If you are a company that ships LTL and uses a freight broker, or are currently going carrier direct and wondering why you would consider using a broker, the following series will highlight some services that every great broker that every great broker should provide.

If you missed them earlier, check out Part I, Part II, or Part III of this series. Be sure to check out our freight shipping guide available for download.

Delivery Report

The Delivery Report is a daily report that we run alerting us to late LTL shipments that are still in transit past their estimated delivery date. This allows us to pinpoint shipments that have been delayed, and find the fastest way to get them delivered.

Reducing delays is the name of the game in LTL shipping, and a delivery report helps a broker do just that. By taking the time to track shipments through transit, a broker can stop delays before they even happen by recognizing location, carrier, or transit lane patterns.

Once we’ve identified the reason or cause of the delay we take the immediate step to resolve the issue, remove the delay, and get the freight delivered as quickly as possible. This continuing, daily process finds shipments that have been delayed and along with the PRO report plays an active role in our ability to limit both pickup and delivery issues.

As most shipping veterans know, the logistics business is very fluid and we’ve learned that vigilantly monitoring our freight is the best option in reducing delays. With tools like the Delivery Report, we can keep our eyes on shipments long after they’ve left their initial shipping dock – tracking them until their delivery. Make sure that you are working with a broker that actively tracks your shipments and that they are actively communicating delays to you, not the other way around.