In an industry that is becoming increasingly digitized, customization is king. Brokers with the capacity to meet their carriers exactly where they are are more likely to keep them in their network, ultimately making the relationship more fortuitous for both parties.
Customizable payment programs – like HaulPay by ComFreight – offer brokers the opportunity to pay each carrier on a schedule that works best for them. Custom payment options allow brokers to offer quick pay when necessary while still utilizing standard payment methods in other situations.
“We approach each client with a custom-tailored approach to support them in their payment needs and to solve each client’s problems respectively,” ComFreight CEO Steve Kochan said. “Customization includes the ability to provide white-labeled payment experiences for both carriers and customers while also automating payments to factors.”
Josh Holtom and Glenn Deweese, of freight broker World Options, said ComFreight’s HaulPay offering has been an integral part of streamlining its operations and growing their business from the ground up.
“We want to be able to grow [World Options] as much as we can,” Deweese said. “ComFreight handles all the billing. Since we are a new broker, it is important to make sure our carriers get paid quickly in order to build our network.”
Offering various payment speeds to carriers enables brokers to enhance the carrier experience, leading to greater loyalty and flexibility, according to Kochan. This is especially important when brokers are newer to the market and are working to build a new network of relationships and immediately gives them a competitive edge to larger counterparts.
The perks of using a system like HaulPay do not only apply to brokers, though.
“Carriers are also able to manage what payment speed they want to get paid at and can self-manage their set payment terms, without requiring direct management or time from the broker,” Kochan said. “This is also available on the broker’s customer side. Meaning the broker can offer various payback terms to customers, leading to more flexibility in terms without sacrificing the broker’s credit history and payments to carriers.”
When a broker uses a customizable payment program, carriers and shipper customers get flexibility without the broker having to risk its own credit while improving the experience for both sides of the transaction. ComFreight is able to finance payments without the traditional trappings of factoring programs and can even absolve the broker of the risk of chargebacks or non-payments due to credit issues with their shippers.
“ComFreight began as a load board, but after talking to both carrier and broker users about their other big challenges we realized that payments and credit terms automation was the area we needed to focus on and have been quietly developing a product and API to solve these issues for several years now,” Kochan said.
