Your bill of lading may be causing delays 

BOL’s help shippers, carriers and warehouses identify what needs to be loaded onto a truck, when it needs to be delivered and any other special requirements. Many shippers send brokers and carriers shipment details through some combination of emails, PDFs or manual entry into a booking system and then create a BOL separately. This duplication of work leads to lost time and unnecessary errors as the information the driver receives can be different than what is stated on the BOL. For example, a tiny misstep in typing out the pickup number can cause a big delay for the shipment at pickup. This leads to back and forth between the driver, carrier or broker, and shipper to try and identify where the issue is with pickup, source the right pickup number and get the shipment on it’s way. 

Streamline shipping with Automated BOLs

Convoy’s Automated BOLs simplify the BOL creation process to ensure that the information assigned drivers receive matches the information on the BOL. When businesses book their shipments on-demand through Convoy’s shipper platform, a BOL containing all of the necessary information is automatically generated and stored. All members of a transportation team can access and download the BOL from anywhere, simply by logging in. The BOL also updates in real-time as users change the shipment information, such as appointment time, special instructions, order numbers and more. This guarantees that the information received by the driver and the warehouse will match, thus reducing delays at pickup and delivery. 

Sign up for the Convoy shipper platform for free, and get access to instant guaranteed rates, real-time ETAs, online booking – and the new Automated BOLs.

The post Reduce pickup and delivery delays with Convoy’s Automated Bill of Ladings appeared first on Convoy.

As part of our ongoing effort to increase pricing transparency and flexibility for our customers, we’re excited to announce appointment scheduling discounts within the Convoy online platform. Starting today, shippers who choose to schedule and confirm their own appointments will get $20 back on every spot shipment booked through our digital freight network. For a shipper with 1,250 annual spot loads, this would result in $25,000 in savings just from appointment scheduling alone.

What we’re hearing from our customers is that in some cases, facilities are so well-known by their team that they’d prefer to handle scheduling, whereas for other locations, they’d rather not spend the time scheduling and instead rely on the expertise of our operations team. Compared to other digital freight platforms, our solution is unique in that it offers shippers a choice between time savings and cost-savings when they self-schedule. We’ve been piloting this feature with several customers over the past few months including Athletic Brewing Co., and Dollar Shave Club with great results.

“Our business is growing fast – as we expand distribution it’s important for us to have freight partners we can trust to ensure products are reliably delivered to new locations without much oversight from our team. Convoy’s online platform gives us the capacity, flexibility and tools we need to get it done.”  Jamie Lissette, COO Athletic Brewing

“Convoy’s online platform has been excellent in saving time and securing shipments for Dollar Shave Club. The user friendly platform provides expedited scheduling and we look forward to continuing our partnership.” Ryan Wuerz, Fulfillment Warehouse Manager

Book freight with flexible appointment scheduling in the Convoy online platform

For those who prefer to have Convoy schedule appointments, we provide scheduling services for both pickup and delivery by default. Scheduling services are included in the instant, guaranteed quote visible at the bottom of the shipment details screen when you’re building a load.

To claim the $20 discount, simply hit the “Claim” button in the green offer bar, and “No” will be automatically selected for scheduling both Pickup and Delivery. This will expose all the fields needed to self-schedule appointments, and adjust the price automatically before the shipment is booked.

We’re excited to offer shippers more options for saving money or time when they most need it through this feature. Try it out for yourself today with the Convoy online platform.

Read more: 

• Four ways Convoy helps simplify small business shipping
• Convoy adds pricing transparency for small and medium businesses with automated spot quote benchmarking
• How to quote, book, and GPS track freight online in minutes with the Convoy online platform

Convoy shipper platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, take a look at our freight booking software.

The post Appointment scheduling discounts: Save time when you need to, save money when you want to. appeared first on Convoy.

1. Immediate access to thousands of high-quality carriers

A time-consuming part of establishing an efficient transportation strategy is finding the right mix of carriers. For small businesses, this can be tough as it involves a lot of research, trial and error, and often results in restructuring budgets or routing guides.

With Convoy, businesses get immediate access to thousands of pre-vetted carriers. Technology does the work of matching your shipment to whichever carrier is the best fit based on current location, service rating, cost and more. Take the guesswork out of tendering shipments by leveraging Convoy’s industry-leading quality and compliance program to ensure the highest quality and most efficient carriers are selected for each shipment. 

2. Instant automated freight quotes

The Convoy instant freight quote tool allows you to get a rate from Convoy simply by providing pickup and delivery information. This saves precious time spent on phone calls, emails and wait times on hearing back from individual carriers. Convoy’s automated quote benchmarking feature also compares our quote to market indices and lets you know whether the rate you are seeing is above, below, or about the same as the market average. This is a powerful tool for small businesses who need to compare rates across a variety of different carriers to determine how competitive the rates are and feel more confident about booking. 

You can also use the instant quote tool to get a better sense of where the market is. We have seen many businesses using the Convoy shipper platform pull quotes to simply understand where the market is and what they can expect from their network of carriers. 

3. Real-time GPS shipment tracking

Another thing that can really eat into a transportation team’s day is tracking down the status of shipments. We have heard from customers that this can take up to three hours per day – a whopping 37% of their total capacity for those who work 8 hour shifts. 

Convoy uses technology to not just connect shippers and drivers, but also track drivers as they are moving shipments. All Convoy drivers are tracked via GPS so that you can see your shipment’s real-time status and progress. This information is accessible to shippers through the Convoy shipper platform. Simply log in and view the real-time ETA of your shipment, plus where your truck is, on a map. 

