Why Small Businesses & Startups Should Use a Freight Broker

How To Outsource Shipping

You have to ship a pallet (or five) across the country to a customer. Should you ship directly with an LTL carrier or should you try to wade through the sea of freight brokers?

Going directly to the trucking company has it’s advantages. But depending on your business and the amount of extra time you want to spend on managing your shipping process it might make sense to outsource your shipping to a broker. Here are 6 great reasons why:

1: Saves time.

Get a dozen quotes, schedule and track your shipment in one place. Any decent broker has a TMS (Transportation Management System) which saves your contacts and prints BOL's/labels - less time entering data and more time focusing on your business.

2: Saves money.

As if you needed more reason than saving time...brokers leverage thousands of customers into their account to get rockstar pricing that small businesses and startups can't get (to a point - Contact us to see where the scale tips and you should go direct to carrier).

3: You get a personal consultant. 

Brokers aren't tied to any one carrier and have a ton of experience in the industry…put them to work for you! Before you even walked in the door (figuratively - there's no doors on the internet) your broker has already verified his/her carriers' operating authority, safety rating, and insurance coverage. More, they have incentive to be a good consultant - to keep you coming back! Good brokers don't need a contract because their customers understand their value.

4: No more auditing. 

Outsource your audit process to your broker (Should be part of their service) and move on to bigger and better things...like writing that blog post you've been putting off! 

5: Single source invoice. 

There's something to be said for simplicity. Having 8 sets of invoices coming in from different carriers with different requirements is about as fun as head butting a curb. Stay organized and stay sane and upgrade to single source invoice.

6: Outsource your negotiations. 

You wouldn't buy a house without your lawyer and real estate broker at your side so why start now with your business' cash on the line? Brokers have already done the leg work for you - take advantage of the gratis service!

 Brokers provide a tremendous amount of free services for startups and small businesses and often save you money compared to carrier direct. Be mindful of the aforementioned tipping point where it might make sense to go carrier direct and always have a solid backup. But other than that you can set it and forget it and focus your attention on growing your business!

Want more info? Click on the button below and I will personally get in touch with you to arrange a "personal freight consultant".