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Risk is an innate part of life and business. But you can mitigate some risks, avoid unfortunate outcomes, and build a successful freight brokerage. 

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When considering how to grow a freight brokerage, you should know that careful attention to risk management helps you adapt to changing economic times. You can plan for steady growth and build a brokerage that can thrive over the long term.

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Keeping a close eye on your financials is essential to mitigating risk when learning how to grow a freight brokerage. You can focus on accelerating your income, reducing costs, and choosing the right mix of industries and customers to serve. Advanced freight broker software can help you every step of the way by providing you with real-time insights into the current health of your business.

The US freight brokering industry is expanding at an impressive rate. In 2020, the market size was around $1.1 billion, but the market is on pace to reach $13.78 billion in 2028, an annual growth rate of 36.2%.

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Whether you're wondering how to become a freight broker or are an established veteran, you know this rapid growth means opportunity. But you need to prepare now to capitalize on it.

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One critical step is abandoning any cobbled-together technologies you use to run your operations. Specific freight broker technology designed with the needs of the industry in mind wasn't available for years, and many brokers still struggle with outdated solutions.

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The lack of industry-specific freight broker technology has been a barrier to efficiency, but that's not the only challenge. Instead of devoting time to building close bonds with carriers, brokers were all too often mired in paperwork. 

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Fortunately, you can now access digital freight broker technology, streamline your business, and focus on fostering trust-based relationships with your carriers.

The Benefits of Building Trust With Your Carriers

Building strong relationships with their shipping customers is important. But it's essential to extend that customer service mindset to your carriers as well. When you do, you can gain significant benefits for your brokerage, such as:

• Increased loyalty. When carriers feel heard and valued by a broker, they'll likely want to work with that broker as much as possible.
• Enhanced communication, visibility, and service. Honest, transparent communication is the cornerstone of good relationships and a necessity to get the job done. Strong bonds with your carriers can motivate them to go the extra mile for you, which means delivering more proactive service to your shippers.
• Stronger trust between you and your shippers. When you have carriers ready to work for you, you can deliver the service your shippers need when they need it. That means they'll look to you as a trusted freight broker and give you more loads—and that means more revenue.

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How to Build Trust with Carriers Through Freight Broker Technology

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The good news is that the technology you use to manage day-to-day activities can also help you forge strong ties with your carriers. By streamlining routine tasks and offering value-adds like factoring and prompt payments, you can rely on freight broker technology to keep you and your carriers connected.

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Transparent Communication

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To build trusting relationships with carriers, you must be honest about jobs, payments, and expectations. You won't win any points by conducting hard-ball negotiations and undercutting rates. Also, if you can't pay as much as other brokerages, it's best to be upfront about that. When you're open and honest, carriers who enjoy working with you will return time after time, even if you aren't always at the top of the pay scale.

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You should also try to get to know your carrier's preferences. Do they value certain routes or work schedules? Although you may not always be able to accommodate them, you'll earn appreciation by making a good-faith effort to meet their needs sometimes. Giving some consideration to your carriers can make them more willing to step up if you need help covering an extra load or an unplanned cancellation.

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More Payment Options

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As non-salaried workers, carriers depend on prompt payments to ensure a steady cash flow to keep their business running. No one likes chasing down receivables, and slow payments will inevitably cause your carriers to lose trust. Even the net-30 of the standard of the past is obsolete in today's digitized environment.

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With Denim Factoring and QuickPay, you can overcome this common challenge. You can use our freight broker technology to simplify the invoicing process for your carriers and get money into their hands faster. They spend less time handling billing and payments and more time transporting loads, meaning they can earn more. 

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A Higher Level of Service

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Smaller and mid-size freight brokerages have an advantage over larger competitors—a human touch. When carriers work with a larger firm, they often are one of many independent service providers. That can lead to a feeling of being treated like a number, not a person.

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Also, more digital freight brokerage firms are popping up. While they offer efficiency, they can't provide that all-important personal connection. Traditional firms that have top-quality freight broker technology can deliver the same speed while building personal relationships with carriers. 

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You can give your freight brokerage a competitive advantage. A service mindset and freight broker technology that makes the administrative side of the business easy for your carriers can help you stand out.

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Powerful Data at Your Fingertips

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Freight brokering is an innately complex business. You need to juggle multiple shipper accounts and stay on top of their payment patterns. At the same time, you need to engage with various carriers and ensure you are utilizing and paying them effectively. 

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With state-of-the-art freight broker technology, you can keep a close watch on all the critical metrics that drive your business. Denim's Business Performance Dashboard gives you at-a-glance insight into key data, including jobs over time and average days sales outstanding (DSO), along with fastest paying, slowest paying, and most profitable customers. You can always be in the know about the health of the business and make targeted adjustments to optimize your broker operations. 

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Having this information readily available saves hours of time that you would normally devote to administrative work. You can redirect those energies to building better carrier relationships.

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Improved Carrier Experiences

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We all prefer to work with people who respect us and treat us well. For carriers, brokers who keep the lines of communication open and show appreciation will win trust and loyalty. It's also imperative to be transparent about payments so that carriers can know exactly when they'll receive funds for their work.

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Denim freight broker technology makes it easy to achieve those goals. Our freight factoring pays you out for loads promptly and allows you to offer factoring to carriers at whatever rate you prefer. With QuickPay, you can deliver payments within 24 to 48 hours for each factored invoice. Carriers will learn that you're an honest and reliable broker and be more willing to work with you.  

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Trust-Based Carrier Relationships Are Critical for Success

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As you're learning how to be a successful freight broker, you'll set profitability and customer acquisition goals. You should also make fostering close ties with carriers a key business objective. 

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When carriers recognize you as a transparent broker who always pays on time, they'll be happy to work with you. That gives you more stability and predictability since you'll know you have carriers you can rely on to transport loads. You'll develop a reputation as a reliable broker to your shippers, opening the door to more business.

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Without question, embracing technology as a freight broker is critical for success. Today, freight brokers can access intuitive solutions that make the administrative side of the business easier.

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Features like robust data dashboards, automated invoicing, and quick payments mean less busy work and more opportunities to connect to carriers. With more than 90,000 freight brokerages in the US, this attention to relationship-building can make you stand out from the crowd and position your brokerage for long-term growth.

