Top 3 Unexpected Benefits of Using a Freight Exchange

Hauliers are usually savvy business people, and if there were a reason to join a freight exchange it would mainly be about improving profitability. But what if you could improve your business and also accomplish other good things while participating in such an exchange? Here are three benefits that may surprise you.

Save the World

You’re probably in the business of using heavy vehicles for delivering cargo and goods across the country, so how exactly are you saving the world? Simple. By making those trips count. Of course, saving the world is not exactly the major motivation in engaging in the business of hauling goods, but it is a pretty good icing on the cake; if you’re leaving a lower carbon footprint with more efficient operations as well as earning profits you can use that as a marketing tool. Joining a freight exchange enables you to enjoy this benefit in terms of ensuring your vehicles—regardless of where they deliver their goods—can secure return loads. By reducing what is commonly referred to as ‘dead mileage’, you also reduce your carbon dioxide emissions. In the UK alone, haulage vehicles burn up to 40 million miles in such empty journeys—so by not having dead mileage, you can have a positive impact on the environment. Of course, it also increases your profits.

Find New Friends

They may not be friends in the sense of hanging out on weekends over tea and biscuits, but 'industry friends' or business contacts are invaluable. When you join a freight exchange it is full of people with interests and businesses similar to yours, who may pursue said interests by striking a mutually beneficial partnership or alliance. While finding new business partners by networking is a new concept, an online exchange makes it incredibly easy. It is, at the risk of oversimplifying the whole thing, as easily as pointing your mouse and clicking on relevant links. Regardless of what services you’re offering, whether you’re looking for haulage work, back loads or even owner drivers, you can have success on an exchange. By forging new relationships with key industry contacts you find on the exchange, these new partnerships could definitely help boost your business.

Establish a Positive Reputation

When you’re doing business alone, you’re basically operating on a per-customer basis: you make one client happy and that client may or may not pass on the good word to others. On the other hand, if you are a member of a dynamic freight exchange, your good deeds enjoy a sort of a 'multiplier' effect: satisfied customers can be easily seen on your public track record, and potential clients and business partners can easily access the data and check its veracity. In that way, you can easily and quickly build the kind of reputation that can bring you more business.

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 3,000 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.