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dating
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Looking for a backload? Trying to find a truck with space for that urgent consignment?
Vaybe you should check out the Transport
Exchange websites. CM editor Andy Salter
meets the man who aims to bring people together to their mutual benefit...
By his own admission Lyall Cresswell's business is most akin to a dating agency, except that he specialises in freight rather than love. Cresswell is managing director of Transport Exchange, which runs Courier Exchange and Haulage Exchange — two of the most popular freight-exchange websites in the business.
As Cresswell puts it"Freight dating, as I call it, is all about creating a market for those with goods and those with spare capacity on their vehicles to trade."
For a monthly subscription users sign onto a website to meet clients. Quite simply, if you have more freight than you can carry, you post a load on the site; if you have an empty truck, you register its availability. And hey presto, the exchange puts the two in touch.
Bolt-on options offer increased mobility through the use of PDAs and mobile communications, giving text and e-mail alerts when jobs become available.
A visit to www.courierexchange.co.uk or www.haulageexchange.co.uk illustrates the impressive array of services on offer. Of particular interest is a new map feature, under development, which shows every load available in real time.
Users can also plot routes and the system will highlight available loads within a specific corridor. This development takes the site from a basic geographic listing of the loads available to an extremely user-friendly service.
Exchanges date back 20 years
But freight exchanges are nothing new; some date back 20 years. During the internet boom at the end of the nineties there were umpteen companies riding the wave and claiming to offer operators the answer to their prayers maximum vehicle utilisation and flexibility. Reduced empty running is an objective many in transport have striven for and, on the face of it, the online space should be the perfect medium to make this possible.
Before the advent of the internet, drivers could spend hours ringing round freight forwarders and 'friendly' hauliers in search of a backload. On the web this process is accessible, easy to use and almost instant.
Unfortunately, the first wave of freight exchanges earned themselves an unwanted reputation for low rates and slow payment, almost damning the whole concept before it was out of first gear.
Technical development
There's no obvious reason why it should be any different now, although there does seem Lobe a maturing of this type of service online and the technology has certainly improved.
Cresswell and his team keep a close eye on customer feedback through the sites' Ibrums: users can register their 'satisfaction' levels with e Bay-style ratings, "All subscribers have to be accredited by its before their account is activated." he explains."That involves verifying their 0-licence and company details.
"We have some extremely active forums where users share opinions—and we encourage benchmarking of performance. It's in our interests to ensure the system works and users are satisfied with us."
As the UK road transport sector continues to embrace the internet as a means of improving efficiency, a growing number of users are recognising the benefits of services such as the Courier and I laulage Exchanges.
Cresswell claims about 1,500 subscribers; Courier Exchange is the older of the two sites and has a bigger subscription base. The courier and express parcels sector seems to lend itself more to a freight exchange,with the emphasis on speed and efficiency, than the freight planning associated with a modern logistics outfit.
But there seems to be no reason why the Haulage Exchange cannot fulfil an important role in managing freight capacity — it already has nearly 200 subscribers to its service and has only been going for 12 months.
Continental connection
I laving recently signed up to the Fret Alliance group of European freight exchanges, Transport Exchange can now offer operators a link to the Continent.
"We're interested in ensuring that the right vehicles and loads are in the right place at the right time to satisfy the needs of the users," Cresswell reports. "We're creating the marketplace for better efficiency of the transport sector and we're most certainly not interested in taking a share of the transaction."
With a growing subscriber base and investment in new systems to ensure users receive a satisfactory service, you may want to take a closer look at this fledgling service. w