Flock Freight Chief Financial Officer Pat Dillon is all too familiar with the inefficiency plaguing the freight business: shipments getting delivered in semi-empty trucks are raising costs for businesses that rely on trucks to keep running — and taking money out of the pockets of owner-operators.
The problem is rooted in financial flows that are notoriously knotty. Trucking is traditionally a “very fragmented” business, with most industry players controlling just a small percentage of market share. Because the process involves so many parties, the financial aspect needs to be automated as much as possible.
Flock Freight uses “artificial intelligence to find the right matching of shippers and another shipment to pool the freights.” The company employs a “mix of [Flock Freight’s] own proprietary technology” for accounts payable and accounts receivable.
Speed Matters
Flock Freight aims to “increase the speed and fidelity” of its accounts receivable, making it easier for transacting parties. But Dillon noted that on top of that, the company strives to make “the transaction experience as frictionless and as delightful as we can for both sides of the customer base.”
He maintains that since Flock Freight is uniquely positioned “in the middle of a two-sided marketplace,” that means “customer satisfaction on both sides of those marketplaces is really critical.”
On the shipper side, this means making the transaction as streamlined as possible. A large retailer looking to ship some freight doesn’t “want have to get on the phone, or talk to someone because it’s inefficient.” A key part of streamlining the process involves integrating with the retailer’s transportation management system.
It also means “doing real-time digital tracking and working with the asset-based carrier on the other side, so folks know where their shipment is in transit.” Aside from the location of the shipment, it helps to have transparency around any surprise payments that may arise following an event like a delay.
This is enabled by communicating “up front about exactly what charges were incurred to understand exactly that the route was completed successfully.” Transparency about the situation surrounding any delays is key, as who pays for it is determined by who is at fault.
You can’t just “send a bill 30 days later that says, ‘By the way, there’s this incremental charge’ … that doesn’t really work for our shipper customers,” Dillon said.
A big challenge for Flock Freight lies in the fact that their product is one of a kind. Most freight shippers aren’t used to dealing with pooled shipments, so they only have a less-than-full truckload department and full truckload department.
Dillon says that you need to meet customers where they’re at. “Their transportation management system doesn’t really have a drop-down menu where you can select a shared truckload.”
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