At last week’s Gartner Supply Chain conference, we had the opportunity to present our thoughts on how technologies like artificial intelligence are revolutionizing how truckload freight is priced, booked and shipped.
Interested in diving deeper? Check out our presentation via the SlideShare below.
Abstract While the contracted carrier model has long been relied on by shippers looking to secure access to capacity, that security comes at a price. Routing guides are rarely updated and can move slowly, resulting in excessive costs and poor service. At the same time, they are critical for effective procurement.
With AI, can we make the contracted model smarter?
The trucking industry is in a phase of digital transformation, with connected devices bringing greater visibility and transparency across the supply chain. Yet, according to Silpa Paul, a Frost & Sullivan commercial vehicles industry analyst, the brokerage process has struggled to digitalize.
In the United States a large trucking company can accumulate 93 billion miles per year. That’s like driving around the globe 3.7 million times. Commercial long-haul trucks in the region typically operate with 25 percent empty miles which result from the inherent opacity and slowness of traditional road-freight brokerage processes. With more than 70 percent of all freight moved via road, road freight capacity utilization levels are therefore highly inefficient at present.
While the challenges facing the trucking industry may vary from year to year, the one consistency is that companies managing private and/or dedicated transportation fleets are being forced to do more with less. Following the ever-increasing need to improve efficiencies, the digitization of the supply chain proved to have a substantial impact on the efficiency and flow of freight operations in 2018.
Felipe Capella, chief product officer, Loadsmart
As we review our predictions from last year, it’s safe to say most of them held true. Data sharing and open access, the onset of APIs, instant pricing + booking, and technologies such as machine learning have made all the difference in getting the most out of finite transportation resources.
For 2019 we expect even more pervasive digitization than last year, ultimately driving towards a more unified experience for shippers and carriers alike.
Hunter Yaw, our VP of Product Management at Loadsmart, recently spoke with Amy Hutchinson of Deloitte Canada on her podcast: “Developing Digitally: Episode 20 with Loadsmart”. In this podcast, the two discussed how Loadsmart is using innovative technology to bring greater efficiency to the over the road market in the United States and, more recently, in Canada as well.
Between artificial intelligence and machine learning, Loadsmart is bringing the latest technologies to the freight market and we’re always happy to share our insights into how these tools are shaping this market.
To be recognized as an industry leader Loadsmart had to demonstrate excellence in growth, innovation, and leadership. Based on Frost & Sullivan’s key business performance categories such as visionary innovation, and performance and customer impact, we earned a solid nine, putting us well above the other evaluated companies.
Sipla Paul, Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said, “Apart from a lack of load and carrier visibility, pricing opacity has been one of the key deterrents to the adoption of digital brokerage solutions. Loadsmart has made possible instant pricing across all lanes in the United States (over 900,000) using machine learning, which is a tremendous step forward in automating the freight brokerage process. Loadsmart’s ability to offer an all-in instant price for shippers before hiring the carrier is a unique value proposition that strikes at the heart of the freight brokerage process.”
“For large private fleets, the integration of Loadsmart with their TMS for semi-automated route guide or fully-automated dynamic route guide provides the ease and agility that translates into better asset utilization, whether human or truck, and, thereby, more cost savings,” said Silpa “The efficacy of Loadsmart’s solution is evidenced by its revenue growth in recent years (350% year-on-year in 2018) achieved by on-boarding fortune 500 companies such as Daimler Trucks North America, Anheuser-Busch, and Albertsons/Safeway.”
Ricardo Salgado and Felipe Capella, co-founders, Loadsmart
Ricardo Salgado, CEO, Loadsmart, said, “We’re pleased to see all of our hard work come to fruition and are incredibly proud of the entire Loadsmart team. Since inception, our mission has been to help shippers more with less, by leading with technology and complement it with strategic partnerships. Frost & Sullivan’s “Company of the Year” award is strong validation of our approach as we look to dramatically accelerate growth in 2019.”
