DC Velocity - June 2015

40 DC VELOCITY JUNE 2015 www.dcvelocity.com tr a ns p ort at i o nre p or t

MO TO R F R E IGH T

Power” platform, which, among other things, enables multiple employees from the same broker to simultaneously scour load boards on behalf of a customer. Employees have visibility into each other’s screens, thus each sees what the others are doing. This allows employees to put on a full-court press for capacity without creating overlap and confusion, according to Scott McCollister, DAT’s load board product manager. This type of load board collaboration is unique, and it is an area where DAT will place more emphasis, McCollister said.

The software also maps a driver’s route history so brokers can determine if a driver is a good geographic fit for the load. A driver that generally runs from, say, Chicago to Dallas might not be appropriate to haul loads from Chicago to Minneapolis, according to McCollister.

INCREASING RELEVANCE

Perhaps the most important element of the load board-
ing evolution has been the involvement of carriers. Scott
Moscrip, Truckstop’s founder, said early versions of load
board technology were designed exclusively for shippers
and brokers. “Carriers didn’t have a voice in how load
boards were structured,” he said. “They didn’t pay sub-
scription fees and had no input into the process.”
Over the years, though, carriers began demanding fea-
tures aimed at their needs. The result, Moscrip said,
has been more balanced software improvements. Today,
Truckstop gets equal feedback from both sides of the trans-
actional fence, he said. “We are getting requests for more
technological enhancements in everything we do,” he said.
Load boards will become more relevant in the years to
come, experts said. More truck freight is moving in the U.S.
than ever before, and a larger proportion is heading to the
spot market and away from contractual relationships. DAT
estimates that as much as 25 percent of today’s truckload
freight moves on the spot market, up from the long-held,
albeit unscientific, estimate of 15 to 20 percent. During the
winter of 2014 when many truck networks were paralyzed
by snow, sleet, and ice storms, about 40 percent of freight
migrated to the spot market, according to DAT.
Adding to the demand is the increasing volume of less-
than-truckload (LTL) loads hitting the boards. DAT said
in April that board postings for loads exhibiting LTL-type
characteristics are growing at twice the rate of truckload
shipments, albeit off a lower base. Brokers and third-party
logistics service providers that are heavy load board users
are expected to handle more LTL traffic as companies turn
over more of their freight business to outside specialists.

The growth of small fleets operating a handful of trucks will boost demand for load board technology because,

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