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Contact us to learn more about how Denim can help set your freight brokerage apart and attract top shippers and carriers through technology.

Since the start of the pandemic, the market turmoil impacting the logistics industry, including freight brokers, has made one thing abundantly clear: it’s always prudent to buttress your business against present and future disruptions in your revenue streams.

This means looking beyond working with just a few big customers, no matter how well your current relationships may be, continuously expanding your market reach, and exploring new ways to generate income.

The Importance of Diversifying Your Freight Customers

Sometimes it only takes one unforeseen hiccup to turn your best customer into a former one. Plus, getting underbid and losing a lucrative business opportunity to a competitor is very common. These instances, along with many more, could cripple your operation if you don’t have a robust customer base.

That’s why now is the time to diversify.

With a strategic plan, you can ensure your brokerage weathers any turbulence and comes out stronger and ready to scale in both good times and bad.

How to Diversify Your Customers as a Freight Brokerage

To help you get started, here are six effective strategies you can use to gain a wider audience and reduce business risk.

1. Zero In on an Industry You are Passionate About

Be it pharmaceuticals, construction, or FMCG, most brokers have an industry that they know inside out. What better way to expand your business than by leveraging this specialized knowledge to grow your freight brokerage? 

Call up your industry contacts, get referrals from them, or start an email campaign targeting your favorite niche. Your expertise, experience, and enthusiasm will make a difference, elevate your pitch, and set yourself above your competition.

Guard yourself against future challenges by building a diverse client portfolio around your strongest sector.

2. Expand Your Service Offerings

Many freight brokers often fail to recognize just how much headroom there is to be gained by simply broadening the list of services they provide. 

How about adding additional lanes by building a larger carrier base, and then targeting shippers running freight in those lanes? For example, grab a piece of the multi-billion dollar seasonal shipping market by opening up an intra-Midwest corridor to move agricultural products and equipment.

Another quick way to increase the value of your services is by offering free and convenient online payment options such as ACH QuickPay, which makes your carriers happy with quicker payments while freeing up your backend accounting operations so you can dedicate more resources to customer acquisition and service expansion.

3. Network, Network, Network

It’s vital to ramp up your networking efforts when the times are tough. From making calls, sending emails, attending conferences, hosting local events, and promoting on social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook, make it a priority to reach out to new prospects regularly and keep building your contact list.

To start, set specific weekly or monthly goals for the number of new contacts you get in touch with, and steadily follow up on those leads. Remember, a healthy sales pipeline starts with a consistent process of identifying and connecting with potential customers in order to support your business development.

4. Highlight Your Advantages

In an ultra-competitive market, every advantage counts in your favor, no matter how small. Keep highlighting your strengths to set yourself apart and enlarge your client base.

When thinking about how to start a freight brokerage business and grow it successfully, make sure you meet & exceed customer expectations by adopting the latest digital tools to improve transparency and deliver a flawless customer experience. 

Luckily, financial partners like Denim allow you to do just that with an array of cutting-edge features such as a business performance dashboard, a fast payment system, and full visibility with advanced reporting. Plus, we also help you pay your carriers faster and boost operational efficiency with ACH QuickPay sent daily, 90%+ advances, real-time TMS integrations, interest-free factoring, collections services, and many more.

Check out our plans for freight brokers and stand out from the crowd with the most advanced, all-in-one platform in the industry.

5. Strengthen Your Business Relationships

The foundation of any freight broker’s business is based on relationships with their carriers and shippers.

Therefore, it’s vital to maintain the highest level of service for your customers - by learning their particular business processes and tailoring your solutions to meet their needs.

Often, this entails making things easier for your carriers. As mentioned earlier, everyone loves to get paid as quickly as possible without delay. Therefore, offering quick, guaranteed payments online via ACH QuickPay is a big plus in any carrier’s book and goes a long way to securing an ever-growing partnership.

Another excellent way to build stronger ties is ensuring seamless integration with your customer’s preferred TMS platform, such as Ascend or EZ Loader, to enable fast load booking, digital documentation, etc.

You can gain even more trust by improving your credit rating on Ansonia, which opens up the door to doing business with a more diverse list of carriers and shippers. 

6. Have a Contingency Plan

The pandemic has taught all of us that anything can and will happen, especially in the often turbulent shipping industry. And it’s up to each freight broker to assess their risks and prepare a contingency plan to ensure their business will continue to function in such emergencies. 

The good news is that it’s not as complicated as you might think.

Start by identifying your key risk scenarios (ie. inclement weather, technical glitches, loss of a big client, etc) and then outline the specific steps you will take to address each one.

Next, determine anything you can do in advance to get prepared (i.e. having a backup internet connection in case the primary one goes down).

Finally, always aim to run your brokerage operation as efficiently as possible for more flexibility in times of need. A great way to do this is by utilizing a financial platform to cut accounting and back office costs, which affords you the leeway to invest in what actually grows the bottom line - the expansion and diversification of your customers.

All Freight Brokerage Businesses Must Work on Diversifying Their Customer Base

The old adage of not putting all your eggs in one basket has once again proven to be sage advice in these trying times. Whether you are just starting a freight brokerage, or are a seasoned firm looking to scale, it pays to take concrete steps right now to diversify and mitigate your risk by applying some ‌tips outlined above.

To learn more about how to set up your brokerage to succeed in any market condition, contactthe experts at Denim to help you run a more efficient operation, attract top carriers and shippers, and bulletproof your business.

A freight brokerage rises and falls on its relationships, with sensitive data flowing between shippers, brokers, and carriers. It is the job of a freight brokerage to tactfully manage and protect this data coming in from both sides. But, as the transportation and logistics industry increasingly depends on technology to manage their businesses, this has become harder to do. 

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Cyberattacks across trucking, logistics, freight factoring, and freight forwarding are now happening more frequently and with added complexity. Not only are these attacks costly, but they can compromise the trust of your customers. According to data from IBM, the transportation sector was the seventh most-attacked industry in 2021, accounting for 4% of all cyberattacks within the top ten industries. When combined with the fact that 60 percent of small- to mid-sized companies will close after a cyberattack, it’s essential that small- and mid-sized freight brokers give special attention to cybersecurity practices. 

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There is good news, though. With the right systems, employee training, and technology partners in place, freight brokers can prevent cyberattacks, grow their business, and become trusted partners that focus on data security for their customers.

