The right LTL Freight Broker will give shippers flexibility and provide additional services to optimize their freight program. Gain efficiencies from an expert shipping team.
What is a Shipping Broker?
Shipping brokers act as the link between shippers and carriers, ensuring seamless coordination of freight allocation. A shipping broker’s primary goal is match transportation needs with carrier capabilities through advanced technology and relationships to alleviate the burden of logistics from shoulders of shippers.
By partnering with a shipping broker, you gain access to numerous benefits including discounted freight rates, documentation and bill of lading creation, shipment tracking, pickup and delivery arrangements, freight invoice auditing, and cargo claim services.
A shipping broker offers value to a shipper through their carrier relationships, extensive knowledge of shipping, and freight technology and services offered. Every freight broker will offer a vary of different services to a shipper.
The LTL Freight Broker
A LTL Freight broker is a broker that coordinates and manages LTL Freight on the behalf of a shipper. The rest of this article will discuss the benefits of partnering with a Third Party provider:
Competitive Rates
Freight rates are not as volatile in the Less-than-Truckload (LTL) network as the Truckload, but contract discounts are a big factor in competitive rates. Working with a LTL Freight Broker can help negotiate better as the carrier gives discounts based on volume and spend. The broker can usually negotiate a higher discount due to combining spends of multiple shippers.
General Rate Increases (GRIs) affect shippers annually as carriers attempt to mitigate costs. Working alongside a broker can help alleviate a shipper from these GRIs by leveraging spends, having experts negotiate, and easily shifting freight to another carrier if the cost is too high.
Flexibility to Shipping Options
As shippers saw since 2020, having a flexibility to your carriers is helpful for when specific LTL networks find trouble. If a shipper only utilizes contracts with one regional and one national carrier due to able volume, the shipper may find trouble during capacity crunches, carrier embargos, or service failures.
Routing through a Third Party provider eliminates the risk of being stuck. If a shipper’s national carrier is experiencing service failures or a current embargo, the shipper would easily find a rate through another national carrier through the Third Party Provider’s contracts.
Access to Freight Technology
Shipping through a broker can provide access to technology that shippers normally could not. Transportation Management Systems can be costly and expensive for a shipper. However, brokers usually are able to offer a TMS system for a high-level rating calculator to a shipper easily. For example, ViewPoint TMS offers shippers an easy-to-use system to rate LTL carriers simultaneously at once.
Technology is becoming more and more adapted into LTL Freight routing. API/EDI capabilities to auto-tender, send shipment details, and track shipments is becoming the normal. LTL Carriers also offer higher discounts for shippers who take part in these capabilities.
Route Freight through a Trusted LTL Broker
TLI has been routing LTL Freight since 1994 and is filled with trusted industry experts. Our team offers valuable services to LTL Shippers such as freight invoice audit, cargo claim services, a free TMS System, contract negotiation, and much more. Start making LTL Freight easier and start routing with TLI.