Brokers, I work in the technology industry and have been working with Geospatial analysis (things like Google mapping, GIS, etc.) and have created a route correlation algorithm that can have some application in the shipping and transportation industry to match loads to carriers regardless if they have the same origination or destination locations along a given route. However, I have a few questions to determine the feasibility of such an idea and need to get some feedback from industry experts such as yourselves... 1. Do you know of any service or software where carrier routes are entered into a system (either one time as recurring route, or one time for a specific trip) and shippers/brokers enter their load information, and then an automated engine finds matches based on route correlation (not necessarily matching departure and/or destination locations!) and notifies each party (or broker) automatically without either party searching out the other proactively that there is a potential load? Is this or would this be a valuable asset and time saver since it is reactive in nature rather than requiring proactive measures from either party to search each other out? 2. Do you think their is value in a system such as that mentioned in question 4? how much do you think something like this would be worth to subscribe to? If it is not a good idea, can you explain why not? Please provide any other feedback you think would be pertinent. I REALLY value your opinion as this is your area of expertise. I would rather kill the idea on the drawing board than proceed with it if there is a fundamental flaw in the idea. If you would like to discuss more than feel free to message me. Thanks, Matt Johnson
Matt, can you break down your first question into simpler terms please? Maybe give a real-world example of how this would work? Do you mean using a library of trucking lanes a shipper enters a load and the engine searches for relevant available trucks, then notifies the carrier and shipper of possible matches?
Matching trucks too shippers is done by current load boards. The only problem are shippppong rates. I can be automatically matched to a load, but if the rate is not acceptable the program is not of any use. Im better off using a conventional load board so I can see who the brokers are an call for rate info. Also most conventional load boards provide shipment weight.
