FleetWorks - Automating manual freight brokerage operations

TL;DR:

FleetWorks helps freight operators focus on high-value work by automating routine calls and emails. Our AI-powered platform can leverage email or use a human-like voice to make tracking calls, cover loads, and reschedule appointments.

Hi everyone, we are Paul and Quang - we’re on a mission to help freight brokers and forwarders become more efficient

❌ The Problem:

Getting freight from point A to point B is still largely handled by humans. Digitized brokers have driven automation, but most day-to-day operations are still handled over phone and email between millions of humans around the world. Given this overhead, freight brokerages operate on low single-digit margins.

Three roles in a freight brokerage spend a significant part of their day on repetitive tasks:

1. Track and trace agents → Identify loads that are not being tracked automatically via apps, telematics, or aggregators. They reach out via phone or email to the driver or dispatcher for an update.
2. Load coverage and carrier sales → Handle inbound/outbound calls to/from trucking companies that are interested to book loads. Information like weight, commodity, and appointment time is shared. Then the parties negotiate on price.
3. Appointment schedulers → Set appointment times for unscheduled loads by calling or emailing facilities, or logging into customer portals. Due to unforeseen issues, 20-30% of appointments need to be rescheduled at the last minute resulting in even more work.

To illustrate this from a trucking company point of view, below is a short video that shows a dispatcher calling various brokers:

https://youtu.be/5KzBipLvH3c

✨ Our Solution:

FleetWorks sits alongside a broker’s phone, email, and transportation management system (TMS). Calls and emails can be triggered automatically or manually, and relevant information is automatically pushed to the TMS or email for operators to take action.

FleetWorks can automatically

1. Book loads: Share load details, discuss price, and book the carrier.
2. Track loads: Call the driver and update the account team on issues.
3. Schedule appointments: Email or call facilities that don’t have a booking portal.

💲 The Opportunity:

There are 150 large brokers in the U.S. (>$100M gross revenue) and they are taking share from small brokers. These brokers alone spend $11B on operational headcount and 70% of headcount is involved in repetitive work.

These operators conduct 1 billion phone calls per year to manage load execution. Today, these calls cost $5-15 depending on complexity. At a rate of $1 per successful call (10x cheaper than the status quo), we believe our near-term market opportunity is $1B.

Given the $11B of spend on operational headcount, FleetWorks provides significant margin expansion for our customers.

🙏 Our ask:

If you or anyone you know works in freight transportation, drop us a note at founders@fleetworks.ai. We’d love to learn more about the operation!