Broker automation

Discussion in 'Freight Broker Forum' started by AsphaltFarmer, Jan 3, 2023.

Amount of Tears for automated broker job losses a decade before driver job losses?

  1. Zero

    3 vote(s)
    75.0%
  2. None

    1 vote(s)
    25.0%
  1. AsphaltFarmer

    AsphaltFarmer Medium Load Member

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    The level of automation already in the brokerage process overshadows autonomous vehicles. McDonalds just opened a fully autonomous restaurant in Texas if the headlines are correct and I'm struggling to see what aspect of the brokerage process will stop the tsunami. What am I missing?
     
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  3. DUNE-T

    DUNE-T Road Train Member

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    Have you tried fixing a problem if something is wrong with your Uber freight load? If something like pickup number is wrong, you better off just leave and get something else.
    What if truck is late and shipper needs to move the load ASAP? The shipper gonna want to resolve his problem right away and not wait hours for someone to get back to him.
    Sure, there gonna be some automation, but brokers are not going anywhere
     
  4. JimmyTwoTimes

    JimmyTwoTimes Medium Load Member

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    Dune-T nailed it, both brokering and truck driving are way to complex to fully automate.

    Broker Side:
    You can't automate customer acquisition, you can't automate real time problem solving when there's something wrong at the shipper/receiver, etc.
    Carrier Side:
    You can't automate driver count shipments, dealing with congested docks, identifying if you're going to get loaded/unloaded in a timely fashion and working through how to resolve issues at the facility.
     
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  5. AsphaltFarmer

    AsphaltFarmer Medium Load Member

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    All very true but the ratio of humans to customers in the brokerage space is going to become astronomically wide especially when compared to drivers.

    For example let's say a firm needs 1 rep for every 100 customers today how long until it's 1 rep for every 1000 customers. I think very very soon, but that same rate of growth will not happen on the driver side not even close.

    These systems of language AI are growing exponentially faster than most other areas due to the dataset
     
  6. AsphaltFarmer

    AsphaltFarmer Medium Load Member

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    I understand your instinct but these are all rules based systems that are mostly clearly defined by the corporations who who developed them to function with a pretty low common denominator of labor due to the high turnover ratio inherent to the industry.

    This is the exact scenario AI will be bred in as it overtakes robotics as the leader of automated processes.

    In terms of automated warehouse functions Americold recently completed an autonomous warehouse in Pennsylvania that will be extra interesting to track the results of.

    We are no longer in the development for implementation phase we are in the refinement phase. And to that point language based services are ripe for the picking, hence bye bye brokerages as we know it
     
  7. JimmyTwoTimes

    JimmyTwoTimes Medium Load Member

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    You can't automate customer acquisition in a service industry unless you have something revolutionary, and that just doesn't exist in transportation today.

    Even the "fully automated" warehouses you mention have staff working on site, they are not completely autonomous.

    Do I think companies will continue to look for ways to automate? Absolutely. But I don't think it happens successfully or comprehensively in this space anytime soon.
     
  8. AsphaltFarmer

    AsphaltFarmer Medium Load Member

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    The vast majority of customer acquisition (and by extension the step of brokering in logistics) is a language based process and because of that it can be described with flow charts and decision trees. Childs play for automation at this point so what specific action are you referring to that can't be automated currently that is a consequential part of the customer acquisition process?

    I never mentioned "fully autonomous" warehouses and mentioning warehouse automation in this conversation only strengthens my premise of the brokerage process being automated way way faster than the driving process because the process of warehouse distribution is more related to driving in terms of the underlying required automation.

    Once again, brokerages are almost entirely language based...
     
  9. JimmyTwoTimes

    JimmyTwoTimes Medium Load Member

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    Are you seriously asking why sales can't be automated?
     
  10. AsphaltFarmer

    AsphaltFarmer Medium Load Member

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    Do you seriously think that sales aren’t already automated?
     
  11. JimmyTwoTimes

    JimmyTwoTimes Medium Load Member

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    My suspicion here is that you are either confusing direct to consumer sales with B2B sales, or are trolling me. If you've never sold B2B I could see why you think it's possible to automate it. If you have, I can't believe you think DMs are more likely to respond to a bot.

    If you are referring to the various platforms that allow team members to create and conduct mass sales cadences as "automated sales" there is still a ton of human driven action there.
     
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