With Convoy, you can also share the tracking and status of a shipment with your customers or anyone else who needs to know the progress of the load through a shareable tracking link. You can easily insert this live tracking URL into an email, TMS system, or other management tool to extend Convoy’s real-time GPS visibility and shipment status data to your entire network. Shareable tracking helps you reduce the manual and time-consuming chain of phone calls between carriers, dispatch and customer service because now all of your partners have access to the real-time shipment status. 

4. Automated freight insights 

Getting insights into your freight can be time consuming or downright impossible, especially if you use a large mix of carriers. Because technology is at the core of Convoy, every step of a shipment is tracked and measured. And we feed those insights right back to you!

We deliver personalized freight insights to shippers on their Convoy loads to provide greater visibility across shipments and highlight areas that can reduce costs and improve quality. Our reports include wait times and detention insights, pickup (OTP) and dropoff (OTD) metrics, facility ratings, incidental breakdowns, and sustainability measures. The more you ship, the better these insights become.

Convoy shipper platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, take a look at our freight booking software.

Sign up for the Convoy shipper platform and start simplifying your shipping today. 

The post Four ways Convoy helps simplify small business shipping appeared first on Convoy.

Share real-time GPS freight tracking in two clicks

You know exactly where your take-out delivery is at every step of its journey to your front door – so why are so many businesses still faced with sending 40,000 pounds of product onto the open road with no real-time tracking guarantee? Even with all of the freight technology at our fingertips, getting visibility into the status of shipments still ranks in the top three logistics challenges for shippers today.

Businesses who ship with Convoy tell us they most commonly need to give truckload visibility and status updates to their own customer service and sales reps, warehouse and delivery location staff, as well as end customers. Traditionally, this required a manual and time-consuming chain of phone calls that sometimes had to be repeated several times during the course of a shipment. With shareable tracking links surfaced in multiple convenient locations within the Convoy shipper platform, you can now easily insert a live tracking URL into an email, TMS system, or other management tool.

In addition to reducing the time and hassle of sharing status updates, freight tracking links can also help with warehousing optimization. When facility managers know precisely when a truck is going to show up, they can improve dock scheduling, operations, and labor management as a result.

If you’re starting from the Convoy shipper platform home page, simply locate the shipment you want to share tracking details for, and select “View Tracking Page”

This will open the shipment status card which is a customer-friendly view of your freight updated in real time. The status card includes shipment details, the precise GPS driver location on a map view, and an ETA down to the minute.

To share this status card with your customers and supply chain partners, simply click on the “Share Link” button under the map view, and the link will be copied to your clipboard. From there, you can paste the link in an email, a TMS field, spreadsheet – really anywhere you need. This enables easy access to continuously updated shipment status information on this load for anyone in your supply chain network.

Providing industry-leading location visibility with driver compliance

The value of having GPS tracking is only realized when drivers use a GPS-enabled app and turn on location services. One of the biggest challenges in providing consistent GPS data for truckload freight is driver app usage. Standalone GPS tracking apps and platform players struggle with this, and provide spotty data as a result.

In contrast, the Convoy app is the way that drivers find, view, bid on, and get paid for the loads they haul.  Because of this, Convoy has industry-leading use of its app and location services, providing supply chain teams with reliable location visibility on their shipments.

Unlock new levels of supply chain visibility

Today’s announcement is part of Convoy’s ongoing commitment to unlock new levels of supply chain visibility for our customers. With a broad set of tools and services for tracking shipments and gaining insights into facility performance, we’re helping shippers identify operational inefficiencies, improve customer service, and lower their total cost of shipping. 

Ready for more insight and control? Start shipping with Convoy today.

If you like taking matters into your own hands – get started with the Convoy shipper platform for direct self-serve access to Convoy’s digital freight network. Get instant upfront pricing for spot freight, and book spot and contract shipments with just a few clicks.

Read more: 

• Free White Paper: Supply Chain Visibility and the Digital Freight Network
• Why every shipper should expect real-time shipment visibility

Convoy shipper platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, take a look at our freight booking software.

The post Convoy rolls out sharable GPS freight tracking links for shippers appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier falloffs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Kennewick, WA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Eugene, OR → Seattle, WA Get freight quote

Seattle, WA → Danville, VA Get freight quote

Bend, OR → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Prescott, AZ → Riverside, CA Get freight quote

Santa Barbara, CA → Vallejo, CA Get freight quote

Fresno, CA → Reno, NV Get freight quote

Fresno, CA → Carson City, NV Get freight quote

El Centro, CA → Napa, CA Get freight quote

Sioux City, IA → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Louisville, KY → Springfield, IL Get freight quote

Flint, MI→ Erie, PA Get freight quote

Dallas, TX → Laredo, TX Get freight quote

Tulsa, OK → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Laredo, TX → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Houma, LA→ Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

San Antonio, TX → Tampa, FL Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Houston, TX Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Lebanon, PA Get freight quote

Gainsville, GA → Dothan, AL Get freight quote

Athens, GA → Anderson, SC Get freight quote

Valdosta, GA → Jacksonville, NC Get freight quote

Savannah, GA → Philadelphia, PA Get freight quote

Get an instant freight quote and lock in these low rates with online booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 8/10/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Whether you are looking to book with Convoy, or a different carrier in your network, businesses can leverage the Convoy freight quote calculator to quickly compare the rates they are seeing to the market and view benchmarking insights. This gives businesses a one-stop shop to quickly get a pulse on spot market pricing and understand the baseline for a competitive rate. 

Compare your rates with rates from the Convoy freight quote calculator

Use the Convoy freight quote calculator to quickly generate a rate for your shipment and compare it to the rates you have in-hand. The instant quote for a Convoy spot shipment is accurate up to the minute and reflects real-time market conditions and the risk profile of the shipment.

