“The lines of communication in LTL shipping are absolutely perfect,” said no one ever.
The reality is that communication among LTL freight brokers, shippers, and carriers can send you down a bunch of rabbit holes — multiple carriers, multiple portals, multiple emails about one piece of freight. “Hunting wabbits” wasn’t fruitful for Elmer Fudd, and chasing updates instead of actually managing shipments isn’t productive for LTL freight brokers.
Communication needs structure, not more firepower. Drumkit’s freight broker software was built to provide that structure.
The Problem: Fragmented Channels Create Operational Risk
Back when Looney Tunes cartoons ran on Saturday morning television, there were fewer than a handful of network channels. Today, there are countless choices. It’s no different in transportation management. All these fragmented channels create operational risk due to carrier portals that do not communicate with each other, email threads that bury critical updates, and spreadsheets used as temporary tracking systems.
Fragmented communication in the freight brokerage industry leads to a slew of problems, including missed delivery windows, delayed responses to exceptions, and, ultimately, lost business.
Why LTL Makes the Problem Worse
LTL shipping takes those problems to a whole other level because of:
- More stops and more handoffs.
- More carriers per shipment.
- More changes for reclassifications, delays, or exceptions.
There is increased communication volume, but not necessarily increased clarity. Drumkit’s freight broker software has enabled efficient, effective communication among all parties involved in LTL shipping.
The Broker’s Burden: Managing Communication Manually
We get it. All the manual back-and-forth communication can be a lot. Your brain hurts at the end of the day from constantly switching between tools while simultaneously trying to put out fires. Corralling rabbits at a dog park sounds less stressful.
Unfortunately, manual workflows don’t scale as volume grows. Instead, the problems escalate — rabbit holes everywhere. It’s impossible to proactively manage LTL freight when you’re constantly being sucked down a rabbit hole and communicating reactively.
A Better Model: Centralized Communication
There is immense value in a single source of truth, centralizing carrier updates, for example, into one workflow and eliminating the need to log into multiple portals. Communication becomes easier to track, audit, and act on.
There are far fewer chances of falling down a rabbit hole if there are no gaps in communication channels.
How Automation Improves LTL Shipping Communication
Drumkit’s AI-powered freight broker software drastically improves communication by:
- Automating routine updates and follow-ups.
- Capturing carrier responses without manual intervention.
- Flagging delays and exceptions early.
- Ensuring no update is missed or forgotten.
Drumkit serves as a centralized inbox for carrier communication, consolidating emails, portal messages, and freight updates. Our freight broker software automatically generates customer-facing updates based on carrier input and logs communication back into a TMS for visibility and accountability.
The Impact: Clearer Communication, Better Service
With communication channels maintained with automation, LTL freight brokers spend far less time chasing updates. Shippers receive consistent, timely information. There are fewer surprises and far fewer reactive calls. Freight brokers can focus on decision-making and relationships instead of inbox management.
With automated communication, stressed-out, overburdened freight brokers can let out a giant sigh of relief — and make giant strides in growing their business.
Drumkit CEO Dhruv Gupta said on an episode of The FreightCaviar Podcast that “the difference between a billion-dollar brokerage and a million-dollar brokerage is actually just in scale. I think the work you do day to day is pretty similar and fairly straightforward. I think everybody has different processes, but the core fundamentals are: I have to quote this load, schedule it, and make sure I find a great carrier for it. I have to track it, make sure it actually gets there, and then bill for it. … It’s mostly just that, and that’s not different across different brokerages.
“And so for us, we want to provide you an opinionated way of doing that that’s flexible enough to plug into your different tools.”
Control Comes From Simplicity
Sure, LTL complexity is unavoidable. It’s the nature of the beast. Communication chaos, however, is easily avoided through automation, which improves efficiency and accuracy and ensures the freight broker remains in control of LTL shipments.
The success of LTL brokerage operations depends on clarity, consistency, and trust. Drumkit enables that with our automated communication tools, which allow freight brokers to truly multitask — and scale their businesses.
Partnering with Drumkit is easy. Book an introductory call with us, then we’ll do a deep dive into your brokerage operations and tailor our tools to plug into yours so your brokers never miss an urgent email again.
