How Ontruck guarantees the best price for LTL freight in the industry

Shippers spend a lot of time contacting several providers for spot pricing, shopping around to find the best price-quality trade-off. Among shippers, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) price shop more and are less likely to lock in contract rates given their smaller and more ad-hoc volumes. With the high volatility in volume and pricing due to the COVID-19, the need for efficient spot and contract freight booking is greater than ever.

Ontruck gives shippers of all sizes the best contract and spot prices to ship less-than-truckload (LTL) freight. Today, our average base prices to ship pallets are 15-20% lower than the market competition. For example, the average price to ship a pallet in Madrid is €21 per pallet. Ontruck´s base rate is €16 per pallet. Depending on volume, Ontruck can bring prices down to €8 per pallet.

How do we do this? We use technology to reduce waste across the logistics system and pass those savings to shippers, while ensuring our carriers are paid fairly for their time and work.

We are so confident of our ability to offer the most competitive rate that we guarantee a price match to any customers' best offer*.

Instant price quotes and booking, based on shipper's needs and real-time capacity availability

When a shipper logs into Ontruck´s Shipper app, they can receive an instant spot quote. Unlike traditional brokers, the price is not set based on fixed rate sheets and volume-based discounts off these fixed rates. Instead, the price takes into account numerous variables that reflect real-time capacity availability and the optimisation potential of the shipment, including but not limited to:

• “routability” of the shipment (more routable with other shipments, lower price)
• lead time (more lead time, lower price)
• flexibility of delivery windows (wider windows, lower price)
• historical carrier acceptance ratios of similar shipments (higher acceptance, lower price)
• real-time carrier location data (close carriers, lower price)

To make things even easier for shippers, Ontruck offers 3 different LTL services that are uniquely adapted to the level of time-criticality and flexibility of the shipments. For regular shipments up to 8 pallets, we offer our distribution service via a cross-dock terminal for delivery within 24 hours (Ontruck 24h). We also offer door-to-door services to guarantee on time delivery for the strictest delivery windows, for same-day pickup/delivery (Ontruck Today) and next-day pickup/delivery (Ontruck Direct).

By enabling shippers to adjust multiple variables live on Ontruck´s Shipper app and seeing their impact on price, shippers get the transparency they need to make real-time scheduling and booking decisions.

Intelligent algorithms for efficient matching and routing, to reduce empty kilometers from over 40% to 15%

Our routing algorithms combine several customers' LTL shipments into a single multi-stop journey, which increases truck utilization and drives down the average cost per shipment. Our matching algorithms identify the most suitable, qualified and closest carrier for your shipment.

Compared to traditional freight operations in which fleet agents are managing fixed fleet capacity, our algorithms are dynamically optimising our network of over 4,000 carriers. This means that shippers only pay for capacity that they use. Shipments are routed together in real time automatically to minimise empty kilometers driven and offered as a full day's job to carriers, helping them keep their truck full. Even more, Ontruck´s algorithms adapt to optimise all vehicle types, from light vans to heavy goods trailers. These jobs are matched to the best available carriers, based on their preferred lanes and working hours, on average in under 5 minutes.

Automation of operational processes to sustain lower fixed costs

We streamline many manual processes conducted by traditional providers, including quoting, order entry, incident management, documentation and billing, to sustain lower fixed operational costs.

Traditionally, over half of the operational work in managing transport is in track and trace. This typically requires a manual and time-consuming process of phone calls with the warehouse, account manager and customer service agents, and in the worst cases, the end customer. To avoid this hassle, we leverage technology in several ways:

• All of Ontruck´s carriers are equipped with our Driver App on their mobile phones. They use the Driver App to accept and bid on jobs, and manage their earnings. 99% of our shipments are tracked via GPS and the majority of delivery statuses are updated automatically when a driver approaches a delivery or pickup point.
• We apply machine learning to predict ETAs and potential delays, and automate incident management for shipments in-transit. Our traffic system transforms the unstructured work of live operations in managing incidences and exceptions, into standard operating procedures (SOP) and automates those tasks that are repetitive and low value-add.

Instead of managing these processes manually, our Operations team spends their time planning future capacity needs on behalf of customers, managing the quality and performance of the carrier base, and resolving corner cases such as specific regions where supply is tight. This results in lower incidences and quality issues for Shippers.

A network of over 4,000+ carriers to ensure real-time access to market pricing

Instant price quotes, efficient routing and automation are critical to delivering the most competitive price in the industry. However, in highly volatile markets like we have observed during the strictest lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is our access to over 4,000+ carriers that ensures Ontruck has real-time access to market pricing. We provide pricing visibility so all our customers can be informed of current and upcoming potential disruptions as early as possible. We can also deliver reliable capacity through our pool of carriers, either through contracts or our spot.

Lower cost of transportation with recurring, contracted freight

For shippers with regular shipping needs, locking in a contract rate will generate even more savings. By giving Ontruck a greater level of visibility into your freight demands, we can boost the optimisation potential of your shipments by routing and matching even more efficiently than is possible for last-minute bookings.

With greater volume and visibility, we can generate savings of over 30% lower than the market. Below are some examples based on actual customer agreements versus their alternative providers.

Get the best price, instantly, for your LTL freight. Book with Ontruck today!

Get upfront and instant pricing for your LTL freight, GPS tracking from pickup to drop-off and full control and transparency over your shipping.

*The price match guarantee is based on like-for-like services for moving 22 pallets or less, and applies to shippers in which transportation is not their primary business. The offer applies for the current year only.

More details in our terms & conditions.

Written by Rika Christanto - Chief Operations Officer

Indonesian Rika Christanto grew up in the US. A Harvard MBA graduate she has worked as an investment banking analyst in the technology group of Morgan Stanley and has over four years of consultancy experience in McKinsey. Christanto's first experience in the logistics sector came when she worked for an NGO in Uganda leading the operations to create a nationwide dairy supply chain. She left the consultancy world in 2016 to join Ontruck, a digital road freight platform that offers the most efficient and low-carbon solution to transport goods, as a co-founder and CFO. She’s currently the company’s COO, leading both operations and finance.