Use Convoy’s automated quote benchmarking insights 

With automated quote benchmarking, shippers using the instant freight quote calculator see not only a rate, but also an indicator of how competitive that rate is compared to the market.  Convoy’s proprietary algorithm references industry pricing indices as well as historical quote data to indicate whether the rate is lower, about the same, or higher than prevailing market rates. Businesses can use this as a way to gain additional context around the rates they are seeing and what they should consider a competitive rate. 

By using Convoy’s instant freight quote calculator and automated benchmarking, businesses now have an additional tool to help them understand market conditions and identify whether they are receiving competitive spot rates. 

Ready to book? 

If you like what you see, you can also use Convoy to easily book your shipments. Every shipment is backed by our network of tens of thousands of reliable carriers and a team of operations specialists who ensure 100% coverage and high service levels on every load.

Sign up for the Convoy shipper platform and get access to Convoy’s instant freight rate calculator for free.

Convoy shipper platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, click here.

The post Is your spot freight quote competitive? Convoy’s freight quote calculator will tell you. appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers currently spend a lot of time logging into multiple online platforms, or contacting several brokers for spot auctions to ensure they get a fair price-to-quality balance. This process alone can increase shipping costs substantially as the time to pickup gets shorter. With the large swings we’ve seen recently in spot volume and pricing due to the COVID-19 surges, the need for efficient spot freight booking is greater than ever. This is a problem that digital freight networks are uniquely suited to address.

We compare our spot quote rates to the market so you don’t have to

With automated quote benchmarking, shippers are now able to see when Convoy’s instant spot quote is lower, about the same, or higher than prevailing market rates right inside the quote workflow. Our proprietary algorithm references industry pricing indices as well as historical quote data from Convoy to provide shippers an alternative to the hassle of manual spot auction price comparisons. With this added transparency, shippers can use the pricing insights to make real-time scheduling and booking decisions inside the Convoy shipper platform. 

The instant guaranteed quote for a Convoy spot shipment is accurate up to the minute. It automatically adjusts based on market conditions, the risk profile of the shipment, and our 100% coverage guarantee. Convoy pricing can be well below the market average on our highest-volume lanes, which benefit from exceptional carrier efficiency. Shippers will now be able to see how much they can save compared to market average rates when booking with Convoy.

If the quote comes back with an average price relative to the market, we’re transparent that it’s falling within a normal pricing range. Convoy shipments benefit from high service levels, and our pricing guarantee means we will cover the load and recover from driver falloffs at no additional cost to the shipper.

When the spot market is surging, the turnaround time on a shipment is very tight, or when we have low carrier density on a particular lane, our rates can be above prevailing market rates. With spot quote benchmarking, we are now able to deliver visibility and context as to why rates may be high.

With increased pricing transparency, our goal is to save shippers time, and help them better understand the price-to-quality tradeoffs of booking with Convoy. Ultimately, we want our customers to experience a new way of quoting and booking spot freight – a refreshing alternative to the manual, time-consuming process so many shippers face today.

Freight technology solutions for small and medium businesses

As our customer base has grown, we’ve learned a lot about the nuanced and differentiated needs of shippers based on the size and structure of their operations. We’ve worked directly with shippers to develop and introduce a number of new features to streamline and improve freight management within the Convoy shipper platform:

• Small and mid-sized shippers often miss out on the cost-savings, flexibility, and high quality service that contract freight provides. We’ve streamlined and automated the contract rate process so smaller shippers can secure and book contract freight through the Convoy shipper platform within 2 business days.
• Over half of our customers have sustainability initiatives. With the option to select green appointment windows, shippers can use Convoy technology to maximize efficiency and reduce carbon emissions by up to 36%.
• Personalized shipment insights and supply chain visibility metrics are delivered to all shippers every month to help them improve forecasts, adjust to market shifts, and respond to operational problems. While most freight partners only share this data with their largest customers, we believe that shippers of all sizes deserve access to their data to help improve operations.
• In addition, we’re piloting expanded service, pricing, and payment models including the ability to book shipments with credit cards, offering discounts to shippers who prefer to schedule their own appointments, as well as a sharable tracking link that shippers can use to extend our 24/7 real-time GPS tracking capability to customers and partners.

We’re excited about the impact that digital freight technology can have with small and medium businesses to optimize operations, improve quality, and achieve sustainability goals. As we all learn to adjust to the ‘new normal’ created by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are putting continued and focused investment in product and service improvements to meet evolving shipper needs.

Get started with the Convoy shipper platform

The Convoy shipper platform gives shippers direct access to Convoy’s digital freight network. It’s backed by tens of thousands of reliable carriers and a team of operations specialists who ensure 100% coverage and high service levels on every load.

With our online platform, shippers get instant upfront pricing for spot freight, can book spot and contract shipments with just a few clicks, and receive GPS tracking from start to finish. Get complete transparency and control over your freight with the efficiency, quality, and cost-savings provided by our network. Learn more or get an instant quote at www.convoy.com/bookatruck

Read more: How to quote, book, and GPS track freight online in minutes with the Convoy shipper platform

10 Considerations for Shipping Contract, Backup, and Spot

Convoy shipper platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, take a look at our freight booking software.

