Load board operator Truckstop and the Owner Operator Independent Driver Association have agreed to what they are calling a “groundbreaking collaboration” that will see Truckstop named OOIDA’s “exclusive load board partner,” displacing a long relationship with DAT.
The agreement announced Tuesday was also touted as “an exclusive collaboration to provide tools that help protect and grow owner-operator businesses,” with the focus appearing to be on anti-fraud tools that Truckstop has long promoted as one of the company’s strengths.
The arrangement does not restrict OOIDA members from using whatever load board they want. But in a highly competitive field with DAT and Truckstop as the two main combatants,the designation by OOIDA is a marketing coup.
One of the tangible benefits OOIDA members will receive from the relationship with Truckstop is a 15% discount on the use of its load board, according to Rod Nofziger, COO of OOIDA.
Fraud as a focus
In an interview with FreightWaves, Brent Hutto, Truckstop’s Chief Relationship Officer, said “the whole conversation with OOIDA started about fraud.”
“They were calling us and saying, you have a large collection of carrier data, one of the biggest in the world, how are you protecting owner operators in the challenges they’re having with fraud in the marketplace,” Hutto said. Truckstop laid out its capabilities, he added, “on how we’re helping to solve the problem of that fraud. And they didn’t know that Truckstop had the ability to do all this well.”
Although the details of how Truckstop and OOIDA together could team up to fight fraud under the new arrangement were not specific, Hutto talked about the strength of the two organizations focused on the issue.
“We protect the marketplace,” he said. “So now you have two different data sources when it comes to bad activity in the marketplace looking to work together, to move all the bad actors out or try to get the bad actors out as fast as possible in this new world we all live in.”
Nofziger said OOIDA believes Truckstop had been one of the industry leaders in fighting fraud. “They really rose to the occasion when freight fraud became rampant in the past couple of years, with their dedication to providing owner operators and small businesses with tools that they can use,” Nofziger said.
Long relationship with DAT
Nofziger said the prior relationship with DAT was more than 15 years in duration. There was no competition or RFP between the two leading load board companies to secure the OOIDA designation as the organization’s load board partner, he added.
“I think that what for us made Truckstop stand out was how quickly they jumped,” Nofziger said. “They rose to the occasion to try and put measures in place to mitigate the risks for small businesses.”
He added that there was “no ill feeling” from OOIDA toward DAT. “They provide a good service as well as Trucikstop. But Truckstop essentially has OOIDA’s endorsement.”
Hutto recently gave an interview to FreightWaves to talk about how the company fights fraud.
It was small carriers – the type who make up the OOIDA membership, though OOIDA wasn’t mentioned in the interview – who are most at risk of fraud, he said.
“The predominance of this marketplace is not the large trucking companies and large brokerages,” Hutto said in the interview. “They are small trucking companies and freight brokerages. When you look at those companies, they have very little to no cybersecurity divisions protecting their data and freight.”
DAT, which had the OOIDA relationship that now is possessed by Truckstop, also features extensive discussions about its fraud fighting capabilities on its website.
An email to DAT had not been responded to by the time of publication.
Hutto said the agreement with OOIDA is for one year, with a performance clause that would need to be met before it can be renewed.
“We have to perform to protect the owner operator every month, every day, every hour,” Hutto said. “If Truckstop is not performing, they can say, hey, we no longer want you to do this.”
Nofziger said such OOIDA alliances were infrequent. “We don’t hand out endorsements easily,” he said. “We’re very very careful with the entities that we align ourselves with.”
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