Top 4 Reasons to Use a Freight Exchange

The immediate benefits of innovative online transportation directories are obvious. You have at you fingertips a plethora of clients, subcontractors and business partners, you can contact them quickly and in real time, and you can be sure that the people you hire are of solid calibre.

But if you are new to these online marketplaces, or if you are likely to use them in only a cursory and perfunctory manner, you might be surprised to realise there are added, often long-term, and not-so obvious benefits to be gleaned.

Better reputation

To any business, big or small, reputation matters. This is no less the case in the field of transportation. A freight exchange can boost your image and reputation among the people to whom it matters. This is because the transportation industry is flooded with such a variety of clients, contractors and operators that people want to establish your reputation quickly and firmly. Despite branding and image-management, many rely on word of mouth amongst workers and companies in the industry, and nowadays there is no better way to spread your reputation by word of mouth than by developing a good name in an online marketplace.

Better time-management

Every logistician knows that time is money. In fact, money can be won back, but time is irreplaceable. This is why time-management is at the heart of any transport business that is to run as fluidly as a well-oiled machine in terms of logistical reliability. Those who become part of a freight exchange are often delighted to realise that it saves them time in the long run. The ability to contact a wide-range of clients and partners in real time means you can find clients, fill loads, and manage multiple routes with surprising efficiency.

Better partners

Every business can stand and fall on its partners. No matter how tenuous their connection to the core of your work, if you trust them to some degree with any aspect of your business, should they let you down, you will suffer. The best insurance against this is not mistrust, micromanagement and stifling control, but rather picking trustworthy partners from the get-go. The use of a freight exchange allows you to browse hundreds of certified and peer-evaluated partners before you establish a connection and personally investigate their reliability.

Better business relationships

Any reputable freight exchange will boast a diversity of options for a variety of players in the transportation game. It does not matter if you are looking to find an owner-operator, a load, a haulage company or a subcontractor, you will have plenty of opportunity on a well-managed website. If you expend sufficient energy and focus, you have at your fingertips the chance to be in a virtual conference of the best players in your industry, and in turn build excellent and lasting business relationships.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for haulage work in the express freight exchange industry. Over 2,500 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.