The Truckstop load board service has launched a new tool called "Risk Factors" for brokers in its network, making for another in the burgeoning group of so-called "carrier vetting" services offering brokers ways to assess fraud risk based on data, performance reviews and/or other aspects of a carrier's record.
With "Risk Factors," though, the top-line news for carriers might that Truckstop Chief Product Officer Julia Laurin said the company is actively assessing whether the data-based approach it's taking with the product might also be applied to brokers, to help carriers assess fraud risk among them as well. Truckstop's long offered financial-risk assessments of brokers through CreditStop Broker, included in its Advanced and Pro load board subscription tiers for carriers, yet Laurin added that the company's "also excited by the opportunity to expand and reimagine broker risk assessments for carriers using Risk Factors technology."
Truckstop's "currently working directly with carriers to get their feedback and recommendations," she added. Carriers who might want to participate can email [email protected].
What's important for carriers to know about 'Risk Factors' assessments
Truckstop feels it has a "breadth of data" underlying the product such that it should actually help relationship-building between carriers and brokers by increasing trust, Laurin said. That's quite the opposite of how 67% of carriers recently reported feeling about the rise of other carrier-vetting services, holding a negative view of such tools. A rough fourth of all respondents to this survey (still open if you haven't yet taken it), furthermore, felt vetting services were negatively impacting broker-carrier relationships specifically.
The oft-remarked-upon "fraud apocalypse" has something to do with the situation, of course. According to Laurin, "fraud has made it more difficult to trust the person on the other side of the computer or phone. We want to empower the industry with information."
[Related: 'Fraud apocalypse': Brokers circling the wagons, shutting carriers out of freight]
Laurin added the company chose to err on the side of caution with its Risk Factors assessments of carriers (designated High, Medium and Low risk within the product), informing broker users directly about activity that corresponds with risk. The risk levels are based on the data Truckstop receives and interprets. "If we see a change, like a contact information change, a carrier’s risk level can become heightened," she said. Yet with each assessment level comes information about the type of risk identified.
- Asset Risk: Issues related to physical address and VIN registration details.
- Contact Risk: Phone, email and main contact information changes, principally.
- Digital Risk: IP behavior and other information related to a carrier's activity within the Truckstop load board ecosystem.
Laurin noted Truckstop hoped brokers could use such information to "reach out to carriers as appropriate, and make the relationship decision that’s right for them. ... The risk rating is the first snapshot into a carrier’s potential risk, and is not meant to be used alone. In Risk Factors, we will explicitly inform a broker of information and insights that would lead to a risk rating."
Another point the company made about data analysis in "Risk Factors" is that a lack of data -- no inspection activity, say -- on a particular carrier doesn't deliver an adverse risk rating. "Carriers are not marked 'high risk' due to lack of data," said Laurin, noting that risk categories will display as "no information" if that's the case. "Assessing risk is nuanced. The feedback we heard from our early conversations was that the priorities of a brokerage around assessing risk can change on a weekly basis based on what they're seeing in the wild. This means that the representation of risk isn’t easily reflected in a single score or number," either.
The company plans to adapt the product with new data points and context over time, she added, noting the [email protected] contact email for carriers if information contained within "Risk Factors" is inaccurate, a problem carriers have run into with some other services.
[Related: Brokers looking more like carriers with 'data driven' decision-making]
