Freight Broker Software: What is the Freight Broker Software, Essential Features and Real-case Example

Increasing internet penetration and integration of cloud-based services are some of the key factors that triggered the growth of freight broker software market. In fact, the freight broker industry is predicted to reach $90.7 billion by 2030. This article is dedicated to the role of freight broker software in freight brokerage ecosystem. We shed light on key modules of freight broker software, some of the best examples of ready-made and custom solutions, give the approximate development cost, and answer a few most popular questions related to freight software development. Keep reading to learn more.

What is a Freight Broker Software?

Freight broker software today is an indispensable automation tool for freight broker organizations. This is a type of transport management software that allows brokers to streamline their core responsibilities and day-to-day tasks. Software for freight brokers is used to enter loads, source/qualify carriers, handle dispatch, monitor deliveries, invoice customers, and pay carriers. Freight broker software is used by companies involved in both national and worldwide shipments.

Top Key Modules of Freight Broker Software

Since freight broker software is anticipated to help organizations to deal with a set of tasks related to freight management, logistics, and freight brokering, there are certain must-have modules that freight broker software should contain. Let’s have a look at a few of them.

Freight Broker Software: Ready Made vs Custom

Freight broker organizations have two common options to integrate advanced freight broker software in their business system: opt for ready-made software or develop a unique freight broker tms. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both solutions to help you make a weighted decision.

Ready-made Freight Broker Software

Using of on-the-shelf software for freight brokers is the process of integration of a ready-made software into your organization workflow on monthly subscription fee with several alterations. Software vendors adapt it according to your business’ requirements, however, the core functionality remains unchanged.
Here are some of the most convincing reasons to use on-the-shelf solutions:

• Faster onboarding: because on the shelf software is already built, you can start using it right away;
• Reduced upfront cost: you can advantage from ready-made freight broker tms on a monthly fee basis that is quite affordable compared to custom development.

Among the disadvantages of an on-the-shelf solution, we can distinguish the following:

• Lack of personalization: since pre-made solution is designed for all business verticals, it’s not designed to meet your business needs effectively
• Excessive functionality: by integrating an out-of-the-box freight broker software, you risk paying for features and plugins you may never need
• Costly support: even though basic support may be included into monthly subscription package, exceptional issues may reach overhead cost
• Unwanted promotions: you may receive promotional emails, follow-ups, and third-party branding

Custom Software for Freight Brokers

Custom development of software for freight brokers is the best option for businesses with long-term vision and solid budget. This is a process of engaging an entire development team to create a software once and exclusively for your enterprise. Let’s take a closer look at key advantages of personalized freight broker apps:

Personalization: since the custom development is initiated to meet the needs of your business, you can decide of desired functionality, themes, and layout of a software
You feel in charge: you have a full control over the building process to ensure that a freight broker software is being created according to requirements and deadlines set
Excellent Support: the development team provides high-quality support throughout development process and consistent post-release maintenance
Competitive advantage: ability to choose the desired functionality may give a great advantage over market competitors.

On the other side, custom freight broker software may impose several challenges, namely:

Costly development: you pay for every phase of development cycle of a truck broker software around your needs.
Longer time-to-market time: custom freight broker development is a slow and thoughtful process that may take months to complete

Freight Broker Software Development Example

Let’s overview the real-life example of freight broker software creation by Rexsoft. This is logistics CRM for transportations of second-hand vehicles available as web app and mobile app. It involves coordination of a customer, dispatcher, and a driver. Let’s overview the functionality embedded into the software through its workflow:

• A customer leaves an application to a dispatcher in the web version of an app;
• A driver receives a request in the mobile version of an app;
• A driver tracks the transportation of a vehicle through GPS feature. On request, they take pictures of a vehicle that are stored in the transportation request history.
• A customer signs the documents with electronic signature;
• A vehicle arrives at the destination point where a customer takes it;
• In case any question occur, a customer contacts the dispatcher to handle them.

Such freight broker software took 1100 hours and a team of 6 people to develop. This brings the sum of around $40,000.