Freight Brokerage Strategy: A step-by-step guide to success and growth for every freight brokerage business
Strategic planning is a fundamental element of a successful freight brokerage business. It involves setting clear goals, developing effective strategies, and outlining specific tactics. Creating a strategic plan tailored to the freight brokerage industry is more straightforward than it may seem, as long as you follow some key steps. In this blog, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide to creating a strategic plan to set your freight brokerage up for long-term success.
Step 1: Define Your Freight Brokerage Mission and Vision
The first step in creating a strategic plan for your freight brokerage is to define your mission and vision. Your mission statement should articulate what your brokerage does, who it serves, and how it operates. Scott Hadley, VP of Partnerships at Tabi Connect, emphasizes the importance of this clarity, stating, “As a leader, be honest with yourself and employees through your mission and vision statements. For example, if you state community involvement is a core purpose but do nothing to help better the community, it can have a very negative impact when the company carries that expectation but fails to deliver.” Your vision statement, in contrast, should describe where you aim to position your brokerage in the future. These statements provide the foundation for your strategic plan and guide your decision-making process.
Mission: Define the core purpose of your freight brokerage. Why does it exist? What value does it bring to shippers and carriers?
Vision: Envision where you want your freight brokerage to be in the future. What are your long-term goals and aspirations in the logistics industry?
Step 2: Conduct a SWOT Analysis
The next step is to conduct a SWOT analysis specific to your freight brokerage. This entails identifying your brokerage’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the logistics market. By doing so, you’ll gain a better understanding of your brokerage’s current position and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Strengths: Recognize what your brokerage excels at and what differentiates it from the competition.
Weaknesses: Identify areas where your brokerage needs improvement.
Opportunities: Explore external factors that can be leveraged for growth and success in the freight brokerage sector.
Threats: Identify external challenges and potential obstacles to your brokerage’s success.
Step 3: Set Freight Brokerage Goals and Objectives
Using your mission, vision, and SWOT analysis as a foundation, you can now set specific goals and objectives for your freight brokerage. It’s crucial to ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). This ensures that they are realistic and attainable.
SMART goals provide a framework for setting clear and achievable objectives. Each element has its significance:
Step 4: Develop Freight Brokerage Strategies and Tactics
Now that your goals and objectives are in place, you can develop strategies and tactics to achieve them. Strategies are broad, long-term approaches that guide decision-making, while tactics are specific, short-term actions that implement your strategies. Scott Hadley advises, “When crafting your strategies and tactics, you must make sure to take internal and external context into account. Strategies and tactics that are not aligned with your company’s systems, skills, and abilities and not willing to invest in those areas to achieve them, or too short-sighted to current market conditions and not taking into account what is coming, you will do more harm than good and set the business up for frustrations, growth stalls, and potential failure.” Here are some examples of strategies and tactics:
Tactic: Create a carrier retention program, offering incentives and benefits to loyal carriers.
Tactic: Establish a direct line of communication with preferred carriers to secure capacity during peak demand periods.
Tactic: Conduct regular feedback sessions with carriers to improve working relationships and address any concerns.
Tactic: Conduct a comprehensive review of internal processes and identify bottlenecks.
Tactic: Implement Lean Six Sigma principles to eliminate waste and optimize operations.
Tactic: Train staff in time management and organizational skills to enhance productivity.
Step 5: Create a Freight Brokerage Action Plan
The final step in creating a strategic plan for your freight brokerage is to create an action plan. This plan outlines the steps required to implement your tactics and achieve your goals. It should include task timelines, deadlines, and responsibilities.
Conclusion:
By following these five steps, outlined with insights from Scott Hadley, our VP of Partnerships, you can create a tailored strategic plan for your freight brokerage, setting it up for long-term success in the competitive logistics industry. Regularly review and update your plan to ensure its relevance and practicality. With a well-crafted strategic plan, your freight brokerage can easily rise to new heights and achieve its goals in the dynamic world of logistics.