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What is a Cyberattack? 

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A cyberattack is any attempt by a foreign party to damage or destroy a computer network or system. There are a variety of ways cybercriminals or hackers can launch an attack, but ransomware ranks as the No. 1 cyber threat to freight brokers because of the level of access hackers can gain. During a ransomware attack, hackers encrypt sensitive data and demand payment to free it. Brokers are usually held hostage by hackers that hope the company will get desperate enough to pay the ransom to regain control of their data. 

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Because successful ransomware attacks can disrupt a company’s entire IT network and cause costly downtime, many brokerages find it cheaper to pay the hackers. This has further reinforced the idea that they are an easy target.  

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Other common cyberattacks include: 

• Phishing. Phishing is one of the more common methods hackers use to gain access to company data. This often comes in the form of an email to unsuspecting employees. The emails almost always look legitimate and can fool even the most careful employee. 
• Password attacks. These attacks refer to a hacker trying to steal a user’s password. They were one of the most common causes of data breaches in 2020, with companies reporting that 81% of data breaches were caused by compromised credentials.
• Man-in-the-middle. In this method of cyberattack, hackers insert themselves into a two-party transaction. From there they can filter and steal data.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).  In this cyberattack, attackers flood a server with internet traffic to prevent legitimate users from accessing connecting services or websites.

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All cyberattacks will look different, but understanding some of the most common ones can help you prepare and minimize the damage. Suspicious network activity such as abnormal access patterns, database activities, file changes, or unexpected network activity are red flags freight brokers should be looking for to identify and suppress a cybersecurity threat.   

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Is Your Freight Brokerage at Risk of a Cyberattack?

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Freight brokers are responsible for their customers’ most sensitive information, often including pricing and payment information. This puts even small to mid-sized companies at risk of a cyberattack and the financial losses that accompany them. 

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Unfortunately, the freight payment process between freight brokers and trucking companies has increasingly become a common target for hackers who assume these companies lack the sophistication and resources to protect themselves from cyber threats—and that assumption is not always wrong. 

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As digitization for freight brokers has revolutionized the industry over the last decade, many brokerages and carriers have not always kept up with the best practices in their payment solutions and other technologies to improve online safety. The sector’s prominent role in the consumer economy also adds to its vulnerability. Because it is so interconnected, one company’s cyberattack has the potential to bring the movement of freight to a complete stop. This has direct consequences for the entire supply chain down to the consumer level. 

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How to Protect Your Freight Brokerage from a Cyberattack

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Protecting your brokerage from a cyberattack doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. Here are several freight brokerage best practices to help you prepare for the cybersecurity threats that may lie ahead:

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Create a Strong Password

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Cybercriminals often try to access user accounts by using combinations of names, milestone dates (anniversaries, birthdays), and dictionary words. Brokers’ software systems should not only require user passwords but complex passwords. The Denim Payments platform, for example, requires all customers to have strong passwords that are complex for humans or computers to guess. These simple safeguards significantly reduce the effectiveness of password-related attacks.

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Denim also utilizes mandatory password lockouts. We have implemented a mechanism that locks user accounts after 10 invalid password attempts. This measure helps protect customers from "brute force" attacks.

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Train Your Employees

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Employee education is arguably the most important step in improving cybersecurity. Training should be conducted during the onboarding process for all new employees and revisited regularly throughout the year for current employees. Annual training sessions keep employees updated on best practices and ensure they know how to spot cybersecurity red flags, such as suspicious phishing emails.  

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We regularly conduct cybersecurity training here at Denim. We provide employees with the knowledge required to identify and appropriately respond to cybersecurity threats. In addition, we regularly work with independent security teams to conduct penetration testing exercises that involve simulated cyberattacks designed to identify any potential vulnerabilities in our applications that cybercriminals may exploit.

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Choose the Right Freight Factoring Company

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Protecting proprietary, personal, and customer data is essential to the success of your brokerage. Choosing the wrong technology partners has the potential to open your business up to cybersecurity risks. This is especially true when selecting a freight factoring company. While freight factoring is an efficient way for brokers to avoid lengthy delays in payment on invoices, brokers must ensure their freight factoring company is making all efforts to secure their sensitive data. 

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For our cloud-based freight factoring company, cybersecurity analytics are always top of mind at Denim Payments, starting with limiting the amount of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) we collect for our customers. Any customer data stored via disk is securely encrypted to ensure protection in the event of a data breach, lost or stolen devices, or data leakage.

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At Denim, we also offer our partners cybersecurity assurance through a variety of built-in features, such as secure data transmission and DDoS threat mitigation. 

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Protect Your Data to Grow Your Freight Brokerage

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Protecting your brokerage's cybersecurity just makes good business sense. Freight brokers can set themselves apart and grow their brokerage by ensuring all personal and customer data is protected. And while choosing the right freight factoring company is a great place to start, it is also the responsibility of each broker to ensure they have the right measures and training in place. 

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Ready to learn more? See how Denim's payment automation software can help protect your brokerage from falling victim to a cyberattack. Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns.   

If you’re just starting your freight brokerage, building momentum will take a lot of effort. Untested freight brokers don’t have the reputation yet to attract top shippers or carriers, no matter how much the two want to find each other so that a partnership can happen. You’ll need to go the extra mile when learning how to grow your freight brokerage.

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Here are a few tips on how to convince top carriers to work with you as you build your carrier network.

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Offer QuickPay

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No carrier wants to be chasing down their receivables, so make sure your carriers are paid on time with QuickPay options. Word will spread that you can be trusted to make fast payments and reduce your carrier's busy work. This also keeps pipelines flowing because you don’t stall, argue, or otherwise mistreat your carrier partners when it comes time to actually pay for services rendered.  

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Net-30 is an antiquated payment standard. Carriers need money now, and they work hard to complete jobs, so there’s no reason why they should be waiting on payments. By offering free and convenient QuickPay options for your carriers, you can pay your carriers faster, which is a huge benefit to them. Paying your carriers as quickly as possible will help you maintain these important relationships and grow your freight brokerage.

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Collect Referrals

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If you deliver value at every opportunity, you’re bound to get referrals. This is a slow, organic process, but you’d be surprised how many freight brokers don’t consistently pursue referrals. The freight industry is a tight knit industry and a lot of professionals work closely together. One satisfied carrier or shipper can connect you to another who needs to transport a load. Always put in consistent effort to cultivate a good reputation within your referral network.

