The USA trucking market is known for its strong broker segment, not seen in other major markets. Although highly fragmented there is a pattern of importance. The top ten brokers are essentially unchanged and have blocked or acquired new competitors from joining their ranks. Of the next 40 brokers, 28 are younger and high growth businesses making particularly strong bets on technology and the ability to automate key pricing decisions both on the sell and buy side. TNX is powering, behind the scenes, leading brokers in this context.
Challenge
The North American brokerage model resembles a call center: row upon row of carrier sales reps and customer reps hustling to make deals. Into this buzz of activity are also layers of technology, from legacy brokerage TMSs to loadboards and visibility tools. The challenge is to take the core of brokerage out of human hands and into an automated process. This means key decisions of what price to quote a shipper, how to search for carriers, how to negotiate carrier pricing, and when to conclude the agreement to award the load.
Solution
TNX smart tendering has been setup at leading brokers behind the scenes. Loads from the TMS are automatically evaluated by TNX's platform in order to predict their buy or sell rate. Market rates are predicted, and carrier behaviour profiling drives targeting of them for offers. Finally the offer-and-negotiate phase is automated such that only the long tail of edge case loads need carrier rep engagement. This is no-touch, lights-off buying.
Results
Despite the COVID pandemic of 2020, TNX price prediction has performed well. The software is handling hundreds to over a thousand loads per day, across hundreds of carriers and branches.
