For years, the narrative about Freight broker technology has been focusing on automation that free the employees to focus on building relationships and high-ranking tasks. But what does that mean in practice?
Freightwaves spoke to Grand Rapids, Ally Logistics in Michigan, and one of their technology providers, Fleetworks, a clearer picture of how these roles develop.
Traditionally, entry positions in the freight broker contained repeating tasks such as publishing loads, reaction to carrier calls and the persecution of programs. With the introduction of AI-controlled solutions and automation tools, these tasks are increasingly treated by the technology over time. With this shift, the employees can switch from reactive problem solving to proactive decision -makers.
At Ally Logistics, automation has significantly reduced the need for manual data input and call processing. For example, the company used the AI solutions to negotiate the first prices, manage communication with airlines and direct calls to the right representative.
“A carrier calls, talks to the bot and she agrees with an installment. From there, the call is transferred to a human representative via the telephone tree who then ends the job, books the cargo and confirms everything,” said John Corey, Truck -Ladung operations at Ally.
One of the most important changes in goods brokerage work is the shift towards carrier relationship management. Instead of spending your time to answer every caller call, the employees are now focusing on the development of long-term partnerships with reliable airlines.
AI helps to check airlines in real time and the marking of potential compliance problems that enable the broker to be more selective and strategy in terms of their partnerships. This improves the overall quality of the service brokers both the airlines and the senders.
Another responsibility that has arisen is the solution and escalation of problems. AI systems treat the majority of communication, but escalate complex problems for human employees. Instead of carrying out routine check-ins, the employees now enter when a problem actually requires their intervention. For example, if the temperature of a chilled shipment is wrong, the AI notifies a broker who can take immediate measures. This process ensures that human interventions are reserved for high -quality tasks that require critical thinking and expertise.
“Frache agency is not a completely flat task. For example, during the day you get crazy activity tips where a large part of the company is done,” said Paul singer, founder and CEO of Fleetworks. “We even saw this trend in the early morning operations. During these times of the day, they are only bombarded by phone calls and e -mails. With allied logistics and others, we now see that when he picks up the phone, people are a known problem or a known edition and avoid these large spikes in an inefficient time.”
Capacity and price strategy have also become key areas of the focus. AI-controlled findings offer visibility in market trends, availability and pricing of the lane. Brokers analyze this data to adapt their rates competitive or to identify lanes with high service reliability, to improve margins and to improve capacity in a business environment that is constantly fighting against shrinking margins.
“If we are able to direct all of these telephone call data to the right place, we have more data points that we can evaluate and build relationships based on their frequency in our network,” said Brian Moran, director of Truckload operations at Ally Logistics.
Customer experience and service differentiation become even more important in the developing freight broker landscape. Since AI takes on a growing share of the transaction elements of the job, employees can devote more time to refine customer strategies. This means that senders receive a personalized, data -controlled service instead of only being treated as another transaction.
“We also believe that technology investments with our shipping partners will open up new conversations that cover only one load,” said Dan Manshaem, founder and CEO of Ally Logistics. “What we have heard of our senders, for example, is the sustainability challenge in the freight broker and the search for better ways to measure the sustainability goals in your carrier basis. We find that we can build up stronger partnerships by automating some of the functions that have created historically friction through these deeper conversations.”
The employees are also increasingly involved in operational efficiency and tech integration. Instead of just using technology, refine and optimize AI-controlled workflows. At Ally Logistics, employees, for example, give direct feedback to improve the interaction of the AI with daily operation. This participation ensures that the technology continuously progresses in a way that benefits both employees and customers. Brokers are no longer just user of technology. They are an essential part of the design of their development.
“We would like to hear feedback from our team, regardless of whether it is only released on the phone or only one -on -one interviews with employees. Then it is our job to solve these problems for our employees,” said Corey.
Ally Logistics focuses on a comprehensive technological transformation that goes beyond fleet works and strategically implemented several technologies in order to reinterpret the logistics companies for its employees.
At the core of his approach is a diverse tech stack that was developed for automation and optimizing traditionally manual processes. A motorway integration represents a critical component for checking the real-time security check and the automated compliance reviews. Qued stops the planning functions, including advertising options for employees in a role that rarely extended beyond the basic data input.
From manual work to strategic supervision
Since the technology takes over routine operations, the employees have commissioned strategy and analytical responsibilities. This change has led to a role as a “control tower”, in which employees monitor and optimize automated processes instead of performing them manually.
As Manshaem explains, the control tower manager becomes the sophisticated orchestrator of automated processes, which focuses on deliberately creating carrier networks and optimizing technological interactions.
The role is characterized by a deep integration of data analysis, strategic relationship management and technological expertise. In contrast to previous logistics positions, which were primarily reactive and transactionally, these experts now use extended AI and automation tools to make proactive, data-controlled decisions. They spend less time with manual tasks such as load booking and more time to analyze the airlines, the development of evaluation systems and the identification of nuanced relationship space options.
Technologically, these specialists become a critical bridge between automated systems and human expertise. They monitor real-time airlines, manage complex communication workflows and continuously refine the automation processes based on detailed feedback. Your skills now require a unique mix of technological understanding, strategic thinking and relationship management skills.
Manshaem describes technology as “people empowerment instrument” and emphasizes that it is more intended to improve human intelligence than to replace. Managers in the future will act as a conductor of a highly developed technological orchestra to ensure that automation strengthens strategic skills instead of making them out of date. This shift is not just a transformation of individual job functions, but a complete reinterpretation of the logistics experts creates value in an increasingly digital ecosystem. As a result, traditional roles are redesigned – account assistants who focus on manual tasks are developing into “account -optimization specialists”.
This is not the end of how these roles can develop. Singer explained the carrier data that technology providers can get the use of AI into their hands.
“Fleetworks probably speaks to more airlines than every single broker in the country at all times,” said Singer. “This is great because this helps all of our customers to understand the airlines a little better. So we just want to be in more places and meet more airlines where they are, regardless of whether this in telephone calls, e -mails or messaging platforms such as WhatsApp. Carriers, brokers and senders get together when communication is seamless.”
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