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Emphasize The Value of Your Freight Brokerage

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There are thousands of brokers carriers can decide to work with, so it’s important to emphasize your value, especially as you are just starting your freight brokerage. By humanizing yourself, specializing in a niche market, and focusing on transparent communication, you can begin to convince carriers to work with you.

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Humanize Your Brand

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People like working with brands that they can relate to, so make sure to tone down the business talk and inject some personality into your brand, marketing materials, and website. An easy way to do this is to talk about your team. If you’re a small operation, highlight and emphasize the personal and efficient service that your carriers will receive over a large firm that moves slowly.

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Also, don’t be afraid to cross the line between personal and professional relationships. Successful brokers go the extra mile and build relationships with their carriers by doing small but meaningful things, like sending holiday gifts, taking their carriers out to a nice dinner, or checking in on them and their family. We work with brokers who even send their drivers a DoorDash gift card if they are stuck in line at the shipper for hours!

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Carriers want to work with nice brokers who care about them and their business.

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Specialize in a Niche

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As you’re starting your freight brokerage or growing your business, one key tip is to specialize in a niche because as they say, “a jack of all trades is a master of none.” This is especially important for brokers trying to convince carriers to work with them. 

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There is no “best” freight niche for brokers, but there are some ways you can determine what to specialize in. Here are some ways you can define your niche:

• By equipment: you could specialize in flat bed, van, or heavy haul loads
• By industry: you could specialize in a specific industry, such as building supplies, food, retail, steel, etc.
• By regional needs: if your area has a need for a specific type of load, that can help determine your niche

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For example, Dennis Brown, CEO of Freight Broker Boot Camp, started his business by specializing in van freight that originated in the northeast because he was based in Buffalo, NY. This specific niche helped him grow his freight broker business. You can’t (and shouldn’t be) everything to everybody as a new or mid-sized broker.

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Be Transparent

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Because there’s so much competition in the freight broker industry, transparent communication will pay off and help you grow your carrier network. 

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For example, be transparent on your rates and don’t low ball carriers in the negotiation process. You might not have the highest paying loads because there is always going to be a competitor that has their own relationships and can offer to pay more for the same exact lane. The key is to offer the best experience, treat your carriers with respect, and offer fair rates. If you do this, carriers will choose to work with you over and over again. 

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Another way you can improve the transparency between you and your carriers is to provide them with access to their Payee Dashboard, where carriers can view their historical and upcoming payments, respond to questions or requests, and make sure they are in-sync with you as their broker. This is just one example of the importance of digitalization in the freight broker industry.

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Lastly, another way to improve transparency is to be available in directories or reports so carriers know your brokerage is legitimate.  

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All Denim clients are on our verified brokers page, so if a carrier needs to validate a broker's financial backing, they are able to check on their own. If a broker is verified by Denim that means they are backed financially and can guarantee payments to their carriers in as little as 24 hours.

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Pass the link along to a carrier in the beginning of the relationship so they know how to find you.

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Improve Your Freight Broker Risk Score

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If you don’t have a reputable risk score for your freight brokerage, shippers and carriers will pass on your brokerage for a larger, more established one. They’ll be afraid to lose a load to a broker that’s too new to the logistics industry.  

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Use your risk score to your advantage and convince carriers to work with you by:

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Paying Your Bills on Time

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Whether you’re looking to get your first risk score, or simply raise your score, do what you should do with all credit rating agencies and pay all of your bills on time.

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Offering ACH & eCheck

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Delays in mail payment lead to a lower credit score and a higher average days to pay. Combat this by offering ACH and eChecks to pay your carriers faster and more consistently. At Denim, we offer free ACH transfers and same-day processing. No ACH fees means more money in your pocket and a better payment process for your business. 

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Conclusion: Grow Your Freight Brokerage by Attracting Top Carriers

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As a growing freight broker, getting carriers to work with you over the competition is a huge obstacle in building your business. But, by setting yourself apart with 24-hour payments, specialized services and a human touch, you can begin to build your carrier network and stand out. 

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At Denim, we know how difficult it can be to find the time to find and nurture shipper and carrier relationships, while also handling all of your business operations. We help our brokers free up more of their time to grow their business by streamlining their broker operations and offering important services such as factoring, QuickPay, and time-saving integrations. Want to learn more about how we can help you streamline your operations while also paying your shippers and carriers faster and more efficiently? Contact us today!

In May 2022, Denim was lucky enough to attend The Future of Supply Chain, a premiere event hosted by FreightWaves, a leader in supply chain intelligence. The Future of Supply Chain celebrates how companies are digitally transforming the management of their supply chains and gives attendees the chance to “explore the latest technology, newest applications, trends in education and continuing evolution of the overall supply chain.”

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Denim demonstrated our payment automation software at the event. In case you missed it, here’s a recap of our demo and how it went. 

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Live Demo Summary: Denim's Payment Automation Software for Freight Brokers

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The major attractions of FreightWaves’ The Future of Supply Chain live event are the 7-minute live demos. Here’s a recap of what we covered in ours:

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We set the stage by explaining that 3PLs, freight brokers and shippers are looking for ways to streamline workflows and increase efficiencies. Because of that, they need the right tools to help. They want to spend more time growing their business and moving freight, not chasing down an ACH payment or a lost check sent to a carrier. 

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With that in mind, our Chief Technology Officer Shawn Vo and Head of Product Sean Smith (and an imaginary Sean Connery) hit the stage to show off how our product works.

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Connect Your Network

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First, they showed the audience how to connect your network. In the presentation, they showed how to add customers (shippers) to the platform. We saw that when you add a shipper, you can pull in information like invoices, collections history, and credit scores. You can also add information for contractors (carriers), such as payment information, prior transactions, factoring relationships, addresses, and more. 

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Our team showed how Denim is helping connect data across brokers’ businesses, empowering them to be more efficient and make smarter, data-driven decisions.

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Add Your Jobs

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After we added customers and contractors, we then added new jobs and showed off the fact that you can add a new job in under 30 seconds. You can also add it via a bulk import or with our API integration from our TMS partners. 