The post Convoy adds pricing transparency for small and medium businesses with automated spot quote benchmarking appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier falloffs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Salem, OR → Redding, CA Get freight quote

Kennewick, WA → Scranton, PA Get freight quote

Salem, OR → Jonesboro, AR Get freight quote

Napa, CA → Sacramento, CA Get freight quote

San Jose, CA → San Francisco, CA Get freight quote

Santa Barbara, CA → Vallejo, CA Get freight quote

Fresno, CA → Reno, NV Get freight quote

Santa Rosa, CA → Vallejo, CA Get freight quote

Greeley, CO → Toledo, OH Get freight quote

Louisville, KY → Ithaca, NY Get freight quote

Detroit, MI→ Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Evansville, IN → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

Toledo, OH → Hagerstown, MD Get freight quote

Tulsa, OK → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Fort Smith, AR → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Houma, LA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Laredo, TX → Austin, TX Get freight quote

Tulsa, OK → Scranton, PA Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Austin, TX Get freight quote

New York, NY → Laredo, TX Get freight quote

Providence, RI → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Hartford, CT → Bangor, ME Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Indianapolis, IN Get freight quote

Birmingham, AL → Lubbock, TX Get freight quote

Valdosta, GA → Jacksonville, NC Get freight quote

Fort Walton Beach, FL → Albany, GA Get freight quote

Tampa, FL → Cape Coral, FL Get freight quote

Birmingham, AL → Longview, TX Get freight quote

Get an instant freight quote and lock in these low rates with online booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

Convoy Shipper Platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, click here.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 7/27/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Here are three questions you should ask yourself when getting an instant freight quote online. 

Is this freight rate guaranteed? 

Many providers offer instant rates based on simplistic pricing models, such as what they paid for the truck last week. This makes it hard for them to stand by the rate as a variety of factors such as seasonality and unexpected market surges can quickly impact the cost of a truck. In fact, we have heard from shippers that after they book, the carrier or broker will come back to them and ask for more money to get the load covered. One of our customers said he experienced hikes of 40% above the initial online quote with a couple other known industry players, and was unpleasantly surprised when his invoices came in substantially higher than expected.

We generate pricing in real-time based on our proprietary algorithm which uses load data, current market condition data, and considers our performance on historical loads to deliver instant rates. When you book one of Convoy’s online rates, we guarantee coverage at that rate. No more surprises when the final invoice arrives!

Will the carrier or broker give back or fall-off the load? 

When you book your online shipment, make sure the provider is guaranteeing coverage for the shipment. A carrier or broker will have a driver available but if that driver falls off, they might come back to you and try to return the load. This causes a last minute scramble for coverage, and often means you are paying much more. 

At Convoy, we never give loads back. In fact, our proactive quality monitoring helps us reduce fall-offs at the onset. 100% of Convoy carriers meet our rigorous standards before being assigned to a load which takes into account on time percentage, fall-off percentage, crash history, app usage, and speeding and traffic violations. Even when fall-offs happen, Convoy includes recovery and assigns a new carrier automatically at no additional cost to the shipper.

Will my shipment be serviced on-time? 

If the rate you see looks like a great deal, make sure the carrier or broker can service the shipment as promised. Everyone on a transportation team knows the headache and wasted time that comes from trying to track down missing shipments, reschedule missed appointments and the broken trust of telling your customer a shipment will be late. 

At Convoy, we put technology to work for us, proactively monitoring shipments using GPS technology. The Convoy system automatically identifies when a carrier may be late to pick-up and sets to work finding a new carrier. This happens immediately, removing any human error or bias that can lead to a bad experience for our customer. 

Next time you go to book an instant freight rate, make sure you aren’t in for any surprises. Get instant, guaranteed freight quotes from the Convoy shipper platform and experience hassle-free online booking for full-truckload freight.

Convoy Shipper Platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, click here.

The post Is this online freight quote for real? Three questions to ask before you book. appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier falloffs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Salem, OR → Redding, CA Get freight quote

Salem, OR → Jonesboro, AR Get freight quote

Longview, WA → Portland, OR Get freight quote

Santa Barbara, CA → Vallejo, CA Get freight quote

San Luis Obispo, CA → Lakeland, FL Get freight quote

Santa Rosa, CA → Vallejo, CA Get freight quote

Vallejo, CA → Salem, OR Get freight quote

Hanford, CA → Modesto, CA Get freight quote

Louisville, KY → Ithaca, NY Get freight quote

Kokomo, IN → Manchester, NH Get freight quote

Evansville, IN → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

Detroit, MI → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Bloomington, IL → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

San Antonio, TX → Ocala, FL Get freight quote

Laredo, TX → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Tulsa, OK → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Laredo, TX → Jacksonville, FL Get freight quote

Laredo, TX → Austin, TX Get freight quote

Syracuse, NY local Get freight quote

Pittsburgh, PA → Winchester, VA Get freight quote

New York, NY → Danville, IL Get freight quote

Providence, RI → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Hagerstown, MD local Get freight quote

Greenville, SC → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Charlotte, NC → Winchester, VA Get freight quote

Spartanburg, SC → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Tampa, FL → Cape Coral, FL Get freight quote

Birmingham, AL → Longview, TX Get freight quote

Get an instant freight quote and lock in these low rates with online booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 7/20/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier falloffs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Corvalis, OR → Grand Rapids, MI Get freight quote

Kennewick, WA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Eugene, OR → Seattle, WA Get freight quote

Eugene, OR → Vallejo, CA Get freight quote

Napa, CA → Sacramento, CA Get freight quote

San Luis Obispo, CA → Lakeland, FL Get freight quote

Santa Rosa, CA → Vallejo, CA Get freight quote

Vallejo, CA → Salem, OR Get freight quote

Yuba City, CA → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Fort Wayne, IN → Bangor, ME Get freight quote

Fort Wayne, IN → Burlington, VT Get freight quote

Kokomo, IN → Manchester, NH Get freight quote

Detroit, MI → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Bloomington, IL → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

El Paso, TX local Get freight quote

San Antonio, TX → Ocala, FL Get freight quote

Laredo, TX → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

San Antonio, TX → Tampa, FL Get freight quote

Fort Smith, AR → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Pittsburgh, PA → Winchester, VA Get freight quote

Ithaca, NY → New York, NY Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Austin, TX Get freight quote

Providence, RI → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Raleigh, NC Get freight quote

Greenville, SC → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Spartanburg, SC → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Tampa, FL → Cape Coral, FL Get freight quote

Birmingham, AL → Longview, TX Get freight quote

Valdosta, GA → Jacksonville, NC Get freight quote

Get a quote and lock in these low rates with instant booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 7/13/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Many shippers have heard the term digital freight network (DFN) thrown around over the past few months. DFNs are often associated with automation, visibility and efficiency, but what exactly does all of this mean for small businesses? Here are four ways that a DFN is specifically set up to help small shippers lower costs and get exceptional freight shipping services through speedy coverage, increased efficiency, and higher service levels. 

