Ed Burns likened the third parties in a freight contract between shippers and carriers to a mother-in-law who is constantly in the middle of a spouses’ conversation.
“We've seen that the relationship between shippers and carriers is broken,” Burns said. “In the marketplace, when the shipper contracts with an asset carrier to move their freight, it goes a lot smoother. They see rate stability.”
The challenge is small carriers don’t know how to solicit shippers, and shippers don’t know don’t have the time or tools to find and vet fleets that align with their networks, said Burns, co-founder of Burns Logistics, which connects enterprise shippers and niche, specialty carriers across the country.
Burns Logistics launched a new tool at Truckload Carriers Association’s annual convention this week that aims to simplify freight procurement by matching carriers’ capacity with shippers’ networks based on equipment, insurance and other key criteria, without transactional interference.
The tool – a digital freight network called TruSygnal – allows carriers to “signal” their asset capacity and operating networks to the marketplace. They input their origin and destination and deadhead tolerance on either side, equipment type, and rates for three, six and 12 months. For example, a carrier has five trucks with reefer trailers per day in Dallas looking to haul freight to the greater Chicago area. At the same time, the shipper inputs their networks.
If the shipper’s lanes fall within the carrier’s deadhead tolerances and equipment type matches, the shipper can then see the carrier’s profile, which includes information like how many trucks they run, what insurance they carry, etc.
“It's like a dating app for shippers and carriers to fall in love,” Burns said. “These signals come out, and the matches are made instantly. They connect with one another, and then the shipper and the carrier are able to message back and forth with each other at this point.
“Where I think we're a little different is we're not getting in the middle of the transaction – not telling the carrier what to charge,” he added. “The carrier inputs their rate; the shipper sees that rate, and if there's a match between the two of them, they're welcome to transact business together, but they don't have to, and we don't need to be part of that.”
Burns’ father and co-founder, Big Ed Burns, said Burns Logistics believes shippers and carriers work best together directly. TruSygnal is basically the digital version of Burns Logistics.
He said when shippers go to market for contract freight, it can take 90 to 100 days, but when a carrier wants to price freight, they want to price it to move it the following week, not 90 days, because their network changes.
“This tool gives real-time, real capacity, real pricing, now,” Big Ed Burns said.
Ed Burns said this is not a spot rate tool; there are plenty of those available already. This is tailored for contract freight. He said there are other digital freight networks available, but most are brokerage-based technology. That means the carrier is paid by the broker rather than directly by the shipper.
TruSygnal is not a middleman.
The company doesn’t take a cut of the rate but instead operates on a subscription-based model for access to the platform. Once the shipper and carrier are connected, TruSygnal is out of the picture.
“The carriers are digging it,” Ed Burns said.
Big Ed Burns said that’s because there are many small fleets that don’t have a sales force. This tool allows them to find customers directly and to have more of a say in pricing, he said.
And there is appetite for this type of service among shippers as well, Ed Burns said.
“It depends on the shipper. Some are fine hitting the easy button and having one throat to choke … but there are a lot of shippers out there who say, ‘I want to work (directly) with fleets because I'm going to get consistent pricing, and I'm going to get better service, and it's going to work well for multiple years,” he said. “When you can have a fleet work with a shipper for 20 to 25, years, that's pretty optimal. You know how the freight operates. At that point, you're going to price it accurately.”
