Tracking Tools, Warehousing, & Deadhead Pay | Final Mile 115

Welcome back for another final mile edition here where we answer questions from all over the internet. Um, if you are new to Freight360, you got full-length podcasts that come out every Friday and our library on our website, searchable of all kinds of content from sales, carrier relationships, fighting fraud, all the good stuff. Go to Freight360.net and check out the Freight Broker Basics course while you're there if you want the whole kit and caboodle of how to start and run a brokerage or train up your team and check out our sponsors to help support the channel. Ben, our first question What are some good live tracking platforms for simple on and off live tracking? Well, I'll tell you, if you were to go back like 10 years ago, it was pretty much macro point. That was like the only the only one that like most people ever worked with, which is a Descartes product now. Um there's a whole lot of location-based tools that are out there. I mean, we've seen um even like do you remember when DAT kind of did a beta version, right? Um, of trying out some tracking, and then they bought obviously uh trucker tools this year. So trucker tools, naturally a large um uh a big player out there for all kinds of stuff, including live tracking and document submission. Um Quickscope, big sponsor of the show. Um they have load level fraud protection location-based tool where you can get geofenced pictures and um, you know, verify the MC number on the side of a truck uh to, you know, in the right location, you know, in order to release pickup information. You've got um you know single text-based products like Text Locate. Um a lot of uh TMSs will have their own driver app as well. I know that's kind of been a bigger thing as well. I'm I'm curious your thoughts because they're historically you would hear pushback from drivers that didn't want to be tracked, and now it just to me kind of seems like this is common practice. Like this is kind of like the norm. Like my company, we're we're gonna be switching to um highways live ELD tracking, which I think is it's really cool. I know Highway, a lot of folks will say it's hey, it's you know kind of an expensive product, and it's really um for folks that are at a scaled level of their business where it can fit into your budget, a lot of the tools are really great to help you save time, but um no text required if the e if the driver's already ELD connected, boom, you can see where each VIN is located, so that'll handle the vast majority of your shipments. But I'm curious, what are your thoughts on like in today's market and the the norm? What do you think is like a a go-to or a a you know whether it's a product to use or just a uh a process to implement, what's kind of like the baseline for for keeping uh keeping tabs on where your shipment is? Because it used to just be check alls, you know what I mean? Um and you maybe would GPS track uh a high high value load or something like that.

I think you should still do do both for a lot of reasons because macro point and trucker tools, I think, are still probably like your standard ones. I think Quickscope has a better product in a lot of ways and a safer product. Depends on what you can afford and what you're trying to do with what your freight is.

And I do believe they're they're they're gearing towards a live tracking functionality and their and their um updates too. So that should be.

Yeah, so when that comes out, to me, I'm gonna be really anxious to try to use that one. Here's what I would say, and especially somebody that spent the past year on automations, AI, and literally in the weeds of doing these things and seeing how they work and what issues come up. This was on a post yesterday from a carrier where they put out there they found an app for basically tracking spoofing, meaning like you could just download this app and it had millions of downloads for anybody that wanted to go to the app store and you could basically just spoof phone number tracking to a phone, right? And he's like, I'm not sure how many carriers are using this, but clearly millions of them have downloaded it, and it definitely did work. What I would say is the response I heard from folks related to that were macro point and trucker tools will catch this if you watch it, because you'll see that the pattern doesn't have the same movement as a normal phone should. So it is apparent that you can see the spoofing versus what it should be doing when you're looking at it. But if you're automating it, you might not see any of those differences. And you might have lots of loads that are being spoofed without realizing. So, like, there are still pros and cons because with any technology, people are trying to find a way around it. And like, that is one of the risks to I would say entry-level tracking, which by the way, we use and we train our people to look for these things, which is why we also train them to make the phone calls to make sure it seems like what it is, which I think is super important because automation just isn't foolproof. And I would say that like you and I have talked about this ELD tracking versus phone link tracking is very different, right? But there are pros and cons to both. I would say ELD is probably safer in most instances. Yep, for sure. But you're gonna you're gonna miss out on some carriers that either don't or can't or won't or don't have the tech ability to do it fast enough for them to get it to get you on their load, right? So like you'll probably you'll probably lose out on some carriers that might be a better fit for a lane just because of the tech aspect of getting them ELD integrated quick enough. It is a pretty fast process, so it shouldn't be that long. But if you're talking to an owner up or a small company, like they might, their dispatcher might be working another job and they might not just be able to do this in the time it takes to get the load dispatched. So like there is some downside to it, but there's increased risk. And I would say on the other side, you probably have a larger risk, but you have access to more carriers. And that's the trade-off, right? The more things you layer on to make it safe, the more things you keep out. You there is no black or white way to draw a perfect line.

