In this article, we explore Carrier Onboarding and Compliance tools as a core piece of every digital freight brokerage’s operations. This post is part of a series of posts that aims to shed light on the many new and innovative freight tech solutions that empower freight brokers to transform digitally.
This post was written in collaboration with Nick Dangles @ Kinetic. Kinetic is committed to helping freight tech companies stand out by educating transportation providers on their freight tech options.
Carrier Onboarding and Safety Compliance software is designed to help freight brokerages automate compliance procedures and easily onboard carriers. With it, brokers can vet carriers against established qualifications to ensure freight is always in the safest hands. And once carriers have been onboarded, brokerages can use its monitoring features to keep tabs on carrier compliance.
Why Do You Need Carrier Onboarding Software?
Whether you’re handing-off loads to carriers in your network or assigning freight to someone new, you need to make sure everyone stays compliant. Insurance coverage must be up-to-date and safety scores need to be in an acceptable range. Otherwise, you put your shippers (and your brokerage) at risk.
Eliminating the need to fax, fill out, and manually enter carrier packet information into your TMS, Carrier Onboarding and Compliance solutions make it possible to digitally accept new carrier capacity. Everything from operating authority and FMCSA data to insurance and safety ratings is saved in an online database. And your team can automatically review carrier profiles against your internal standards to see if everything checks out.
From a capacity management standpoint, this is immensely valuable – and not just in terms of convenience either. Since the software cross-checks your requirements against carrier qualifications automatically, mistakes are less likely. As a result, you and your shippers are better protected from accidents, fraud, and other liability concerns.
Benefits of Carrier Compliance and Onboarding Technology
While these macro benefits are nothing to sneeze at, freight brokerages can also tap into lots of micro benefits by using each of the features listed below.
Monitor Insurance Coverage
Check new carriers’ insurance coverage -- including their general liability, cargo, and auto policies -- before booking carriers for a load. And get automatic updates on your carrier network’s coverage, so you never book an uninsured trucking company.
Monitor Safety
Make sure your drivers are always following the rules of the road. From tickets and accidents to driver fitness and HOS compliance, all the data you need to assess driver risk is at your fingertips.
Carrier Reviews
Read carrier reviews from reporting systems like FreightGuard and Watchdog to get a complete picture of carrier safety, professionalism, and engagement.
Consolidated FMCSA Data
Access carrier FMCSA data in one place. View the results of drug and alcohol tests. Check accident registries. And see how your carriers’ trucks performed during vehicle inspections.
Initial Carrier Contract Signing
Send, receive, and sign contracts online for faster load booking. Plus, integrate with your TMS to keep all documentation organized and flowing effortlessly between your systems.
5 Top Carrier Onboarding and Compliance Software Providers
Among the dozens of options available, there are several onboarding tools for freight brokers that we repeatedly see being used by our customers. Let’s look at each one below:
As a digitized version of standard carrier packets, MyCarrierPackets enables brokerages to upload and share pre-qualified packets with carriers in minutes. From there, carriers can fill out the forms, upload relevant certifications, and sign contracts. And once the documentation has been finalized, MyCarrierPackets adds the information to your TMS automatically.
With the largest carrier database available, RMIS monitors over 95% of all carriers in the United States. This makes it easy to qualify drivers, as most needed data is housed in a single platform. But anytime a certain certification is missing from carrier profiles, RMIS will source and send over the needed information quickly. Best of all, RMIS integrates with many TMS providers -- which means you can put data migration on autopilot.
In addition to safety ratings, insurance, and operating authority, Carrier411 pulls FreightGuard reports, CARB compliance data, out-of-service orders, and BASIC scores to help you vet and onboard carriers. All you have to do is upload your current drivers’ USDOT numbers and integrate the platform with your TMS, and you’re good to go.
SaferWatch allows you to access everything from CSA scores to insurance data in real-time. But its real stand-out feature is its automation. With SaferWatch, you can predefine rules for carrier selection to completely automate compliance assessment. And once carriers are approved, you can take care of onboarding in minutes.
DAT is known for many different products -- so what is DAT OnBoard exactly? It’s an onboarding and compliance platform designed to help you assess carrier qualifications and sign contracts online. Using DAT OnBoard, carriers can create profiles and share their information from any device. Meanwhile, your team can review, sign and save documents to your TMS for faster carrier onboarding.
How to Choose a Carrier Onboarding Solution
While each option listed offers a unique set of bells and whistles, choosing the right carrier onboarding and compliance software boils down to two questions.
Does It Perform Its Core Functionality?
Any carrier onboarding software you buy should be a useful onboarding solution. It should help you qualify carriers upfront and continuously monitor their insurance and safety information for updates.
More importantly, it should make the onboarding process easier than before. If you find yourself missing the old fax and file method, you’ll want to pick a new solution because you’re wasting your money.
Does It Integrate With Your Existing Tools?
Technically, you can integrate any software if you have a good developer on-hand. But it’s much easier to choose an onboarding solution that comes with open APIs built-in. Not only does it get you up to speed faster, but the integrations enable you to move data into your TMS and other third-party tools, like Parade, effortlessly.
With so many different types of carrier onboarding solutions out there, it can be difficult to know what to choose. Make sure the solution you pick checks the right boxes of key functionality that fits your team’s needs to ultimately aid them in spending less time with compliance, and more time booking freight.
Furthermore, as you invest in other key technology solutions for your team, make sure that the Carrier Onboarding and Safety Compliance software you select integrates seamlessly to your freight tech stack.
At Parade, we integrate closely with compliance and safety software into a capacity management workflow to guarantee that you can digitally trust the capacity you use on a daily basis and book more loads.