Here’s what some of customers and investors have to say:
“To manufacture trucks, we need carriers to deliver components and parts to our plants. Offering a customized app to our contracted carriers gives them first access to our spot business and improves critical points in our supply chain.” – Lori Heino-Royer, director of business innovation at Daimler Trucks North America
“We see huge potential with Loadsmart. Forward integrations between ocean shipping and over-the-road services can create incredible synergies and eventually provide a full service to shippers.” – Sune Stilling, Head of Maersk Growth
“Loadsmart has a solid company strategy and exciting distribution plan. They have built an outstanding team with advanced technology that can be deployed alongside our investment portfolio to digitize and accelerate supply chain and transportation logistics execution.” – Emmett McCann, Managing Director and Co-portfolio Manager, Oaktree
“Chromo focuses on investing in companies leveraging AI in different industries. We have been very impressed with how Loadsmart leverages huge data sets to predict future outcomes and automate tasks. We’re looking forward to scaling the technology and driving this forward.” – Marcelo Ferreira, Managing Director, Chromo Invest
No doubt 2019 will be an interesting year and we can’t wait to see what it has in store.
Hot on the heels of our recent funding announcement (more on that here), we sat down with Betty Liu, Operating Partner @ Maersk Growth, to discuss the story behind the financing and…
What Maersk hopes to achieve in starting a venture fund,
The challenges facing the freight brokerage industry (… and how today’s technologies hold the potential to make it radically more efficient),
What made Maersk move from meeting Loadsmart to leading our latest financing just four months later, and
How Maersk can now leverage Loadsmart for FTL services.
About Betty:
Betty is an Opeating Partner at Maersk Growth and is helping our invested portfolio companies to grow. She has spent over two decades in the shipping and logistics industry, with much of her career spent at A.P. Moller – Maersk, the world’s largest shipping line.
Betty holds an Executive MBA from the Copenhagen Business School and graduated from Maersk’s International Shipping Education program in 2002. In 2012 she was nominated as Denmark’s Top 100 talent by Berlingske business. You can learn more about Betty here.
Recently, our vice president of operations, Erik Malin, spoke with the “Logistics of Logistics” podcast host, Joe Lynch. Joe interviews senior level 3PL providers and business professionals in the logistics and transportation industry. In this episode, Erik and Joe discussed how innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the freight brokerage space. The two also talked about Loadsmart’s dedication to its customers, and how the company’s use of strategic partnerships has made it a leader in the industry.
Loadsmart was recently named to the inaugural FreightWaves Freight.Tech25 awards at MarketWaves18. The award recognizes the most innovative and disruptive companies in freight. The original list of 100 companies was paired down to 25 after being evaluated and ranked on a 1-25 point basis. The panel of judges – 60 in total – included industry executives, academics and investors.
Felipe Capella, co-founder and chief product officer of Loadsmart, said: “This accolade is a further testament to Loadsmart leading the way in technology for this industry.” Between the award nominations, analyst recognitions, and our most recent funding announcement, it’s fair to say that it’s been an exciting time here at Loadsmart.
This isn’t the first time Loadsmart has been recognized for innovation in the supply chain industry either. Loadsmart was recognized by CB Insights for supply chain disruption, and by Gartner as a Gartner Cool Vendor.
2018 has been a big year for us, and we’re excited to see what 2019 will bring for us.
NEW YORK, NY – October 9, 2018 – Loadsmart, a digital freight broker, today announced it has raised $21.6 million in series A funding led by Maersk Growth, Connor Capital SB and Chromo Invest. This brings the total investment in Loadsmart to date to $34.7 million following previous seed investment and a convertible notes round. The current investment will be used to scale Loadsmart’s operations team while doubling down on product and engineering.
Loadsmart leverages artificial intelligence to automate the truckload booking flow in the United States. It provides instant prices to shippers with capacity guaranteed on all U.S. lanes. Through its automated platform, shippers can book a truck in seconds manually or integrate via an API to have a server-to-server booking with no human intervention.