As a final piece of advice, Scott Hadley stresses the importance of financial discipline: “All of the above will go to waste if you do not practice financial discipline. Markets change and cycles are becoming more unpredictable. When times are good, stash the cash to be insulated when times are tough.”
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Tabi Connect External Portal makes it easier for your customers to access your rates, while also automating additional costs and margins.
Designed to cater to your customers who seek to retrieve your rates seamlessly, without the need for emails or phone inquiries.
Enhance accessibility to your rates for customers, while also ensuring automated inclusion of additional costs and margins. The external portal provides:
Real-Time Access to Quotes
Shippers can provide brokers with rapid quotes. Decision-making is accelerated, and more competitive pricing is made possible.
Effectiveness and Time Savings
Brokers save time when the quoting process is automated. Brokers can concentrate on other crucial duties by not having to physically contact shippers to request pricing.
Enhanced Precision
Errors that can occur from manual data entering are reduced with automated quotes. This results in fewer errors and more precise pricing.
Enhanced Transparency
Shippers and brokers have same access to pricing data. By doing this, the parties’ confidence is increased and transparency is encouraged.
Scalability
Brokers can handle more quote requests thanks to the API without having to work as hard. Brokers are able to expand their businesses more effectively as a result.
Integration and Personalization
The API can be tailored to meet particular company needs and linked with currently in place systems. This is user-friendly and flexible.
Improved Communication
Better connections and more efficient communication are fostered by having direct access to shippers via the API. Better conditions and more service may result from this.
Analytics and Data Insights
The platform offers insightful data and analytics. This facilitates trend identification, operational optimization, and decision-making for brokers.
Competitive Advantage
Brokers gain a competitive advantage in the market by having access to reliable, real-time quotes. It enables them to provide their customers with better deals.
Cost Savings
The expenses connected with manual quoting procedures are decreased via automation. This enhances cost-effectiveness overall.
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Here’s why we are different from the rest and the best choice for businesses looking to simplify freight management with Tabi Connect.
Why Tabi Connect Stands Out in Freight Rate Quoting:
In the fast-paced world of freight, having a technology partner that not only understands the nuances of the industry but also innovates to meet its demands is crucial. Here’s why Tabi Connect is different from the rest and the preferred choice for businesses looking to streamline their freight operations.
1. Unmatched Omnichannel Processing and Shipper Integration Capabilities
Tabi Connect is unique in its ability to handle all rate requests, regardless of the format. Whether through API, RPA, external and internal portals, or email, our platform ensures that no freight opportunity is missed, meeting shippers and users where and how they operate.
2. Quick and Continuous Monitoring
Our platform-based service includes 24/7 monitoring without requiring your oversight, allowing you to focus on other critical aspects of your business.
3. Faster GTM
We deploy our solutions faster than any competitor, with an average setup time of just four weeks.
4. Simplified User Experience
Our platform boasts an intuitive user interface that requires no technical knowledge to navigate. You can easily operate our system from your mobile phone, making it accessible wherever you are.
5. Comprehensive Service on One Platform
While some competitors might offer piecemeal solutions, Tabi Connect provides a comprehensive service. We manage API integrations, RPA, and email communications—all on a single platform. This integration simplifies your workflow and reduces the need to juggle multiple tools.
6. Exclusive Discounts through Strategic Partnerships and Platform Bundles
We are the only provider in the industry that secures exclusive discounts for our clients through strategic partnerships. By choosing Tabi Connect, you gain access to savings across all three of our partner networks, including bundling the partner’s products in one single contract, enabling you to access your shippers’ freight requests much faster.
7. Flexible and Cost-Effective Solutions
Our competitors often offer rigid, one-size-fits-all solutions. In contrast, Tabi Connect offers flexible pricing and services tailored to your needs. Whether you need to automate processes for one shipper or multiple, our platform adapts to your business scale without unnecessary costs.