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Once you add a job, Denim goes to work for you. We:

• Perform document auditing to ensure payments are correct
• Invoice on our client’s behalf
• Send out carrier payments with remittances on their scheduled dates
• Perform collections when invoices come due

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Throughout the lifecycle of a job, clients are also able to access financial reporting and have a fully-reconciled accounting system via our QuickBooks integration. With all of this assistance, clients report saving about 30 minutes per job versus doing the whole thing manually. 

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Pay and Get Paid

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Next, we showed the audience how to run payments on the Denim platform. Here are some highlights:

• Carriers will receive same-day ACH payments
• Shippers will soon be able to opt into extended terms for their flexibility
• We can surface chargebacks so they can get settled so brokers’ wins don’t turn into losses
• Clients can take advantage of working capital through invoice factoring
• Soon, they will also be able to use our line of credit product
• If they have all the capital they need, we can also manage their carrier payments with Denim Wallet, our new carrier payment solution
• Clients are able to increase their revenue per load by passing along or splitting Denim's fees with their carriers and shippers

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Integrate with Your Systems

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Creating a job in Denim is fast, but what’s even faster is not having to add one at all. 

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Our real-time API integrations will accept jobs directly from our partner TMS systems and process those jobs all the way through payment and collections. Clients really get hooked on the integration because integrating their TMS with Denim is a breeze. Our open API architecture allows us to be a hub that can integrate quickly to any TMS or accounting software, making Denim the only provider in the industry that serves as a one-stop, full-service platform.

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In addition to growing our client base, we are also always looking to build strategic partnerships with new integrations. If you have any ideas or partnerships you’d like us to consider, you can submit them on our site!

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Denim Wins Top Demo of the Day

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We are so proud to show off our product and the Future of Supply Chain attendees agreed. We were voted as one of the three top demos on day 1 out of more than 30 companies. We are passionate about the product we’re creating here at Denim and are so honored that attendees could feel that passion, as well. 

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See How it Works

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Our demo at Future of Supply Chain was amazing, but what’s even more amazing is seeing it for yourself. Ready to schedule your own demo? Contact our sales team directly or schedule a demo that fits your schedule.   

Their role in the supply chain makes freight brokers especially vulnerable to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these organizations are also uniquely positioned to shepherd the recovery of logistics and transportation. When freight brokers build more robust operations, the entire supply chain becomes stronger as well.

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As brokers look to ramp up operations, new technology capabilities provide a great place to start. In particular, modernizing financial systems offers brokers a potent way to streamline processes, strengthen partnerships with shippers and carriers, and stay solvent in the midst of a volatile economic recovery.

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How Technology and Automation Can Bolster Freight Brokerage Operations

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The pandemic shook up the supply chain in virtually every way imaginable, from parts shortages and production slowdowns to closed ports, delayed shipments and massive staff turnover. Transportation hiccups, price volatility, and cash flow interruptions have left shippers, brokers, and carriers equally frustrated, ultimately taking a toll on their relationships with each other. Getting those relationships back on track is part of a successful supply chain recovery — and upgrades in enterprise technology can help.

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The pandemic has created an opportunity for freight brokers to make a strategic effort to leverage technology that can optimize operations and restore or improve capabilities. For contemporary freight brokers, these technologies will ensure stability in years to come. The right enterprise technology will insulate a company from external and internal shocks, giving freight brokers the ability to operate near full capacity regardless of what happens and adapt to change as it occurs. When a business begins to automate manual processes, it gains benefits such as:

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Increased Visibility

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Company leaders collect more data about what’s happening in their organizations and the wider industry. In turn, this data enables them to make more informed decisions about logistics, finance, operations, and other critical business processes.

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Better Reaction Times

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In manual operations, problems can spiral out of control before company leadership even knows they exist. The increased visibility offered by technology makes it easier for companies to identify and address issues before they escalate into major crises.

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Streamlined Operations

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Upgrades in technology let business leaders automate tasks, empower employees to do more with less, and make operations more cost- and resource-effective. These capabilities can compensate for a lack of staff and interrupted cash flow — two major pain points for freight brokers, shippers, and carriers at this moment. It’s little wonder that so many supply chain leaders have come to recognize the vital importance of eliminating manual processes as a step in post-pandemic recovery. In this Global Procurement Officer Survey from Deloitte, “driving operational efficiencies” surpassed “cost savings” as the top priority of Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) for the first time.

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Finance Provides a Key Opportunity for Brokers

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Freight brokers are the connectors of the supply chain — they link together shippers and suppliers, facilitating the efficient flow of goods from producers to end consumers. Because of this, the advantages of streamlining a brokerage extend far beyond its own four walls. It becomes easier for shippers and carriers to connect and makes the freight broker a valuable strategic partner to shippers and carriers struggling to get back on their feet.

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But, brokers need to take care when developing priorities for the adoption of new technologies. Nearly every aspect of a brokerage’s business can benefit from digital technology enhancements, but focusing on the most impactful areas first will grant fast and abundant benefits. Sales and operations planning (S&OP) offers a good starting point to target manual processes, as these processes can benefit heavily from richer data and clearer visibility. Time-saving integrations between broker, shipper, and carrier systems is another top candidate, as it helps smooth any wrinkles in the fundamental relationships that power the whole supply chain.

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Automating financial and back-office tasks will provide the most immediate impact for brokers struggling to remain financially viable. Automating essential but repetitive administrative duties frees employees up to focus on more complex tasks that require human attention.

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Freight Brokers Need Optimized Invoicing and Working Cash Flow

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Consider the amount of time spent handling invoicing and collecting payments. With a financial platform like Denim, brokers can automate invoicing, implement managed collections, and leverage freight-factoring capabilities as necessary. As a result, workers who typically handle these tasks can dedicate more time to strategic operations and revenue-generating activities.

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The streamlined payment process also helps maintain more consistent cash flow and ensures the organization has the resources to overcome challenges and disruptions. With financial stability, freight brokers can continue working with shippers and carriers despite disruptions in other parts of the supply chain. And by using tools like Denim's QuickPay feature, freight brokers also make sure their carrier partners enjoy some financial stability of their own.

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Additionally, an advanced financial platform gives freight brokers access to high volumes of valuable data. For example, understanding the financial stability of shippers and carriers will help a freight broker make more intelligent decisions about partnerships. Our dashboard shows freight brokers important data like this, including their fastest paying customers, their slowest paying customers, and their most profitable customers.