Loadsmart co-founders Ricardo Salgado and Felipe Capella
Maersk Growth is joining Loadsmart as one of its leading investors. Maersk Growth is the launchpad for new ventures at A.P. Moller – Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company. A.P. Moller – Maersk serves 343 ports in 121 countries with 18.3 percent market share in container capacity worldwide.
“We see huge potential with Loadsmart. Forward integrations between ocean shipping and over-the-road services can create incredible synergies and eventually provide a full service to shippers,” said Sune Stilling, head of Maersk Growth.
Loadsmart also signed a strategic partnership with funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. (“Oaktree”), with a broad goal of collaborating in ways that are mutually beneficial to both organizations.
Emmett McCann, managing director and co-portfolio manager, Oaktree, said, “Loadsmart has a solid company strategy and exciting distribution plan. They have built an outstanding team with advanced technology that can be deployed alongside our investment portfolio to digitize and accelerate supply chain and transportation logistics execution.”
Chromo Invest also joined as a lead investor. Marcelo Ferreira, managing director, Chromo Invest, said, “Chromo focuses on investing in companies leveraging AI in different industries. We have been very impressed with how Loadsmart leverages huge data sets to predict future outcomes and automate tasks. We’re looking forward to scaling the technology and driving this forward.”
“We are at our core a data company. With the highest ratio of engineers in the industry, we were the first to introduce truckload instant pricing and booking, and the market’s first server-to-server autonomous truckload booking via our API. This tech-first approach has allowed us to set in place a fully scalable and automated distribution model,” said Felipe Capella, co-founder and chief product officer, Loadsmart.
Ricardo Salgado, co-founder and CEO, Loadsmart, said, “Our strategy has been to focus exclusively on product development and technology. Now we are ready to grow. This round of investment will enable us to increase the business exponentially while maintaining high-service levels. It will also enable us to scale without losing the edge on innovation and technology.”
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
New York, NY, Loadsmart, a technology company that specializes in full truckload shipping, was named by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in Intelligent Supply Chain Execution Technologies.
The note addresses how “embedded intelligence is becoming an essential competency of emerging supply chain execution technologies. Supply chain leaders can use this research to learn how emerging supply chain execution vendors commercialize innovation.”
Loadsmart was recognized as one of five companies providing emerging supply chain execution technologies.
“We are at the forefront of technology innovation when it comes to executing truckload shipments,” said Felipe Capella, co-founder and chief product officer, Loadsmart. “We were the first company to provide an instant pricing and booking experience for truckloads in the United States, enabling shippers to access live rates via their own system via an easy-to-implement API. We believe Gartner’s recognition is the result of hard work from our multi-disciplinary team.”
Loadsmart co-founders Ricardo Salgado and Felipe Capella
Over the last five years, Loadsmart has been focused on helping shippers and carriers execute their truckload shipments in a much more efficient manner. This effort includes creating better experiences for both parties, as well as improving and automating back-office processes to reduce internal costs and provide better rates to all involved. Recent innovations include fully-automated server to server truckload booking (without human intervention) capability, accepting 100 percent of tenders and guaranteeing capacity; a load management mobile app for its internal team; and a tool to auto-classify shipment documents (BOL, invoices, POD, etc.) with machine learning technology.
Ricardo Salgado, co-founder and CEO, Loadsmart, said, “At Loadsmart, we are obsessed with automating full truckload shipping. Our success is based on the fact that our technology optimizes the booking journey of a truck as well as our capacity to dramatically enhance our service levels and reliability, which is the number one concern of our enterprise customers.”
Gartner’s Cool Vendors in Intelligent Supply Chain Execution Technologies research note can be found here. (Gartner subscription required)
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Recent Loadsmart mentions in Gartner research include:
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
The prestigious industry research company CB Insights has selected Loadsmart as one of the startups disrupting the supply chain and logistics industry.
