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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    I'm familiar with business to business and the crm's you allude to. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

    Respectfully, what specific aspect of the sales process for a freight broker is so complicated it is immune to automation?
     
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  3. LoneRanger

    LoneRanger Road Train Member

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    Amazon, Schneider and jb hunt seem to have it down. So I say it will happen.
    Not hard to provide customer side support while none at driver side.
     
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  4. scott180

    scott180 Road Train Member

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    If a DMs can have a fixed but still competitive cost without dealing with a broker but still have 24 hour access to a customer service agent, and all the services a really good broker provides, then absolutely yes they will utilize that service.

    Pepole said Amazon would fail because of the lack of absolutely any personal service that a store front provides. But with automated services there is likely to be a customer service representative available when you actually need a live person.
     
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  5. JimmyTwoTimes

    JimmyTwoTimes Medium Load Member

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    No worries, and based on your response I can see you aren't trolling.

    It's not necessarily that sales is overly complex and can't be automated, it's that automation has no ability to build rapport or develop a meaningful relationship with a customer.

    Not specific to freight brokering, but for any service related industry without any real proprietary product/service or "secret sauce", a large part of the DM decision making process is interacting with BD rep to get a feel for what it would be like doing business with that company (in this case a broker or trucking company).

    Everyone in trucking is going to tell you they provide competitive costs, great communication and service, and all the loads will pick and deliver quickly and as scheduled. Any DM that's been in the game for awhile knows this isn't true, so from there they have to make decisions on which new providers to onboard. Making the wrong decision can cost the company time and money (and make the DM's life much harder), so they want to work with someone they believe they can trust. I can't imagine placing trust in an automated voice that has called me asking for my business, speaking in the same robotic voice that we've all heard say "Please press 1 to continue in English".
     
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  6. JimmyTwoTimes

    JimmyTwoTimes Medium Load Member

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    Everyone promises competitive costs and great service. You aren't going to get the opportunity to even show your stuff if your BD team can't make it past the gatekeepers and convince the DM to give you a shot.

    Amazon isn't a real example, they are online retail not B2B selling.
     
  7. scott180

    scott180 Road Train Member

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    I think Amazon is a perfect example but if you don't like that one then just look at your personal life and see what you've switched to that was once important to have a person to person relationship to do.

    I at one time personally knew my Banker, Real Estate Agent, Financial advisor, Insurance agent, Doctor, Lawyer. How many once vital relationships have gone to a mouse click?
    I used to work in Medicare on a special situation team. We would try to fix other brokers mistakes or more often other brokers greed that put a elderly person in real medical and financial danger. I got out because it's going digital.
    I'm not devaluing your service or abilities I'm just saying that ALL personalized services including B2B will eventually be primarily automated with a little human support when needed. It's just the way it is.

    Truck drivers are a little different. While I think many sectors will go automated I think they'll still have a driver in the seat for liability issues. The pay will likely be low and the job mind-numbingly boring but they'll still need drivers.

    When I recently changed careers it was to do hazmat tanker work because they will have to change all the equipment on the company and customers side before they can obsolete the human workers. But before that happens those displaced by automaton who once were unwilling to do tanker/hazmat will flood the worker pool with qualified drivers which will lower the wages. So even though I think my sector will be one of the last to be automated it still will be negatively affected by it long before they no longer need humans.
     
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  8. JimmyTwoTimes

    JimmyTwoTimes Medium Load Member

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    I appreciate the well thought out post, I simply don't agree. None of the examples you listed outside of maybe Banker/Insurance agent are fully automated in my life and I would imagine most other's aren't either. They are certainly more automated in some aspects than they used to be, but I worked with a human when buying my house, when talking about my long term financial plans & budget, when going to the doctor for health issues, and whenever reviewing legal issues with contracts or money owed by vendors at work.

    I think B2B falls in the same boat, this isn't pressing a button on an app and ordering 25 weekly trucks for various lanes run by your business,. It's a complex buy and I don't think will be automated anytime this century.
     
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  9. AsphaltFarmer

    AsphaltFarmer Medium Load Member

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    I interpret fully automated to mean the vast majority, is that what you mean?

    I agree somewhat with your current observation but I think it's a generational quirk. We currently live in the brackish water where the decision makers were born before the revolution in communications and the generation that will replace them were born after.

    It's similar to the esteem of being a millonaire to a baby boomer versus needing to be a billionaire for the same esteem to a millenial. The frame of reference is too wide as it relates to the role of tech in life in general, not just profesional.

    In the way most of our systems exist from personal to professional the incentives are skewed in favor of automation in freight brokering to be the dominant structure.

    There's a first mover advantage where the initial firm who adopts the tech first gets to reap the profit margin on their bottom line until other firms implement similar automation. As that process of competition unfolds the efficiency gains (cost savings) of the automation spreads through the supply chain.
     
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  10. JimmyTwoTimes

    JimmyTwoTimes Medium Load Member

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    What is the most successful automated brokerage in existence today?
     
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  11. REO6205

    REO6205 Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Good question.
     
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