Monday, February 15, 2021
By Andrew Jackson
When it comes to moving freight, time is literally money – and there is just never enough of it. Consider that
we spend an average of 54 hours a year stuck in traffic. That’s more than two days spent sitting in your vehicle every year. When you include tasks like standing in checkout lines, visiting the doctor, and waiting on hold to speak with the next available representative, the minutes and hours we lose over the course of a year add up fast.
Our team can’t speed up grocery lines or doctor’s visits. But we are always looking for ways to save our freight agents time on administrative tasks—like check calling. Our latest time-saving solution, Freight Ping, automates the daily check call routine and allows drivers to self-deliver. USL agents can regain an hour or more of their time every day while maintaining visibility to their loads. Here’s how.
Seamless Technology
Freight Ping is a custom-designed feature in our transportation management system (TMS) that is available only to USL freight agents. There’s no need to download and maintain a new app or software. Drivers simply enable the location services on their phones when they are assigned a load. Freight Ping takes it from there. The best part? It’s free for our freight agents, and drivers appreciate that they don’t have to manage a separate app that tracks them.
Regular Check-ins
After drivers pick up their loads, they will receive two texts a day asking them to check in. With the click of a button, they can confirm if they are on time or delayed. The response goes straight into our TMS. Instead of scheduling time every day to check call drivers, USL agents can simply log into our TMS and find the status of their loads.
Expedited Payments
When drivers reach their destination, they respond “delivered” and take a photo of their delivery paperwork. The paperwork is automatically uploaded to the TMS, fast tracking payments for our agents and their drivers.
Keeping the People Part Front and Center
Freight Ping is a masterstroke in time-saving technology. But let’s be honest: like most technology, it isn’t a replacement for human relationships. The logistics industry is a team sport. We are here to tackle the administrative obstacles so our customers, agents, and carriers can more efficiently and effectively move freight from point A to point B.
To be sure, automation and other digital tools enable all of us to work smarter and faster. That doesn’t mean we need to lose the personal touch. At USL, we integrate solutions that streamline tasks for our agents without compromise to our hands-on support. We know all of our agents by name because we are always on it, 24/7/365. Anything less would be cutting corners.
That balance between digital tools and real people enables our agents to focus on building their own relationships. By spending less time checking in on routine runs, USL agents can devote more attention to managing the exceptions—and growing their business. We believe all of our partners will agree that this is time well spent.
To learn more about how USL deploys people and technology to help our agents move their business forward, visit us at
uslfreight.com.