On May 15, 2018, we wrote about the first fully automated intelligent routing guide with dynamic rates in the US. That powerful tool enables shippers to automatically book a truck before the shipment turns into a spot load and has reduced spot volume for Fortune500 Shippers by as much as 50 percent. Loadsmart accepts 100 percent of tenders received from the dynamic routing guide, guaranteeing capacity. This feature helps shippers avoid the same-day/next-day markets, which are known for steep prices and service failures. Given the huge interest and questions we got from the logistics community, we decided to expand and explain the reasoning behind it and how it actually works in a granular way.
Much like death and taxes, there are two immutable laws in logistics. It will always be a 24/7 industry, and issues will always arise.
For that reason Loadsmart must be able to address any shipment events day and night. At the same time, great service also requires a great team who are performing at their best. This level of performance is not possible if team members can only contribute to exception resolution when they are in front of a computer.
So we built Jarvis – a mobile version of Alice, Loadsmart’s internal TMS. By offering a native mobile version of our TMS we made it possible for anyone in Loadsmart’s Operations Team to respond to issues quickly from anywhere, any time. All responsible parties can jump in to any situation to make sure our customers’ needs are met. This also allows us to keep our team smaller and more nimble, supporting our goal to move more with less.
Loadsmart has been the pioneer on mobile solutions for freight brokerage operations since its inception: from driver apps that track shipment location to apps offering one-click load booking for carriers. This time, by building a mobile version of our TMS, we better service our customers and give more freedom to our team, while keeping the company as efficient as possible.
Jarvis’ interface had to be simple, providing a clear overview of the shipments that are moving through our platform. The contact information of all stakeholders of the shipment are automatically available, in case we need to directly call or message shippers, carriers or warehouses. Each Loadsmart team member can access the app using fingerprint login in their smartphone, ensuring also security of the shipment information.
“By providing a mobile solution to our Load Management team, we are capable of notifying the right person at the right time in case of incidents that need human attention, minimizing response time and offering a better customer support to our clients with the help of technology”, said Gustavo Barbosa, Mobile Lead at Loadsmart.
Loadsmart’s mission is also to make our internal team more efficient, moving more with less.
Loadsmart was invited to speak at the Supply Chain Conference organized by the publication Automotive Logistics in Atlanta. In a panel titled “Clearing the bottlenecks”, Ricardo Salgado, Loadsmart’s CEO, and Ivan Hernandez, Daimler’s Director of Transportation for North America, co-presented a joint project which leveraged Loadsmart’s technology. The project successfully reduced Daimler’s time to execute a spot load from 5 hours to 18 minutes, while increasing Daimler utilization of their carrier customers by 70%.
Aside from Loadsmart and Daimler, the other panelists came from Honda, Toyota, Surgere, and Ryder.
See below a 4-minute excerpt of the presentation outlining the joint project:
Over the last five years, we have been obsessed with introducing new technology to dramatically improve the efficiency of the freight brokerage business. This effort not only includes creating a better experiences for shippers and carriers, but also improving and automating back-office processes.
Every broker receives thousands of documents per month related to ongoing and delivered shipments: Rate Confirmations, BOLs, PODs, Invoices, etc. Identifying, separating, cataloging and uploading each document to the right place takes countless hours, and even the most strict processes result in a non-negligible error rate.
The new feature we just released is a machine learning model that analyzes each email, its attachments, and identifies what documents are contained into a single or multiple PDF files. After automatically scanning and cataloging the content of the files, the system then splits the documents into its component sub-files (e.g. BOLs, Invoices, Rate Confirmations, etc.) and auto-uploads each document to the right shipment folder. This new feature is saving hundreds of hours per month in document review, and it has dramatically reduced the error rate in classifying documents.
The more automated and efficient we are, the lower operational costs we have, which in turn has meant we offer more attractive prices for shippers and better margins for carriers.
