For those who couldn't make it, I’m excited to share the highlights from the event.
It’s a challenging time for drayage operators
It’s been a tough market for the drayage industry this year. While volumes are up, pricing isn’t. The market is hyper-competitive because an influx of supply during the pandemic increased supply and depressed rates.
There have also been plenty of disruptions. Just a month ago, dockworkers went on strike for three days along the East and Gulf Coasts. Even in that short window, the strike had big impacts; drayage companies were unsure about their volumes and business, and drivers were at risk of not getting paid. We’re not out of the water just yet. The union and employers are still negotiating, meaning another strike could happen in January.
Until recently, we weren’t sure how the presidential election would shape up. Green initiatives and regulations related to electric trucks, especially in California, are top of mind for drayage operators, and the next administration could influence those.
For a deeper dive into the state of drayage, check out our free Industry Report which features interviews with industry experts about key trends.
I also encouraged everyone to check in on their drayage partners. If you’re a BCO or a broker, make it known you appreciate their service. See if the rates you have with them are still fair. In this tough environment, we need to ensure we’re being the best partners we can be.
Despite these challenges, I feel really confident about the direction Drayage is heading in, especially the ones embracing technology that takes their supply chains to the next level. With that, let’s talk product.
7 Exciting New Product Enhancements from PortPro
Communication
We hear from our customers about the importance of communication and how slowly it's progressing technology-wise. Most communication between drayage carriers and their customers happens through email.
We've developed an embedded email inbox, integrating your existing Gmail or Outlook email inbox with your PortPro TMS - bringing load info, email context, and AI-generated summaries right to your email inbox. No more jumping back and forth between your email, spreadsheets, and TMS.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a huge piece of this. Large language models (like ChatGPT) underline all our communication tools. There’s AI-powered email tagging, so you can prioritize and sort your inbox by quotes, tenders, loads, and more. AI prompts and notifications can prevent mistakes before they happen and AI-generated summaries highlight key points without having to go through 100 emails in a thread. The service level drayage companies can provide to their customers will continue to improve dramatically as AI continues to advance.
Coming up in May, we’ll have the same feature with internal chat communications—all of your messaging lives together inside the TMS, or even inside a specific load if that’s what the communication refers to. This could totally change the game for your business.
Fast EDI and Integration Setup
I won’t mince words: EDIs can be a pain in the butt. They have complex and technical setup requirements, fees, and long deployment times. But it’s also a really important communication tool in drayage, so we’re making it faster and more accessible.
Starting in December, our no-code EDI integration will let customers set up in days — not weeks or months — with $0 startup fees and a monthly rate of $129 per trading partner.
Reporting
We heard from tons of customers that they wanted more and better reporting. This month, we’re releasing brand new reporting dashboards and custom tabular reports.
The dashboards will give drayage companies insights on finance, operations, admin, system, and automation. You’ll also be able to automatically share the dashboard with customers inside their customer portal.
The custom tabular reports can be categorized by different functions of the system such as loads, finance, and more. No boilerplate and standardized reports. Complete customization without any technical expertise required.
Owner-Operator App
This year, we did a soft launch of our owner-operator mobile app. Let me tell you, the feedback has been amazing. We’ll be fully rolling it out this month.
The app helps companies to operate compliant with newer regulations, like the AB5 independent contractor law in California, when tendering work to owner-operators. The owner-operator can accept work, submit documents, and invoice all through the app, running completely independent from the trucking company in which they are receiving work from.
Quoting and RFPs
Quoting is traditionally inefficient and time-consuming, and truckers have limited exposure to customers. We want drayage truckers to have access to as many customers as possible.
Starting in January, we’re rolling out better customer exposure for truckers. Often it feels one-sided – trucking companies are sending out quotes and not knowing who got the quote. But with this system, they’ll be able to expose their rates to BCOs and brokers, if they choose to, and know exactly who saw their quote.
Plus, our brand new AI quoting tool lets companies automate their quote responses back to customers. Typically, your inbox is flooded with emails and someone is writing up responses to get back to customers. But it takes time, and sometimes you can’t answer them all, or the customer has picked another business in the meantime. This is where AI and automation come in. You set up your rates, and the system uses AI to generate quotes and send them back to customers, in an incredibly intelligent and human-like way.
At the same time, BCOs, forwarders and brokers can request rates from drayage partners, whether it’s for a spot load or a long-term contract. It’s all about better transparency and connectivity in the quoting process.
A Connected Ecosystem
Our systems are natively connected. What exactly does that mean? If you’re a broker or BCO that uses PortPro, you can work with any PortPro trucking company natively, without setting up separate API or EDI integrations.
Beginning in January, we’ll have integrated carrier due diligence, contracts and rate management, and enhanced BCO/broker-carrier connectivity. We’ll connect RFPs with the tendering process.
Dispatch Optimization
This is one of the most impactful things a company can incorporate into its operation, especially for drayage truckers who work with so many variables in the first mile of the supply chain. We spent a lot of time building up the infrastructure to be able to truly build state-of-the-art and industry-leading, best-in-class dispatch optimization. Without optimized dispatches, you can have high costs, inefficient routes, underutilized drivers and equipment, and so many other business risks.
We are currently working with 40 of our drayage partners on this feature, and pre-registration is now open for the next 40 drayage companies running on PortPro. If you’re interested, please reach out to your Account Manager or CSM and we’ll take you through each step of the dispatch optimization journey.
The Road Ahead
PortFest 2024 was an incredible opportunity to connect with our customers and share what we’ve been working on. I’m so proud of the PortPro team that has worked hard to develop these important features that help drayage companies improve their operations. It's the honor of a lifetime to work with each of you and I’m excited to continue our mission: improving the lives of people who work in drayage — the backbone of strong supply chains.