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Through integrations with transportation management systems and accounting software like QuickBooks, brokerages can turn their data into a real asset by sharing it between systems to further enhance visibility and facilitate informed decision-making processes. This combination of automation, financial stability, and accurate reporting allows freight brokers and their partners to ride out volatile shifts in the economic terrain. Moreover, it keeps the entire supply chain moving — when freight brokers are doing well, so are the shippers and carriers that depend on them.

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Turn Disruption Into Opportunity

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With a robust financial platform, freight brokers can leverage a tumultuous supply chain as an opportunity for growth. Freight brokers will strengthen their relationships with existing partners and attract the attention of new businesses, too. Only 10% of supply chain pros feel “extremely prepared” for disruption in the future, whereas 59% say their disconnected systems and processes are to blame for potential future disruptions, according to Quickbase’s Supply Chain Resilience Survey. This data suggests that freight brokers who choose to move away from manual processes now — especially in financial operations — will position themselves as supply chain recovery leaders. To see how Denim can help you grow your freight brokerage, please reach out to us today.

In 2020, Gartner analyst Balaji Abbabatulla predicted that most most supply chain operations would migrate to the cloud by the end of 2022. As more brokers pursue solutions that support and integrate with the supply chain automation needs of partners and customers, it looks like he was right. More and more organizations in the logistics space — especially freight brokers — are moving financial transactions, transportation management, and other critical processes to the cloud.Why? Here are just a few of the factors driving freight brokers to replace their legacy systems with cloud platforms — and why you should think about doing the same:

1. Integration and Flexibility

Companies developed many of yesterday's legacy systems to handle specific tasks. For example, your legacy payment platform might issue and process invoices, but that's it. While these legacy systems perform their functions well, they have inherent limitations. As a result, freight brokers must often buy different pieces of software to handle different processes, and those software tools rarely communicate with each other.

When software systems don't share data, your team has to spend a lot of time on inefficient administrative processes, entering and reentering the same information into disparate systems.In contrast, cloud solutions are all about integration and flexibility. The average cloud platform bundles multiple functions into a single solution, allowing freight brokers to do more with a more straightforward software system.

For example, Denim's online financial platform can process invoices and payments while also supplying factoring services, credit checks, custom reports, and more.In addition, cloud solutions typically communicate with other cloud software through application programming interfaces (APIs). Essentially, that means different cloud solutions can share data, even if distinct companies make them. That streamlines operations and significantly reduces administrative work for employees. For example, Denim's platform can integrate with QuickBooks and various transportation management systems (TMS), making it easier to track shipments, payments, and vital accounting information.

2. Scalability

Cloud applications also have a scalability advantage over their legacy counterparts. Because cloud platforms can integrate with one another, it's far easier for a cloud software ecosystem to grow alongside your business. You can easily add new tools to your arsenal as needed.With legacy systems, tapping into new lines of business, reaching new partners, or gaining new insight into your company's operations often requires purchasing or commissioning a brand-new specialized software solution. Unfortunately, that also means another tool your people need to learn.

With the cloud, on the other hand, you can often find a solution that does the job and integrates with your existing software, creating a streamlined experience that requires only a minimal learning curve for your team. Given the rapidly evolving pace of logistics automation technology, this ability to adapt quickly has become essential.

Because cloud apps are hosted online instead of in-office hardware, you can also access them anywhere. In short, cloud solutions support remote work. As a result, those brokers already using cloud solutions had an easier time maintaining operations during COVID lockdowns. Similarly, cloud-savvy brokers will also find themselves prepared to weather future disruptions.In addition, given that 57% of job seekers want to work remotely, adopting cloud solutions makes your company more competitive in a tight talent market.

3. Simplicity

Supply chains are complex, with many (literally) moving parts. And freight brokers may have the most complicated position of all — connecting shippers and carriers, managing relationships with both, and ensuring every party gets what they need from the transaction. All that complexity can make it hard to move freight quickly and efficiently where it needs to go, but speed and efficiency are key differentiators for great freight brokers.

Cloud applications can help simplify things in your freight brokerage. By integrating your technology platforms into a cohesive, interconnected system, you make it easier to carry out critical business operations. Data flows between the tools, automating more complicated procedures like processing payments and tracking freight. That, in turn, makes it easier to avoid common mistakes like duplicate invoices and payments. Your team members also have less administrative work to do, allowing them to focus on high-touch, high-value tasks.

4. A Better Partner Experience

While simplicity is a boon to your staff, shippers and carriers will also appreciate the way logistics automation will streamline your operations. You'll be able to make connections between shippers and carriers much faster, and the data gathered by your cloud solutions might even help you make more efficient connections.With a cloud-based payment platform, you streamline the invoicing process and facilitate payment faster from shippers.

This type of supply chain automation means shippers will be happy because they won't have to deal with complicated payment processes, and you could even see fewer late payments as a result. Also, carriers will appreciate getting paid faster, especially if your cloud payment solution has a QuickPay feature. According to some estimates, 90% of brokers still don't have fast digital ways to pay carriers. As such, a cloud platform with QuickPay sets you apart as an ideal broker partner for carriers.

5. Resilience

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from tough times and overcome any challenges that come your way. In recent years, resilience has become a must-have for freight brokers, and cloud systems are inherently more resilient than their legacy counterparts.There are a few reasons for this:

1. Flexibility. The integration capabilities of cloud platforms make it easier to update your software environment to better support sudden changes in business operations.
2. Power. Cloud platforms also tend to be more powerful than legacy systems because they run on the web instead of depending on the processing limitations of an in-house server. That means cloud platforms can typically process more data at a faster pace.
3. Security. Cloud apps support data security by keeping your data backed up in online systems. So no matter what happens to your in-house hardware, your data will be secure and accessible. This factor is significant today, with cyberattacks like ransomware on the rise. Cybercrime has increased by 300% since the start of the pandemic and costs the global economy $6 trillion per year. By keeping your data in secure cloud platforms, you can better avoid the costs of cyberattacks — and the damage your reputation would suffer if sensitive partner information were leaked.

Make the Move to the Cloud

Legacy systems may have served your brokerage well so far, but they simply weren't designed for the fast-paced, data-driven, high-tech world of today. You can try to keep up with the rapid pace of supply chain automation by bolting more software tools onto your legacy system.

