Should You Be Using A Trucking Brokerage?
If you’re business ships goods, you’ve probably heard of trucking brokerages, oftentimes also known as freight brokerages or freight brokers. Are you using one? Should you be using one? Read on out whether it’s a good option for you.
What Is a Trucking Brokerage?
A trucking brokerage essentially finds someone to haul your freight for you. They serve as a link between shippers and carriers, taking a small commission for their trouble. They also handle scheduling and tracking the load, plus other incidentals like ensuring loads are compliant and carriers are appropriately licensed.
How Can a Freight Brokerage Help?
Here are several advantages freight brokers may be able to offer their clients.
Efficiency
With a trucking brokerage, you can potentially save time, money, and a lot of trouble by outsourcing your shipping. The brokerage will essentially handle anything an internal shipping department would, but they’re usually able to do it cheaper than it would cost to set up or run an in-house department.
Flexibility
When you’re not maintaining an entire department to handle shipping, you’ve got more flexibility. When business is booming, a freight brokerage shouldn’t have any trouble covering your loads in a timely manner. When it’s slow, you don’t have to worry about the costs associated with an internal department since brokers work on commission. They allow for more scalability than maintaining your own shipping department or fleet.
Tech
As you’d imagine from companies who handle one very specific part of the supply chain, brokers have some of the coolest, most effective tech around. As a customer, you have access to this cutting-edge technology, with programs for reporting, tracking, and improving overall visibility oftentimes at your fingertips at no additional cost to you.
Connections
One of the most invaluable benefits of working with a freight broker is the connections they’ve already cultivated. Brokers are often able to negotiate better deals with carriers that you could on your own since they deal in larger quantities of freight than one company on its own.
Should your company be using a trucking brokerage? If you need help making logistics decisions or understanding the potential implications of those decisions, contact BlueGrace for a FREE supply chain analysis.
