Technology is a crucial component in today’s logistics environment. To help motor carriers keep their vehicles and drivers in use with increased efficiency, many freight companies offer portals to streamline the booking experience. Here at Red Technologies, we’ve aimed to do just that with Red Trucks, our proprietary carrier portal specifically designed to help dispatchers simplify their workflows while offering an intuitive user experience. Red Trucks provides our carrier partners with the information they need to excel while enabling effective collaboration on the loads they haul for us. The following article outlines the three most heavily utilized and beneficial components of Red Trucks.
Load Board
80% of our freight is contracted, meaning we’ll always have loads available, and with our load board tool, carriers can garner unlimited access to our freight at any time of the day or night. Red Trucks provides carriers with two ways to view open opportunities for available equipment:
- Map View – See every load available by state with our overarching map view or dive deeper and search for loads based on origin/destination location, date, and mode. From there, loads can be sorted by highest pay or lowest deadhead.
- Top Picks – Our intelligent matching dashboard provides shipments available near live trucks, preferred lanes (upon updating lane preferences), and most frequently run lanes.
In addition, carriers can build a journey (or their “shopping cart”, as we like to call it) for the week ahead by finding reloads from the freight they’re currently hauling or from new opportunities to keep their trucks moving.
Manage Shipment Lifecycle
Managing all of the freight that our carriers are hauling for us is a crucial piece of Red Trucks. This portion of the platform helps dispatchers keep things organized to see all of their loads in one place rather than managing them through spreadsheets or within e-mail threads. Dispatchers can also update shipment status, assign drivers, and update/view tracking information to keep us (and our shipper customers) abreast of their location. If carriers do not wish to provide manual tracking updates, Spot offers two options for automatic tracking:
- Red Driver mobile application – Available for both iOS and Android devices; while drivers are on the road, they can update their current location throughout their journey, which automatically updates within Red Trucks.
- Project44 – In partnership with project44, Spot can tie into ELD’s to garner GPS coordinates in real-time along with ETA and in/out times. This option also automatically updates location status within Red Trucks.
Using one of these automatic tracking options takes a significant amount of grunt work out of a dispatcher’s day (and ours) because there’s no need to consistently perform check calls throughout the trip.
Accessorial Requests
We all know that requesting detention, layover, etc., can be one of the most frustrating and time-consuming processes in the lifecycle of a shipment. However, it doesn’t have to be. In Red Trucks, carriers can request reimbursement for accessorials and track approval status through a progress bar: documents uploaded, pending assignee, in review, and completed. This process typically takes 5-7 business days, and if any questions arise throughout the time it takes to garner approval, carriers can ask them directly in the portal.
Technology to Help You Succeed
The benefits of Red Trucks don’t stop at the three key functionality pieces outlined above. Carriers can also view their performance (OTD/OTP), respond to rate requests and tenders, and more. Ultimately our goal at Red Technologies is to provide carriers with the lanes, tools, and technology needed to help them succeed. If you’re interested in learning more about the power of Red Trucks, watch the video below and sign up today at v2.red-trucks.com.