An open letter sent out over the wires from Haines City, Fla.-based Truck It Smart load board President and CEO Nick Shaughnessy revealed the No. 1 question the board gets from independent owner-operators around the country: “Do you display rates in your search results?”
Transparency from brokers and shippers on rates is not exactly the norm, today, though there has been something of a trend toward greater transparency in freight transactions as a general rule. Truck It Smart, Shaughnessy says, in its latest software update has made the pricing option for brokers and shippers posting loads a “requirement” for any such entities posting to the board directly.
The company will also give search-results priority to loads that include rates among the freight in the board’s mix that comes from indirect third-party companies. “When discussing the provision of rates, aka pricing, the challenge has always been how to please both the carrier and broker,” Shaughnessy says. “We aren’t going to please everyone, all the time, but the time is right for our industry to move to the next level, and that is not a matter of if this approach gets fully adopted, but when it becomes the industry standard.”
The board knows “your time is important,” he adds. “Why waste it on a cheap load? Our approach is simple. It’s all about speed and transparency. I have seen other industries transformed by similar open practices.”
Truck It Smart will be showing at the Great American Trucking Show beginning Thursday, Aug. 25, at booth #15169.