1. Speed coverage with automated freight matching

We often hear small shippers complain about poor experiences with brokers. When you look at a brokers business model, it’s clear as to why. First off, the success of a traditional brokerage is built around capturing the highest margin on every single load with brokers manually identifying available trucks. This takes a lot of time and small shippers are often deprioritized when the market is tight or the broker is busy finding coverage for high-volume shippers. 

Convoy automates the matching of trucks to shipments, which drastically reduces the time it takes to find the most cost and time-efficient truck for every load. This means that even the smallest shippers get access to speedy coverage and the assurance  that all shipments will be serviced on time.

2. Get the best carrier moving your freight

A digital freight network democratizes access to freight, ensuring that all loads are available to tens of thousands of carriers simultaneously, so the best driver is selected to run your freight.

There are about 3 million trucks and 1 million carriers in the US. To keep their trucks full, these carriers maintain relationships with multiple brokers attempting to get visibility into more loads. No matter how hard they try, most carriers see only a fraction of all available freight at any given time. Traditional brokerage reps have their own network and carrier relationships, narrowing down their options to a fragmented group. When you tender a shipment to a broker, your load is only being offered to a small subset of the carriers in that broker’s total network. In contrast, Convoy gives small shippers unrestricted access to our entire pool of vetted carriers for every shipment.

3. Higher service levels due to network effects 

As the Convoy digital freight network grows, it creates more efficiency that directly benefits small shippers. When new shippers join the network, drivers have more options to get the lanes they want to run and the freight they want to carry, which we’ve found translates to higher service levels. When large shippers join Convoy’s network, small shippers also get the advantage of these benefits. With more capacity, trucks are more efficiently matched, keeping them full and earning. Because carriers can earn more in a given timeframe, the rate they are willing to accept for each individual load is often a little lower, which in turn lowers the price we can offer to our shippers.

The results are clear: high volume on a lane increases service levels and improves buying power. By pooling all of this volume into Convoy’s digital freight network, all of our shippers get to reap these benefits, including small shippers who often don’t have the volume to unlock these efficiencies.

4. Lower the total cost to ship freight

Traditional brokers often look at their margin opportunities on a shipment by shipment basis, focusing on incremental profit, not efficiency. Smaller shippers often get the short end of the stick with a traditional broker model because they may not have contract pricing in place and they lack the leverage to demand lower prices. A digital freight network looks at the bigger picture, taking into account all volume and then applying economies of scale to reduce costs over time for everyone involved.

As Convoy grows volume on top lanes, we get more carriers on the app and are able to increase the automated matching and pricing of trucks. With more carriers, we get a fully connected view of what trucks are available which means we can source capacity below market rate – for every shipper. 

If you have quoted freight lanes before and the prices seemed high, it’s because we haven’t reached this volume density yet. A digital freight network’s pricing adapts to changes in the market. No more crystal ball pricing on Christmas tree season or produce. When the market swings, we adapt.

If you want to see how digital freight network’s are changing the game for small shippers, sign up for the Convoy shipper platform and book your first shipment today, or get a sign-up free quote.

Convoy Shipper Platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, click here.

The post How a digital freight network delivers Enterprise-level freight shipping services to small businesses appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier falloffs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Eugene, OR → Vallejo, CA Get freight quote

San Francisco, CA local Get freight quote

Portland, OR → Reno, NV Get freight quote

Phoenix, AZ → Ogden, UT Get freight quote

Kennewick, WA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Riverside, CA → Green Bay, WI Get freight quote

Napa, CA → Sacramento, CA Get freight quote

Vallejo, CA → Santa Antonio, TX Get freight quote

Vallejo, CA → San Antonio, TX Get freight quote

Dallas, TX local Get freight quote

Fort Wayne, IN → Bangor, ME Get freight quote

Louisville, KY → Bellingham, WA Get freight quote

Detroit, MI → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Bloomington, IL → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Louisville, KY → Springfield, IL Get freight quote

Oklahoma City, OK → McAllen, TX Get freight quote

El Paso, TX local Get freight quote

Houma, LA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

San Antonio, TX → Ocala, FL Get freight quote

For Smith, AR → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

New Haven, CT → New York, NY Get freight quote

Ithaca, NY → New York, NY Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Austin, TX Get freight quote

Providence, RI → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Allentown, PA Get freight quote

Tampa, FL → Cape Coral, FL Get freight quote

Winston, NC → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

Greenville, SC → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Birmingham, AL → Longview, TX Get freight quote

Charlottesville, VA → Chicago, IL Get freight quote

Get a quote and lock in these low rates with instant booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 7/6/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Reducing Fall-offs With Proactive Quality Monitoring 

Before Convoy even assigns a carrier to a shipment, each carrier undergoes automated and rigorous quality monitoring that includes up-to-the minute confirmation of compliance status. 

We start by gathering extensive carrier safety and compliance data, and then apply machine learning. Our algorithm processes thousands of inputs—such as carrier on time percentage, fall-off percentage, crash history, app usage, and speeding and traffic violations—across millions of records spanning the past 10 years, ultimately producing individual scores for the tens of thousands of carriers in our network. Then, we use automation to analyze compliance with those scores within seconds, every day, with every load to either qualify or disqualify carriers to haul loads.

