From time to time, I come across companies that offer a unique blend of freight transportation services and technological capabilities. I have written about several of these companies over the last decade. Freightcom (www.freightcom.com) is one of these companies.
The Freightcom Growth Story
The company was founded in 2010. The founders brought many years of freight experience into the business. They established Freightcom with a vision that there had to be a better way to book an LTL or small parcel shipment. It was their experience that the entire process of calling a carrier, obtaining a rate, and booking a shipment was too slow, too difficult, and too complex. They believed that if they could simplify the process for shippers and carriers, they could fill a void in the market and create a significant business.
One of the interesting aspects of the Freightcom story is that they resisted the temptation of many entrepreneurs to build a product and rush to market. In fact, the leaders of the business take pride in the fact that they grew the business slowly and methodically. They purposely “stayed under the radar” as the business expanded. Throughout the process, they refined their service with a combination of freight transportation acumen and technological sophistication.
Target Markets
“Freightcom decided to focus on the small parcel and low volume LTL sectors,” stated Tony Kermally, president of Freightcom. “Having identified our target markets, we brought in IT resources to create an extremely simple but deceptively functional and pleasant shipping experience. We enhanced our value proposition by selecting quality carrier partners that serve every postal code and zip code in North America.”
Over the past 3 years, the company focused on excelling at the carrier onboarding/integration process. Some of America’s leading carriers such as UPS, FedEx Freight, Purolator, TST Overland Express, CCT, and Day & Ross are among the pool of transportation companies that have partnered with Freightcom and have allowed them to become an authorized reseller of their services. Canadian and American manufacturers and distributors can ship their products domestically within and/or between all points in the two countries.
North American Coverage/Local Presence
Another unique feature of Freightcom is the range of local offices that it is creating. The company has a plan to create a local (physical) presence in many major North American markets. Freightcom’s personnel receive extensive training in every customer facing position including sales. The reps can go out and meet customers, help understand their problems, confirm with them that they are there for them and provide a level of human interaction when needed.
A powerful blend of Technology and Transportation
A shipper can go into their extremely user-friendly website and enter their origin and destination points, the weight and dimensions of their freight and other relevant (i.e. tailgate, residential delivery) information. The system then accesses the carriers in the data base that serve these points and supplies a set of service providers, rates, and transit times. The user compares service levels and rates, selects its carriers of choice, books the shipments and the system does all the rest. Through links with its core carriers, full track and trace capabilities are available as is the ability to print PODs.
Freightcom is very proud of its IT infrastructure, believing that it differentiates them from the competition. Through a very clean and functional user interface, a shipper can shop, price, and book their shipments within seconds. The company will be launching its new website in the coming weeks.
Leading Edge LTL Transportation
Freightcom has some exciting plans to extend their business model.
a) Integratedfreight.com
Freightcom is releasing www.integratedfreight.com According to Mr. Kermally, “the vision with this new initiative is to provide a fully comprehensive solution for users and carriers in the transportation industry. By leveraging their cutting-edge IT knowledge and resources, this new offering will bring a more collaborative and streamlined approach to shipping. This portal will also allow a simplified integration process into Freightcom’s rating engine.”
b) Building ecommerce platforms for customers
Freightcom has also released its first eCommerce application. Currently it integrates directly with Shopify Users; the application has been built to streamline the shipping process for eCommerce users. Not only does the application provide discounted rates and allow the store owner to ship instantly within a few clicks, it also has an algorithm built in, which they call BestBox, that provides the best rate for shipments based on the package type. It also provides rates based on dimensional weight.
The business is experiencing rapid growth
Freightcom has been achieving double digit growth year after year. To maintain their growth trajectory, the company is constantly looking for user feedback to enhance the service. Small shippers receive the continuously upgraded technology online and all updates are free of charge.
Freightcom has a bright future
The company’s unique blend of transportation expertise, market focus and superior technology are propelling the company’s growth in their two target markets. By affiliating with industry leading small parcel and LTL carriers, by providing a high level of human interaction, when needed, and by a commitment to continuous improvement, they have established a very solid platform. With a range of new services that are in the process of being introduced, they are poised for rapid growth.
Do you have a great Freight Transportation story to tell? Contact me at dan@dantranscon.com. To stay up to date on Best Practices in Freight Management, follow me on Twitter @DanGoodwill, join the Freight Management Best Practices group on LinkedIn and subscribe to Dan’s Transportation Newspaper (http://paper.li/DanGoodwill/1342211466).