8. Low-Code/No-Code vs. High Maintenance Tools
Our tool was designed with fast delivery in mind. While our competitor’s tools require significant IT overhead on our client’s end, our tool is built to be managed by your regular, day-to-day users instead of sophisticated and expensive developers. This approach allows our clients to achieve ROI faster while maintaining high customization levels, allowing them to make essential changes on the fly. It is the perfect match between flexibility and speed.
9. Committed to Your Success
At Tabi Connect, we don’t just provide tools; we ensure they work for you. We are heavily focused on delivering a high return on investment. Our approach is proactive – from rapid deployment, to not charging you until 30 days post-implementation – to ensure you see benefits quickly and effectively.
In a market filled with providers who handle only parts of the process, Tabi Connect stands out by offering a holistic, omnichannel, efficient, and user-friendly solution. Our technology removes the complexity of freight automation so you can focus on what you do best – moving freight and growing your business.
Ready to experience the Tabi Connect difference? Contact us today, and let’s get started on revolutionizing your freight operations.
Tabi Connect can streamline your operations and scale up your business efficiency.
If you are curious, or even skeptical, here is a self-guided product tour of our platform. If you want to see the UI and a couple of the features, there’s no need for a prior conversation. https://app.storylane.io/share/bhfb3si2nugl
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Check out the Tabi Connect Platform Tour in a quick interactive video. Where you will be able to see our features, analytics, and much more.
We’ve created an interactive video to guide you through the Tabi Connect platform, offering a comprehensive tour of our key features. This video showcases everything from the detailed settings and parameters you can customize to meet your specific needs, to the user-friendly portals and powerful analytics tools that enhance your operational efficiency. Along the way, you’ll also discover the various functionalities that make our platform both versatile and easy to use.
In addition to the core features, the video highlights how Tabi Connect integrates different aspects of logistics management into a seamless experience, improving your workflow and decision-making capabilities. Whether you’re looking to optimize shipping routes, manage rates, or analyze performance data, this video will provide you with a clear understanding of how our platform can support your business goals.
If you’re ready to dive deeper into what Tabi Connect can offer and see how our platform can transform your operations, click here to watch our video. Join us on this informative journey and see for yourself how Tabi Connect can make a difference in your business.
Watch the full platform tour, here!
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Tabi Connect, a leading Rate Management System, announces a new strategic relationship with Integrity Express Logistics (IEL), an over $1 billion logistics service provider. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in IEL’s offering to their customer base, showcasing the fusion of Tabi Connect’s advanced rate automation and analytics capabilities with IEL’s commitment to forward-thinking efficiency and initiative to provide enhanced connectivity.
Tabi Connect’s leading technology is set to transform the rate quoting process for Integrity Express Logistics, providing unparalleled automation and analytics functionalities. The integration of API rating, also known as Real-Time Rating, on the e2open platform positions IEL as an industry trailblazer, offering their customers an enhanced and streamlined experience that only a small percentage of providers currently offer.
“We are thrilled to join forces with IEL to elevate their capabilities in the dynamic logistics landscape,” said Dan Hellmann, Chief Sales Officer of Tabi Connect. “Tabi Connect’s advanced rate automation not only optimizes efficiency, which reduces the service provider’s cost to serve but also provides actionable insights through robust analytics. Together, our companies will provide the IEL customer base with exceptional service, connectivity, and insights that are hard to replicate.”
IEL, known for its commitment to innovation and excellence, recognizes the transformative potential of Tabi Connect’s technology. The integration allows them to provide dynamic API rating, ensuring accuracy and responsiveness in meeting the demands of the ever-evolving domestic trucking market. In addition, IEL will capture all rating data points, allowing them to enhance their quoting process and provide their shippers with actionable insights.
Integrity Express Logistics is built on three foundational pillars: service, relationships, and technology. This partnership allows us to move forward on all three, as we continue to leverage industry-leading innovation. Tabi and Real-Time Rating create efficiencies across our network, specifically for our shippers who are looking to eliminate manual steps when pricing and tendering their freight.