Carriers who fail to meet our rigorous standards are automatically put on our “Do Not Use” list. This ensures that every carrier assigned to pick up a load has a proven track record of excellence and is far less likely to fall-off loads.

Mitigating Falloffs Through Automation

Even with all of these quality and compliance processes in place, fallofs can still happen. Drivers may break down or be delayed unexpectedly at a previous pickup. It takes a traditional broker 30 minutes to contact 10 drivers to recover from a falloff. At Convoy we have automated 97% of our brokering process, which gives us the ability to contact up to 10 times as many drivers as our closest competitors in the same amount of time. This speed means that we are able to source a new driver so quickly that shippers never even know there was a falloff to begin with.

Additionally, Convoy leverages GPS tracking to automatically identify whether a carrier will be able to make a pickup. For example, if the Convoy system identifies that a driver assigned to a load is 6 hours away from a pickup scheduled in 3 hours, it will automatically remove the carrier and get to work finding a new coverage option. This happens immediately, removing any human error or bias that can lead to a bad experience for our customer.

Start Shipping with Confidence 

If you are a small shipper looking to book now with our online platform, sign up here. Or, learn more about Convoy and the benefits of using digital freight network. 

The post How shippers can avoid carrier fall-offs and recover quickly with Convoy appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier falloffs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Kennewick, WA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

San Francisco, CA local Get freight quote

Portland, OR → Reno, NV Get freight quote

Phoenix, AZ → Ogden, UT Get freight quote

Salem, OR → Dallas, TX Get freight quote

Riverside, CA → Green Bay, WI Get freight quote

Napa, CA → Sacramento, CA Get freight quote

Fresno, CA local Get freight quote

Vallejo, CA → Santa Barbara, CA Get freight quote

Salt Lake City, UT → Miami, FL Get freight quote

Pine Bluff, AR → Charlotte, NC Get freight quote

Detroit, MI → Elizabethtown, KY Get freight quote

Oshkosh, WI → Sandusky, OH Get freight quote

Bloomington, IL → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Louisville, KY → Utica, NY Get freight quote

Oklahoma City, OK → McAllen, TX Get freight quote

Houma, LA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Laredo, TX local Get freight quote

El Paso, TX local Get freight quote

San Antonio, TX → Tampa, FL Get freight quote

Pittsburgh, PA → Winchester, VA Get freight quote

New Haven, CT → New York, NY Get freight quote

Reading, PA → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Erie, PA → Austin, TX Get freight quote

Portland, ME local Get freight quote

Tampa, FL → Cape Coral, FL Get freight quote

Warner Robins, GA → Canton, OH Get freight quote

Greenville, SC → Buffalo, NY Get freight quote

Charlottesville, VA → Chicago, IL Get freight quote

Augusta, GA → Nashville, TN Get freight quote

Get a quote and lock in these low rates with instant booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 6/29/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier falloffs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Reno, NV → Indianapolis, IN Get freight quote

Kennewick, WA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Portland, OR → Allentown, PA Get freight quote

Billings, MT → Columbus, OH Get freight quote

Portland, OR local Get freight quote

Vallejo, CA → Salem, OR Get freight quote

Las Vegas, NV → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

Napa, CA → Sacramento, CA Get freight quote

Santa Rosa, CA → Modesto, CA Get freight quote

Salt Lake City, UT → Miami, FL Get freight quote

Springfield, IL → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

Joplin, MO → Laredo, TX Get freight quote

Pinebluff, AR → Charlotte, NC Get freight quote

Columbus, IN local Get freight quote

Des Moines, IA → Burlington, VT Get freight quote

Houma, LA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Lafayette, LA → Miami, FL Get freight quote

Waco, TX → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

Laredo, TX local Get freight quote

Tulsa, OK → Scranton, PA Get freight quote

Danville, VA → New York, NY Get freight quote

New York, NY → Binghamton, NY Get freight quote

Pittsburgh, PA → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Springfield, MA → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

Worcester, MA local Get freight quote

Dothan, AL → Tallahassee, FL Get freight quote

Tampa, FL → Cape Coral, FL Get freight quote

Atlanta, GA → Dubuque, IA Get freight quote

Charlottesville, VA → Chicago, IL Get freight quote

Atlanta, GA → Gulfport, MS Get freight quote

Get a quote and lock in these low rates with instant booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 6/22/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier falloffs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Kennewick, WA → Brownsville, TX Get freight quote

Portland, OR → Allentown, PA Get freight quote

Fresno, CA → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Yakima, WA → Cincinnati, OH Get freight quote

Portland, OR local Get freight quote

Salina, CA local Get freight quote

Napa, CA → Sacramento, CA Get freight quote

Reno, NV → Indianapolis, IN Get freight quote

Fresno, CA → Carson City, NV Get freight quote

Vallejo, CA → San Antonio, TX Get freight quote

Joplin, MO → Laredo, TX Get freight quote

Rockford, IL local Get freight quote

Flint, MI → Erie, PA Get freight quote

Kalamazoo, MI → New York, NY Get freight quote

Springfield, OH → Lima, OH Get freight quote

Lafayette, LA → Miami, FL Get freight quote

El Paso, TX local Get freight quote

Waco, TX → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

San Antonia, TX → Laredo, TX Get freight quote

Longview, TX → Kansas City, MO Get freight quote

New York, NY → Binghamton, NY Get freight quote

New Haven, CT → New York, NY Get freight quote

Allentown, PA local Get freight quote

Springfield, MA → Knoxville, TN Get freight quote

Scranton, PA local Get freight quote

Greenville, SC local Get freight quote

Knoxville, TN → Chattanooga, TN Get freight quote

Gulfport, MS → Los Angeles, CA Get freight quote

Dothan, AL → Tallahassee, FL Get freight quote

Charlotte, NC local Get freight quote

Get a quote and lock in these low rates with instant booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 6/15/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Enter the digital freight network (DFN). One of the biggest benefits of DFNs is that they can provide smaller shippers consistent competitive rates and high service levels by using technology to find the most efficient truck at the best price. With technology-enabled solutions for quoting, booking and GPS tracking freight online, low-volume shippers don’t have to settle for lower levels of service anymore.

