5 min read
Logistics is one of the most challenging and time-consuming businesses currently in practice. With a huge number of suppliers to coordinate with, persistent and impatient clients to deal with, and making sure that the cargo safely reaches its destination, there are a huge number of variables to consider. Most organizations, even in this age of digital transformation, manually manage the whole logistic operation. From calling up a transport company for timely pickup of the cargo, to making sure that it reaches the drop off safely, it is a taxing process for both established companies and someone looking to make their way into the logistics business.
GULFREIGHT to the rescue
GULFREIGHT is an enabler for B2B logistics. It provides a central platform for both the shippers and carriers to manage their operations. It intends to bridge the gulf between the stakeholders in the logistics/freight industry. Without going through the hassle of manually contacting all the carriers and asking for quotes, shippers can place a request for a quote with just a few easy steps. GULFREIGHT also offers a central marketplace to organizations looking to carry out shipments. This marketplace helps them negotiate the trip rates with the carriers or brokers in their network through the workflows, or route a spot rate job in their network and let suppliers in their network compete with each other to choose the job first.
Let’s take a look at deeper look at the features that GULFREIGHT provides to both shippers and carriers.
Easy order management
For a shipper looking to move its cargo from one place to another, it often takes hours on the phone with the transportation companies to agree on a price and then arrange trucks to come and pick up the goods. With GULFRIEGHT, the whole process becomes as simple as filling out a few details and sending the carriers a request for a quote. GULFREIGHT supports both pre-arranged rates as well as spot rates to make the negotiations process much smoother for both parties. With its intelligent integration with Google maps, it is incredibly easy to specify pickup and drop off points. Using the route calculation feature of Google maps, GULFRIEGHT also shows how much time and distance it should take for the cargo to arrive at its destination.
As soon as a carrier accepts a quote, shipper gets a notification and is given an option to confirm the order. GULFREIGHT provides an easy to access the dashboard to monitor and manage both ongoing and completed orders.
Centralized marketplace
GULFREIGHT’s one stop shop allows carriers, shippers and organizations to grow their networks using a centralized marketplace. By plugging in their organization in the marketplace, users can find and connect with a number of different suppliers.
Suppliers can set their own rates, post jobs and let carriers compete to complete the job. The entire freight transport and logistics operations can be managed through this single platform.
Real time driver monitoring and progress tracking
GULFREIGHT, through its Android and iOS driver applications, allows carriers to monitor the location of their truck drivers, making the whole process of tracking progress of job order much easier. Drivers complete milestones in the delivery process and information about their current status is delivered to both the carriers and the shippers.
GULFREIGHT also allows Carriers to send order information directly to the devices of their drivers and see at a quick glance which trucks are free to accept an order.
Accounting and invoice management
GULFREIGHT’s platform helps organizations say goodbye to manual paperwork and automate the accounting process. It offers complete control over management of trip accounting by keeping track of all the accounts payable and accounts receivable. It lets users smartly and transparently manage the trip rates so that all the parties are completely on board before completion of a trip.
It gets rid of slow and resource consuming tasks like invoice generation by fully automating the whole process. With only one click of the button, it can generate an invoice for the order and share it with other concerned parties. This can save organizations hundreds of man-hours required to manually generate, verify and transfer invoices for all their trips.
Simple pricing plan
The Billing is straightforward, the user has the full autonomy to choose the right plan (monthly, 6 months, yearly subscription) according to the shipment volume of his organization. The more the full truckload shipments, the lesser per Trip rate will be applied. Switching between pricing plans can be done at any given point of time. Moreover, there is a free trial of the platform for the first 60 days.
GULFREIGHT also intends to Introduce a free monthly plan aiming to provide the services to the companies having less than ten (10) Full Truckload shipments each month.
Technology has changed a lot in the last decade or so. A large number of business have already embraced the onslaught of technology and have incorporated it in the way they work. Logistics is one field which hasn’t been widely affected by advancements in technology. Considering the complexity and critical nature of business dealings involved in a logistics operation, it is not surprising that most companies tread carefully when it comes to depending on technology for their dealings. GULFREIGHT aims to fill that gap and move the logistics industry towards automation with a platform which doesn’t completely remove the need for human intervention but helps in better management of the workflows in FTL/FCL shipment. Thus reducing the manual work required and saving valuable resources.
This story has been produced in collaboration with the sponsor and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of TechJuice editorial staff.