I have exceptions and things like that. Yeah.

Yeah. So like with all of them, there are some edge cases and exceptions where like maybe it's a little riskier, maybe it isn't. And that's why it's important to understand the kind of freight you're moving and how susceptible it is to freight. Because like most of the loads we've seen stolen, honestly, even in hindsight, seem pretty obvious. Like, yeah, I could see why someone would steal that. It'd be real easy to resell. And then you'll see other people that move things that nobody steals, and you're like, well, that kind of makes sense. It'd be really hard to resell a coil unless you had like people that you knew you could sell it to that could scrap it and make sure you don't get caught with it, right? So, like, again, there's not a one size fits all because what you're moving, how expensive it is, how easy it is to steal or resell, which are kind of the same thing, and how much money you're willing to put towards these things. And then if you do just go all in, like you and I have talked about, is like, we could pull the trigger on doing the same thing you are. The reason we haven't gone to straight ELD tracking on everything is like some of our freight is not super high value, and like a lot of the smaller carriers that move it for us aren't gonna be able to get the ELD thing done, I think, quick enough, and we're gonna lose out on that capacity. And that's kind of the decision we've made, which is a little different than yours, but we move different types of freight and have different risk profiles as companies.

100%, 100%. That's why I always say there's not a one size fits all, everyone's different, every customer's different, etc. Um, all right. Our next question Are there any good platforms that I can use to search for warehousing? Uh man, I wish. I've come across this question a lot, and there's not like you know, like Dre Edge has a Dreadge directory. Um I actually saw uh talk with a guy that owns DreDEX. That's a new one where they're trying to help uh figure out rates and and um and a database of Dre Edge carriers. But warehousing, I have every time I've come into this, it comes down to an individual search based on that specific situation. Whether it's short-term storage versus long-term storage versus just a crosstalk as a truck broke down, um, I always find myself searching on the internet, trying to find a warehouse in you know, a certain city. So I don't know of a um database that's out there. If you one of the things I will find is that there's some good brokerages out there that they have good like Google search rankings. If you search like find a warehouse, and um says someone who doesn't work in our industry uh probably thinks like, oh, it's just a big warehousing company. And the reality is it's a it's a 3PL who's gonna outsource it on your behalf. They probably have a an internal database of of a lot of good locations, but um warehouses are not regulated in the way that that trucking companies and brokerages are, so that the data's not available at a federal level the way that anyone can get access to it, you know, like it like a trucking company. So um what what's been your in your experience? What have you seen people do when they're looking for a warehouse or a crosstalk? Or what what something you've done? Anything different than my old Google search?

No, honestly, like I old school Google zip codes and I just make phone calls. I'd probably use GPT a little bit now and some things to maybe like make that search go a little faster um or more effective.

It's a manual process. Yeah. What I will say is like um if like if you talk to a receiver, right, or a shipper for that matter, they'll likely tend to know where there's um warehousing in their general facility for a variety of reasons, right? It could be if it's an outbound type deal, uh if they have if they've you know they don't have enough internal storage for orders that are going out, they might store either raw materials or partially or fully finished product in a nearby warehouse. Um, same thing with a receiver. If they can't uh receive anything because they're they got too much in internally, they might use offsite storage as well. So if you are looking for warehousing near your customer, ask your customer if they're aware of uh or the receiver, right? Ask just ask the shipper receiver if they know of anything. But if something breaks down along the way and you're looking for a crossdock, um check to see if you've got any customers or shipper receivers in that general area and and leverage them. Otherwise, you're you're hitting the uh interwebs the same way that um you know the rest of us are doing it. So wish I had a better answer, but there's not a big thing.