Convoy gives shippers direct access to Convoy’s digital freight network. It’s backed by tens of thousands of reliable carriers and a team of operations specialists who ensure 100% coverage and high service levels on every load. This enables us to provide small and midsized shippers with the same enterprise-level service that we offer our largest customers. 

With the online platform, shippers get instant upfront pricing for spot freight, can book shipments with just a few clicks, and receive GPS tracking from start to finish. It delivers the best of both worlds – complete transparency and control over freight with the efficiency, quality, and cost-savings benefits provided by our digital freight network.

Ready to give it a try? Follow the steps below, or jump directly to our new freight quote tool.

Instant guaranteed freight quotes

The fastest and easiest way to get an instant quote is by going to our How Freight Quote Calculators Work page. Just enter your pickup and delivery details, indicate the truck type, and hit the ‘Get quote’ button.

Today, you can get real-time quotes for full truckload dry van and reefer freight shipments. Convoy generates pricing in real-time based on our unique algorithm that uses current market conditions and shipment data to give you the best possible rate.

To book your truck at this price, you’ll just need to create or log in to your shipper account. Existing Convoy shipper platform customers can also get instant, guaranteed rates directly within the online dashboard.

The price you’re quoted is the price you pay, guaranteed. We’ll never come back to you and ask for more money on a spot load. We also guarantee 100% coverage, which includes automatically adjusting carrier assignments on your behalf in the event of dropoff at no additional cost.

Book your shipment

Once you’ve generated a quote, click ‘Add Shipment Details’ and fill out a few more pieces of information to confirm your shipment.

To complete booking, click ‘Review Details’ and then select ‘Book Shipment’ to confirm. That’s it! Once the shipment is booked, you’ll get a confirmation when a carrier is assigned, usually within 36 hours of pickup.

In addition to starting a shipment from a quote, you can also start by building a load from scratch or by duplicating a previous shipment. Shipment duplication is one of the most popular features of the platform because it drastically reduces the time it takes to build loads.

24/7 live GPS tracking

We believe every shipper should expect real-time shipment visibility. The vast majority of Convoy shipments deliver real-time GPS tracking through our carrier mobile app. To check on the status of your truck from your dashboard, simply locate the shipment of interest and select “View”. In addition to providing self-serve access to shipment tracking, we also send email notifications for status updates (accepted, in-progress, dispatched, at pickup, in transit, at delivery, delivered).

Once the shipment has been completed, and the Bill of Lading (BOL) has been verified by the Convoy team, a photo of the BOL is uploaded to the document details of your shipment for your reference. You can download this record directly from your dashboard anytime.

The post How to quote, book, and GPS track freight online in minutes with the Convoy shipper platform appeared first on Convoy.

Shippers – It’s the start of the week and you are back at your desk looking at what orders need to move, where they need to go and when. You have hot loads, carrier fallofs, and run-of-the-mill business. Convoy is here to help get your shipments moving on time and at-cost. 

Check out our top lanes where Convoy can save you 10% or more compared to the market: 

Portland, OR local Get freight quote

Kennewick, WA local Get freight quote

Riverside, CA local Get freight quote

Phoenix, AZ local Get freight quote

Los Angeles, CA local Get freight quote

Denver, CO local Get freight quote

Modesto, CA local Get freight quote

Chicago, IL local Get freight quote

Columbus, OH local Get freight quote

St. Louis, MO local Get freight quote

Indianapolis, IN local Get freight quote

Detroit, MI local Get freight quote

Tyler, TX→ Longview, TX Get freight quote

Little Rock, AR local Get freight quote

Killeen, TX local Get freight quote

Longview, TX local Get freight quote

Washington DC → Baltimore, MD Get freight quote

New York, NY local Get freight quote

Pittsburgh, PA local Get freight quote

Portland, ME local Get freight quote

Roanoke, VA local Get freight quote

Lakeland, FL local Get freight quote

Memphis, TN local Get freight quote

Fayetteville, NC local Get freight quote

Tampa, FL → Lakeland, FL Get freight quote

Columbia, SC local Get freight quote

Get a quote and lock in these low rates with instant booking on the Convoy shipper platform. The shipper platform gives shippers of all sizes direct access to Convoy’s carrier network, enabling you to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with only a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish.

The post Instant Freight Rates: Hot Lanes, Cool Savings 6/8/2020 appeared first on Convoy.

Use these five questions to check-in with your brokers and carriers to make sure you’re on the same page.

1 – Are you registered, licensed and bonded?

This may seem basic, and it is. But if you or your team is frantically trying to find coverage for backup or spot, this fundamental step can be overlooked, and introduce significant risk.

• Ensure your broker or asset carrier has a valid authority. That means the company is registered to operate as a brokerage under federal regulations. All freight brokers are required to register and hold a license with the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which allows shippers to search their database for freight brokers and their respective licenses online.

• Make sure they are bonded. All freight brokers are mandated to hold a freight broker bond in order to operate legally.

2 – What types of insurance do you have, and what do you require of your underlying carriers?

The majority of motor carriers in the U.S. have the following coverage:

• $100,000 Motor Truck Cargo
• $1,000,000 Auto Liability
• Statutory levels of Workers Compensation

However, many shippers require more insurance than this — for good reason.

In some cases, the cargo value is more than $100,000. And, in most cases, financial exposure due to an accident on the road can exceed $1,000,000.

