More loads are now available on the Convoy freight platform thanks to a change the company has made that allows direct-from-shipper loads. The change was tested with select shippers earlier this year and is now being rolled out nationally, Ziad Ismail, chief product officer of Convoy, told FreightWaves.
“With direct-from-shipper loads, Convoy connects carriers to shippers that share all of their spot shipments through Convoy’s digital freight network, giving carriers that work with Convoy the broadest access to spot freight,” Ismail said. “This ensures carriers can efficiently find loads to keep their trucks full and shippers’ spot loads are hauled to their destination.”
Ismail noted that the change has resulted in about 10 times the available spot freight in Convoy’s app than before, giving carriers more choices than ever.
“This happens because the role of a traditional broker in trucking is to act as a filter between the shipper and the carriers,” he added. “The carriers only see a small subset of everything that a broker sees. The broker will bid on some of the loads that they think they can make a profit on and then win a subset of that. That is what the carriers see.”
Loads under the direct-from-shipper program appear as “bid only” loads in the Convoy app. Carriers can bid individually on the loads, or use Convoy’s automated bidding process to set the price at which they want to haul specific loads.
According to Convoy, shippers traditionally make only about 10% of their loads available to any one broker, severely limiting the options for carriers working with that broker. Ismail explained that in this system, shippers place all their loads into the Convoy app, providing more opportunity for carriers looking for loads and shippers looking to streamline and control the entire process.
“With direct-from-shipper loads, Convoy connects carriers to shippers that share all of their spot shipments through Convoy’s digital freight network, giving carriers that work with Convoy the broadest access to spot freight,” Ismail explained. “This ensures carriers can efficiently find loads to keep their trucks full and shippers’ spot loads are hauled to their destination.”
An example of how this process works occurred during Hurricane Dorian in August.
“When Hurricane Dorian struck, direct-from-shipper loads accounted for 75% of the spot shipments delivered in Florida through the Convoy network,” Ismail said. “With the expanded coverage and no additional work for shippers, we expect the number of participating shippers to grow over the coming months.”
Direct-from-shipper loads appear in the Convoy app alongside other loads, giving carriers plenty of options, Ismail noted, with no additional work.
“There are no telephone calls required and the carrier can bid, accept, haul and set up payment for these loads all within the app,” Ismail said.
Convoy confirms the bids with shippers, and carriers that win shipments complete them through the Convoy app like all other loads. Participation requires no additional work and there are no calls or negotiations to handle.