However, you're likely to end up with an overcomplicated mess that only makes your people's jobs harder.In truth, every modern freight broker must now be a digital freight broker. By switching to cloud platforms, freight brokers can streamline operations, simplify their software systems, and deliver better experiences for shippers and carriers alike. If you’re interested in learning more about how Denim can help grow your credit and help build your business, we’d love to talk.

Carriers may add accessorial charges to invoices for services above and beyond transporting freight from point A to B.

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Freight brokers must account for these charges when connecting shippers and carriers. Otherwise, shippers may experience unexpectedly high bills.

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While you can’t always avoid accessorial charges, you can prepare for them by understanding these fees ahead of time and why carriers levy them. This preparation lets you set appropriate expectations with shippers. We previously covered six of the most common accessorial charges, but plenty of other events can trigger extra charges from carriers. The following list outlines six more accessorial charges every freight broker should plan for:

What does it take to make a freight brokerage successful? Brokers juggle a lot, from maintaining excellent relationships with shippers to finding reliable carrier partners. But how a brokerage handles freight payments remains one of the most critical factors.

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While every business in every industry requires intelligent financial decisions and processes, the nature of freight brokering means the payment process itself can serve as a make-or-break component in a brokerage’s success.

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To ensure your brokerage will thrive, try following these six best practices for freight payments.

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1. Be Prepared to Float 3 Months’ Worth of Business at Any Given Time

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Broker success depends on ensuring on-time and accurate freight payments, but a broker’s expenditures and income tend to operate on different schedules. Generally speaking, most shippers will pay brokerages on net-30 or net-60 terms, while most carriers will expect a broker to pay on net-15 terms at the latest.

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As a result, brokers must often spend a significant amount of money before seeing their own invoices paid. For this reason, most successful freight brokers have enough cash on hand to float the business for three months as a general rule. Building this liquidity into your financial model will help your freight brokerage mitigate risk and handle any unwelcome surprises – such as late payments from shippers – with relative ease.

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2. Stay Liquid with Factoring

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With that previous tip in mind, how exactly does a brokerage maintain three months’ worth of liquidity? Brokers may use a few methods to support this strategy, including loans, investments, and self-funded capital stores. Still, leveraging invoice factoring for freight brokers remains the easiest and most reliable way.

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Invoice factoring occurs when a brokerage sells unpaid invoices to a third-party factoring partner. The factoring partner will pay out a lump sum for each invoice of the invoice’s total value. For example, Denim offers up to 90% advances. This portion of the payment gives the brokerage immediate cash on hand. Then, the factoring partner will recover payment from the customer. Once the customer pays, the factoring partner will deduct a percentage for its services — usually 1-5% — and pay the remaining balance to the brokerage.

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3. Know the Types of Factoring Available to You

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Factoring offers an effective means to stabilize cash flow without taking out loans. However, brokers should thoroughly understand the process before making a factoring arrangement. In particular, brokers should know the difference between recourse factoring and non-recourse factoring:

• Recourse factoring: If a customer doesn’t pay an invoice, the broker must repurchase the invoice from the factoring service.
• Non-recourse factoring: The factoring service assumes the risk of the customer’s failure to pay. If a shipper fails to pay, the broker keeps the cash advance.

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While non-recourse factoring carries less risk for the broker, it comes at a higher cost since the factoring service takes a higher percentage of the invoice to make absorbing the higher risk worthwhile. Therefore, brokers must balance their financial needs with risk mitigation to determine which arrangement suits them best.

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4. Pay Your Carriers Quickly

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Every broker wants to be a partner of choice for carriers. This way, a firm ensures it always has access to the fleets it needs to move shippers’ freight on time and at a reasonable price. Staying in carriers’ good graces requires paying carriers as quickly and conveniently as possible. Many freight payment solutions, including Denim, now offer carrier QuickPay options that make it easy for brokers to pay carrier invoices immediately. However, did you know that as many as 90% of brokers lack fast, digital methods to pay carriers? When you rank among the 10% of brokers actually utilizing these solutions, carriers will prioritize your loads over the rest.

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5. Be Clear About What Your Invoices Mean

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Freight invoices aren’t always straightforward. In addition to paying freight rates, a brokerage may also have to pay a carrier for accessorial charges above and beyond hauling freight. How a carrier bills a brokerage will affect how the brokerage bills its shippers.

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As a best practice, make invoices to shippers easy to understand, with a clear breakdown of each charge and its reason. That way, the shipper knows precisely what they’re paying for and that working with your brokerage remains a good investment.

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Additionally, many shippers now use freight payment auditing services to keep costs under control. With crystal-clear invoicing, billing mistakes that require an arduous auditing process will disappear.

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6. Don’t Handle Everything in House

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Given the complexity of the freight payment process and the dynamic nature of the supply chain, managing financial transactions through old-fashioned spreadsheets just won’t cut it. There’s a lot of room for error in manual payment processing, and your billing department won’t be able to use efficient tools like QuickPay.

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At least 75% of freight bills now get delivered electronically, so it makes sense for any freight broker to adopt a digital payment platform that allows them to keep up with the times. A reliable digital payment platform also makes it easier to send and receive payments, run financial reports, and exercise more control over brokerage cash flow.

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Many modern digital payment platforms also integrate with transportation management systems (TMS), further streamlining operations and billing. In searching for the right digital platform for any brokerage, consider options that go beyond just a software solution.

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Finding a freight payment partner that offers both digital tools and in-depth expertise can help you develop a freight payment process that truly works for everyone. For example, Denim provides many helpful services beyond digital payments, including factoring, automated invoices, managed collections, QuickPay, and more. A freight brokerage can transform the payment process from a nagging challenge into a strategic differentiator with a good partner and the right platform.

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Effective Payment Is the Foundation of a Successful Freight Broker

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Simply put, freight payment can be a hassle for many freight brokers — but it doesn’t have to be. By following these best practices, you can gain more control over your cash flow, keep shippers and carriers happy, and build a convenient freight payment process that sets your operation above the competition. If you’re interested in learning more about how Denim can help you grow your freight brokerage, we’d love to talk.