This relationship not only signifies the collaboration of two industry leaders but also underscores the value that both Tabi Connect and IEL deliver to their respective customer bases. The integration on the e2open platform reflects their dedication to providing innovative solutions that cater to the unique needs of the logistics industry.
About Tabi Connect:
Tabi Connect is a rating automation platform and rate management system that enables brokerages to respond to more quotes faster, with less human labor, while capturing every data point. By utilizing Tabi Connect, 3PLs are increasing their load count, revenue, and gaining more insight into their customer demand and quoting process.
About Integrity Express Logistics:
Founded in 2007, IEL is a family-owned company with over 30 years of logistics experience. Our overall mission at Integrity is to live up to our company name while providing customized supply solutions. IEL is based in Blue Ash, OH, with 15 offices throughout North America.
For media inquiries, please contact: Laura Restrepo at laurarest@tabiconnect.com
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MODE Global partners with Tabi Connect. Through this, MODE Global will be able to automate quoting rates across its entire customer base.
Tabi Connect, a cutting-edge Rate Management System (RMS) built and powered by Hubtek, and MODE Global, a leading $4 billion multimodal logistics service provider, are excited to announce a collaborative partnership. This partnership will enhance MODE Global’s rating process, which will enable the company to automate the rate quoting process across their entire shipper network. This initiative will reduce their cost to serve, empower their analytics team to capture and improve their quoting process, and increase the speed of delivering rates to their shipper base.
“MODE has set out to build an ecosystem of best-of-breed partners, and Tabi Connect is a foundational building block to our enterprise-wide digital strategy,” said Gene Welsh, MODE Global’s Chief Transportation Officer. “Our goal to drive productivity and efficiency gains across our organization, coupled with the need to provide accurate and competitive rates, makes Tabi Connect a perfect-fit partner for the long-term vision of our pricing infrastructure.”
Tabi Connect is the first of its kind Rating Management System specializing in the U.S. domestic trucking market that is enabling Logistics Service Providers (LSP) to rapidly deploy omnichannel rating automation and analytics across their shipper base. With Tabi Connect’s SaaS-based platform, LSPs can automate all shipper platforms via RPA and APIs, free-form text emails, and RFPs, with easy-to-use reporting and dashboards already built into the user interface.
Dan Hellmann, Tabi Connect’s Chief Sales Officer stated, “It has been a pleasure working alongside the MODE Global executive team. Their desire for speed, reliability and overall functionality is what all leading logistics companies are striving for, and Tabi Connect was able to check each box to meet the requirements of their extremely diverse customer base. This reason is why logistics companies are moving away from cumbersome automation solutions towards complete platforms such as Tabi Connect”
About MODE Global
MODE Global is a $4B multi-brand 3PL platform, and one of the world’s leading logistics companies. We are the sixth-largest truckload freight brokerage and the largest non-asset intermodal provider in the United States. Through our family of brands, which includes Avenger Logistics, MODE Transportation and SUNTECKtts, we offer more than 30 years of experience providing exceptional service with a focus on customer experience. MODE Global provides efficient, reliable transportation services around the world to more than 10,000 customers across a diverse set of markets. Powered by a sophisticated suite of technology solutions, MODE makes supply chain management easy through relationships with more than 100,000 carriers and agents in 230 locations throughout North America. For more information on how to transform your shipping solutions, please visit www.modeglobal.com.
About Tabi Connect
Tabi Connect, powered by Hubtek, is the leading automation platform in the domestic logistics space dedicated to transforming the logistics industry through innovation and collaboration. With a focus on automated rate quoting and data-driven solutions, Tabi Connect empowers logistics professionals to optimize their operations, increase efficiency, and stay ahead of market trends.
For inquiries, please contact Laura Restrepo at laurarest@tabiconnect.com or visit www.GoHubtek.com.
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