RESTON, Va. — Trucker Tools, which provides Smart Capacity, a shipment visibility, carrier capacity management and predictive freight-matching solution for the transportation industry has launched two new broker productivity tools.
The company is introducing an expanded market-level “real-time heat map” feature, according to Prasad Gollapalli, Trucker Tools founder and CEO.
Today, brokers on Smart Capacity can view a graphical map representing available capacity in a city or region specific to their network of qualified and preferred carriers.
Under the expanded “real time heat map,” brokers now can see not only their own customer-specific network, but also an aggregated, timely view of all loads and all trucks in a city or market region, such as Chicago or Atlanta, Gollapalli said .
“An important distinction with the Smart Capacity heat map, unlike others, is that ours is built on real-time, accurate data,” Gollapalli said. “Our heat map is refreshed and updated constantly, providing the timeliest view of current market status. That’s a huge value differentiator for our customers.”
Heat maps are a widely-used management tool that illustrate the ratio of available trucks to available loads in a region. Importantly, the Smart Capacity real-time heat map, which presents an aggregated view of the larger overall market, does not display any customer-specific detail on trucks or loads at market level. Gollapalli said this is a key design element whose purpose is to protect and maintain confidentiality for the broker. It’s a principal value feature of the Smart Capacity platform, which operates as a private, secure network with strong access controls and protocols for ensuring data security and integrity.
The productivity analysis tools provide metrics and data which show average times within a market for all brokers to cover loads. Brokers can then view these market indices, developed with real-time, validated data, and measure their own teams’ performance against an aggregated average, again, for a specific market area, city or region.
Lastly the new feature also enables brokers to measure the same key performance indicators in multiple cities, providing market insights and intelligence that can lead to more efficient staffing and resource allocation from region to region.
“These enhancements were at the top of the list of recommendations that came out of our recent Customer Advisory Board,” Gollapalli said. “The new features are incorporated into the Smart Capacity platform providing predictive freight-matching and carrier and capacity relationship management solutions and are being deployed at no extra charge to customers.”
Gollapalli noted that the expanded heat map helps brokers understand in a timelier manner where they’re out of balance, for example, where they have too many loads and not enough trucks, and vice versa.
“In this case, the heat map would help the broker discover that in a given market, they need to expand their carrier base to cover a rising load count,” he said. “Alternatively, they may discover that they have ample trucks in a market but not enough loads, identifying the need to redirect their sales team to focus on that region and find more loads.”
At the end of the day, the broker wants their sales and operations teams focused on those markets which need the most help, finding more trucks or securing the most profitable loads with preferred carriers in the least amount of time, and keeping preferred carriers busy with repeat loads and reloads, Gollapalli said.
“Our more comprehensive heat map, coupled with the new productivity measurement tools, give brokers fresh, reliable intelligence that allows them to adjust operations and deploy resources to maximize opportunities and efficiencies. You can’t fix what you can’t measure, and these new tools provide the real-time data and metrics to make informed, rapid and accurate decisions that grow revenue and increase profit,” Gollapalli said.
Both feature and function enhancements are currently in beta testing with select customers, with full availability expected by the end of the year.
For more information, visit Trucker Tools at www.truckertools.com or email [email protected].
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
