Why hire a freight broker/3PL?

Transportation is a serious process that requires experience, knowledge, and much more. This is precisely why one should hire a freight broker when dealing with transportation. Let us give you an example. Clinical trial logistics should be handled by a person or a company with experience and expertise in such a serious field, this would be the freight broker. Third-party logistics is important and has an undeniably crucial role in such a process.

Before you hire a freight broker, let us explain what exactly that is

Many fail to hire third-party logistics simply because they aren’t informed of what exactly a third-party logistics person or company does. Let’s see through an example. You have several cars and you are supposed to transfer them. Since you have cars, all you need for a transfer is a company or person who is an authorized carrier, right? Almost right. You need someone to bring together you, the shipper and the carrier. If that was an easy process we would not have freight brokers today. A freight broker is in the middle, nor a shipper or a carrier.

Why you should hire a freight broker

Freight broker provides valuable and important service for both sides, the shipper and the carrier. Most companies even allow brokers to manage and coordinate all of the shipping and transportation needs. Reasons for this are:

1. A good 3PL will learn the details of your business
2. They know the carriers and know whom to work with
3.  They know what to do for perfect shipping efficiency
4. Are able to help you avoid certain extra charges that can appear for various reasons and mistakes you could make without the freight broker
5. A freight broker knows everything you don’t and do not have to know. It is evident why you should hire a freight broker.

If you hire a freight broker, the process would go like this:

Let’s explain the previous example further. We are analyzing the following situation. So you call a third-party logistics company because you are shipping car from Saudi Arabia to USA, and you decide to work with them. Your job is to provide them with necessary information such as what is being transferred to whom and where, what you need, want and everything else you emphasize. The freight broker, then, decides everything else that will be in your favor. They know who to call for carrier services, and why. They are aware and know every single detail about the transferring process. This enables them to have a brilliant work ethic which, of course, results in a successful, smooth shipment that everyone is satisfied with.

If you don’t, the scenario could be the following:

You decide to do your own research and think the ”middle man” is not necessary. You find a carrier and do all the possible logistics without any knowledge and experience but what could go wrong? Well, first of all, you could easily choose a bad carrier that will fail to deliver on time or at all, might try to trick you due to your lack of experience that will be evident and more. Since you do not have experience in this particular field you could end up paying extra fees that could have been avoided. If nothing else, the shipment could easily go wrong because you failed to manage and coordinate your job with the job a broker should be doing for a reason. In the best-case scenario, you will be handling too much information and you will miss something that will result in disaster.

The responsibilities of a freight broker

1. Finding and selecting safe carriers
2. Having knowledge about the current market trends in the transportation business
3. Providing shipping quotes (for customers)
4. Having a constant focus on the shipment and providing updates
5. Tracking the status
6. Collaboration and contact with the shipper and the carrier at all times
7. And other responsibilities that can be added or erased depending on the contract and the nature of the shipment

We believe you understand that all of these responsibilities require knowledge, experience, fantastic work ethic and many more traits the shipper cannot fulfill due to countless reasons in which the first is lack of time. In order for the transfer to go smoothly and without any unsuspected errors, each company must focus on the job that is supposed to be done. The shipper has one group of responsibilities, the third-party logistics takes care of another group, and the carrier has responsibilities concerning the ”transportation group”, so to speak. What they all have in common is the goal which is to provide the perfect transportation of certain goods. Both the shipper and the carrier must be in contact with the broker but are not obligated to be in contact with each other.

We believe you have decided wisely

We believe that you have made the right and safe choice of deciding to hire a freight broker. You now know the valuable services one third-party logistics can provide. It would simply be irresponsible to do someone else’s job which you are not qualified for. As Plato would emphasize, the perfect state would contain four qualities: Courage, wisdom, justice, and self-discipline. It takes wisdom to know what you are able and unable to do. Courage to accept what you cannot do and let someone else do it. Self-discipline to restrain yourself and concentrate on what is important. Justice, in this case, is a mixture of all of these traits. It is only justice to let the talented and educated to their part, the part they are educated for. A wise businessman knows that to run a business, you need more than yourself.

Now that we have merged Greek philosophy and have used it to prove a point, we will let you decide what is best for you. You are more than capable of knowing what to do and how to run a successful business. Our job was to present to you what the gain will be if you hire a freight broker. Not might, but will. We wish you good luck!