their own systems). Plus, it makes it easier to compare all these loads.”
And he also pointed out that Book-It-Now lets the carrier to look ahead into the markets that these loads take them into, to see what is their “re-loadablility” in those markets.
“There is a high level of machine learning and AI behind providing this information to the carrier, which we simply call ‘better reloads,’” he said. “This allows the carriers to book multiple loads in advance, which saves them time and increases their profits. The platform is built around our ‘all-in-one’ mobile app for the truckers/carriers, further completing the tool-set of functions that the carrier wants and needs while on the road – a true work process app or lifestyle app for drivers.”
Original Source: https://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/truckertools_collaboration_with_kingsgate_logistics_for_automated_load_book