Yet shippers still need access to the nation’s large base of small carriers. This is where a freight partner with a comprehensive and thoughtfully designed suite of insurance policies will be a better partner in managing risk. It’s a critical second layer of protection for shippers.

What should you look for?

Needs vary widely between industries, commodities, and individual companies, but you’ll sleep easier at night by verifying that your freight partner has the following core types of coverage or suitable equivalents:

• Broker Liability. This coverage can vary but is typically inclusive of insurance such as general and logistics liability, products and completed operations, errors and omissions, contingent motor truck liability bodily injury and property damage, and fines and duties, to name a few.
• Excess Liability. Depending on how much coverage you need, a good excess or umbrella policy that sits over a broker liability policy can provide the right amount of insurance.
• Contingent cargo (may be included in Broker Liability). This serves as a backstop to the primary cargo insurance of the underlying motor carrier.
• Additional transportation cargo. Commonly referred to as “Shippers Interest,” but also going by other names, these programs can provide shippers with additional cargo insurance above $100K when necessary. These can be structured on a per shipment or ongoing basis.
• Workers Compensation and Employer Liability
• Crime
• Mandatory broker bond

3 – How is carrier safety assessed?

Accidents are an unfortunate reality in this industry, so you need to take proactive steps to mitigate risk by requiring transportation partners to set safety standards that are acceptable for your business. However, there is no federally mandated national hiring standard, so brokers have their own.

Ask for a list of what their safety standards are. You should be provided with a speedy and thorough reply that amounts to more than “We don’t use unsatisfactory rated carriers.”

Make sure you know:

• If your freight partners work with conditional-rated carriers.
• If they factor CSA safety scores into their carrier assessment criteria.
• How they find out about and respond to carriers in their network who receive “Out of Service” orders.
• Think twice if they don’t have standards, skirt around the subject, or provide a response lacking details. Every shipper determines their own threshold of standards, but answers to these questions will be telling.

4 – How often are carriers screened and audited after onboarding?

It’s not enough to check for compliance requirements at the time of onboarding. Even regularly scheduled static checks (e.g. once a quarter or, gasp, once a year) of carriers is insufficient. Why?

The various statuses of motor carriers will change over time. And, those changes aren’t going to conveniently align with your broker’s scheduled static check of their carrier network.

Ongoing monitoring of the following categories is a foundational and essential part of a good compliance program. Here is a glimpse at how often these categories typically change:

• FMCSA rating – typically monthly, but in some instances safety ratings can be updated more frequently
• CSA Safety Scores (commonly calculated and reported as equivalent BASICS by third party carrier monitoring services) – monthly
• Status of DOT – daily
• Status of MC – daily
• Out of Service designations – daily
• Insurance registered with FMCSA – daily
• Data for newly registered carriers – daily if interstate; monthly if intrastate
• Carrier monitoring Service reports – daily

Knowing that the carriers who are moving freight for you are in compliance within these categories is critical. We recommend working with partners who can audit their carriers automatically and in real time — at least daily if not more frequently.

5 – How do you identify and address fraud?

Those who have been in the industry for a while have experienced their share of “nightmare” loads. Theft. Fraud. Chameleon carriers. Double Brokering. Back solicitation. A load “held hostage.” It’s enough to give you chills.

In this industry, data is a powerful tool that everyone should use to prevent these unfortunate incidents. Ask your partners what they do to prevent fraud.

Transportation providers should have a process to identify fraudulent sign-ups onto their platform. This can be done through:

• Automated methods to identify and stop duplicate profiles.
• Checks to ensure the carrier “is who they say they are” and are authorized to make decisions or sign a contract on the carrier’s behalf.
• Dual factor authentication.

Additionally, there are some excellent carrier reporting services that allow transportation providers and shippers to submit reports of bad behavior. These reports are visible to members of the reporting service and can serve as warnings to other users. If used wisely, these reports can serve as an important layer in the carrier vetting process. Ask your freight partner if they have incorporated the use of these reports into their compliance monitoring process. And again, a process to monitor reports in real time vs. static checks is a far superior approach.

There are thousands of licensed freight brokers and 3PLs operating in the U.S. — with more entering the market every year. Make sure you cover the basics, and ask the advanced questions to ensure you, your goods, and your business is protected.

Sound daunting? Convoy’s industry-leading safety and compliance program will take care of the vetting and monitoring for you. 

To provide peace of mind to shippers, Convoy systematically vets carriers against our rigorous compliance standards.  Behind every matched shipment, Convoy is automatically and in real-time performing safety, quality, and compliance checks across multiple services including SaferWatch, RMIS, TIA, CargoNet, and CAB.  

By relying on systems to automate the process human error is removed from the equation. A motor carrier’s ability to get loads with us is not predicated on how well they know a specific person at Convoy, but how good their service and safety record is.

Convoy outperforms the industry and the majority of the top 25 national asset carriers in average network safety, as measured by estimated crash rates based on FMCSA predictive methodology. With an incident ratio less than 1/20th of the industry average, Convoy is able to materially reduce supply chain costs for shippers.

Convoy shipper platform – the easiest way to tap into our safe and reliable carrier network

The Convoy shipper platform gives shippers direct self-serve access to quality capacity. With this free, easy-to-use online tool, you can get instant upfront quotes for spot freight, book a load with just a few clicks and GPS track your shipment from start to finish. 

Learn more and sign up at https://convoy.com/freight-software.

Interested in learning more about Convoy’s carrier quality & compliance program? Check out these additional resources: 

• Blog: Best Practices in Carrier Compliance Management
• Blog: Asset-like Performance and Safety – in a Digital Freight Network
• Webinar: The Hidden Costs of Booking the Cheapest Carrier

Convoy shipper platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, take a look at our freight booking software.

The post 5 questions shippers should be asking right now to improve quality and reduce risk. appeared first on Convoy.