Yeah, I mean, there might be a website that's kind of compiling these things. I don't know of any. Um, but yeah, I mean, honestly, like I'd probably be doing Google and go into like the agent mode of like GPT, yeah, and then throwing this warehouse in this area.

Yeah, good problem.

Because and again, like the other thing is like, okay, what kind of warehousing securing 24-7 secure? There's different levels of security, then you get into cold storage, then you get into the insurance, then you get into bondage, versus none. I mean, yeah, it is not just a one-size fits all, then there's you know, climate controlled versus just outside storage. So the details do matter because you can find a warehouse, but like, okay, does it have any of those things you need? And also, like, now you get into the pricing side. What and how long are you storing? Are they long-term storage, short-term? Do they have transloading facilities? And then the rest of the things you've got to kind of dig into. Exactly.

All right, last question. How should I calculate the amount to pay a carrier for their deadhead miles? Not a one-size-fits-all answer here. I think it just depends on the situation. So if I really need that carrier, um, I'm probably gonna have to be paying them a good amount of extra money. If that carrier really wants my load, I might not have to pay anything for deadhead because it's a really attractive one for them. Maybe it's a backhaul. Um, it just depends. So you can't, like, for example, like if someone has to deadhead 100 miles, you can't just like blanket agree that, yeah, um, our internal SOP is to pay them X rate per mile for deadhead, because it just is situationally dependent, right? It depends on um time of year and the weather, right? If I'm deadheading 200 miles through a snowstorm for an urgent pickup that has to get out, um, I'm definitely gonna be paying that carrier a a bit of extra money. But it just really depends on um who is who wants that transaction to happen more. Is it the broker that really needs that load picked up for the customer? Is it the truck that really wants to get to wherever that load's delivering to? It just really depends. It's like it's like really any lane in general. If I'm gonna send someone to a certain city, right, regardless of deadhead, um, does a carrier want to go to that city for a certain reason? Or do I just need to get that load picked up? That's my general take on it. But I think overall, you you know, you typically um you consider that when it comes to um a rate to pay a truck, right? And the same thing with when two trucks are asking you for different amounts of money, it could be because of deadhead or you know, the desirable destination that that load's going to. Anything to add on that one?

Yeah, just that there's two types of deadheads. There's deadhead to pickup and deadhead after delivery to their next pickup, right? Which are two different things, right? Like if I'm deadheading you 150 miles to a very good lane, maybe if I'm paying you two bucks a mile loaded miles or 250, maybe I'm paying a buck fifty for empty miles because they're using less gas. And usually you'll get a discount from your loaded mile rate for the deadhead. But if you're sending somebody into the middle of nowhere, Montana, and the next load they've got to pick up is 250 miles away. I'm gonna be probably paying closer to loaded miles after delivery because the carrier's just not gonna want to go there. And you're not gonna know that until you talk to the carrier and you're gonna look at a rate and go, like, Why is you pay two grand on this? And the car's like, dude, I need 2600. And you're gonna go, why? Like all the rate data shows that mileage should be this, right? And the carrier or dispatcher will pretty much tell you, yeah, because my next load, any city that I can pull a load from is 300 miles away. Like I can't just drive for half of a day and not get paid after I deliver your load. So you got to pay me a little bit more to go there, right? So again, context matters. And all that is is a fancy way of the conversation matters. Listen, ask questions. What are you looking for and why? Where do you need to go after this? Is it to get there or after delivery? Because now you can talk to a couple other cares, most of which will probably tell you the same thing, and then you get a pretty good feel for it. Like, that's why, to me, I'm not like a proponent of automation, but like you really can't get this information unless you're talking to people, having a conversation. You're not gonna get it via email. Via email, care is just gonna give you a number and you're like, well, this number doesn't work. I don't know why, and then just keep trying. Like, none of these numbers work, and I don't know why. Well, because you got to get on the phone and actually have a conversation with a human being to learn their point of view to be able to work towards something that's mutually beneficial. Works for both of you, all three of you the shipper, you, and the carrier.

Good stuff, good questions. Keep them coming our way, and we will continue to answer them. Any final thoughts, Ben?

Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right.

And until next time, go bills.