Even in the best of times, liquidity may pose a challenge for brokers. Freight brokers must often pay carriers before shippers pay them, which means the money goes out before it comes in. COVID-19 has made the situation even more difficult. Thanks to widespread volatility throughout the supply chain, shippers’ financial conditions can change drastically and on a dime. Some may have to delay payment to brokers beyond the usual timelines. Yet, carriers will not take kindly to delayed payments.

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With that in mind, it's more important than ever for freight brokers to maintain liquidity to give their brokerage a safety net. Here, we share some tips on improving the liquidity of your freight brokerage as you grow.

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Three Ways to Improve Freight Broker Liquidity

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How can freight brokers improve liquidity without jeopardizing their relationships with shippers and carriers? Here are three ways to achieve that goal:

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1. Keep Investing in Relationships

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Logistics is a relationship-driven industry — especially for brokers. A freight broker’s entire business model depends on consistently streamlining transportation for customers and maintaining strong relationships with carriers. When times get tough, brokers must not lose sight of that foundational fact. Performing successfully with carriers and shippers amid disruption helps your brokerage secure long-term partnerships. Perhaps more importantly, shippers will appreciate how your brokerage went the extra mile for them. That confidence, in turn, will put you at the top of their payment lists. Shippers will prioritize paying your invoices because they will not want to lose the value you deliver. Even if payments arrive late, the delays will not seem as severe as they could have been.

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2. Automate Repetitive Administrative Tasks

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When disruptions and pivots occur, liquidity remains a top concern for freight brokers — but not the only concern. Depending on the activity in the supply chain, adjustments to your operations may prove necessary. For example, a surge in demand might require you to find more carriers operating out of sectors less affected by the ongoing disruptions to handle the overflow. If you’re worried about processing invoices and chasing down payments, you may lack the bandwidth to focus on more critical business decisions. Automating these functions using time-saving integrations will free up your workforce to handle more complex, time-sensitive business decisions. Some financial platforms, like Denim, offer managed collections services, which means they retrieve payment from shippers. Financial platforms may also provide automated invoicing, doing away with the task of billing all your shippers manually. When combined, these two capabilities can improve cash flow while liberating brokers to focus on responding to the volatility of the moment.

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3. Try Factoring for Freight Brokers

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Factoring for freight brokers is a great way to maintain usable cash flow so you can continue to focus on growing your business and ensure liquidity. Factoring allows brokers to get immediate cash for unpaid invoices by working with a factoring service. The factoring service then takes on the task of collecting payment from the shipper. So even if a shipper pays late, your brokerage can make sure it has the cash it needs to keep operations running. Even brokers who feel they’ve grown beyond the need for freight bill factoring services can still benefit when external events negatively affect cash flow.Every invoice does not necessarily require factoring. Some factoring partners offer spot factoring, where brokers can collect normally on invoices they expect to be on time while factoring any invoices where they expect delays.

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Maintaining Liquidity Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

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With the right combination of automation, financing, and old-fashioned relationship-building, brokers can stay liquid no matter the obstacles they face. If you’re interested in learning more about how Denim can help grow your credit and help build your business, we’d love to talk.

They say you should never let a good crisis go to waste, and freight brokers have taken that to heart during the pandemic. Amid the turmoil, many prioritized software and technology upgrades that could help them continue delivering for shippers and carriers. Now they’re reaping the rewards.

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How Software Automation Helps Freight Brokers Form Better Partnerships

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The supply chain has spent years fostering digital capabilities, driven by the mass migration of transportation management systems (TMS) to the cloud, an influx of venture capital, and the arrival of digital digital freight apps such as Uber Freight and Convoy.

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However, the onset of COVID-19 made the benefits offered by the cloud not only irresistible — but essential. For example, the pandemic's continuous and unpredictable disruptions made it difficult for freight brokers to strategize. By adopting cloud-based TMS platforms, brokers have gained more visibility into their operations. They can record every shipment detail, often in real-time, and use that data to inform future loads and lanes.

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Similarly, explicitly made for freight brokers, digital financial platforms grant increased financial oversight. Solutions like Denim put brokers in command of their cash flow with factoring for freight brokers and managed collections options. Automated invoicing streamlines billing for shippers, and QuickPay keeps carriers happy with timely payments. Increased visibility and better process control provide a competitive advantage for freight brokers in any economic environment. With insightful data, brokerages can act as strategic partners to shippers and carriers. The efficiency of digital platforms also makes connecting shippers and carriers simpler so that both parties get what they want from brokers. These aspects point toward the ultimate benefits of automated solutions for freight brokers, which include:

• Delivering all-around improved experiences to shippers and carriers
• Gaining the ability to step up existing partnerships
• Attracting new business
• Boosting overall revenue
• Optimizing employees’ time

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With the right freight broker technology, even startup brokers can compete with more prominent names in the industry in terms of service level and capabilities.

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Every Broker Can Be a Digital Broker

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Over the last few years, the digital transformation of the supply chain has given rise to an entirely new category of brokers: digital freight brokers. The digital freight brokerage movement began with companies such as Convoy, Transfix, and Uber Freight, which use self-service digital marketplaces to match shippers with carriers.

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While many shippers still prefer the contract rates and dedicated service of traditional freight brokers, the rise of digital freight options has had some interesting repercussions. Notably, conventional freight brokers have invested more in technology to continue outcompeting the new digital players. This trend is perhaps best illustrated by increasingly frequent partnerships between brokers and TMS providers. By tightly integrating their platforms, brokers and TMS providers can match the speed and convenience of digital brokerage options without losing the benefits of working with a traditional freight broker.

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"The lines between a digital broker and an incumbent, more traditional broker are blurring…a year from now, they will be indistinguishable," said Tim Higham, CEO of AscendTMS, in an interview with Supply Chain Dive. As those lines continue to get muddier, freight brokers who made technology investments and formed vital partnerships early will have a significant advantage over those who held back.

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Are You Ready for the Growth of Freight Broker Technology?

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Many exciting developments have come out of the supply chain's digital adoption trend, but this is just the beginning. Experts anticipate further developments, such as predictive algorithms matching carriers with loads and blockchain-based shipment tracking. Leading freight brokers are already investing in tech strategies to stay ahead of the curve. Not sure where to start with your technology shift? Begin by pinpointing key opportunities to scale, reduce costs or improve profitability for your brokerage. The chances are that an enterprise software suite exists to help you achieve your goals. If you're interested in learning more about how Denim can help grow your credit and help build your business, we'd love to talk.