How many new customers did you acquire last year? Let’s start with a more relevant question considering the turbulent freight market. Did you retain your best ones?
The pandemic allowed truckload fleets to find new customers and grow revenue. Capacity was extremely tight, with pent-up freight demand moving through snarled supply chains. Savvy fleet operators used windfall profits from the pandemic to pay down debt and fortify their balance sheets to prepare for an uncertain future of persistent cost pressures and a freight market flush with capacity.
No matter how prepared you are, losing a top customer will be painful and expensive in today’s market. Like many businesses, truckload fleets get about 80% of their revenues from 20% of their largest customers, making every touchpoint count.
Many fleets retained customers by shifting capacity from one-way/over-the-road segments to dedicated operations. In a recent report, C.H. Robinson noted that last year, most large fleets increased their share of dedicated accounts to obtain higher rate structures over a multi-year period rather than competing for annual freight contracts and shorter-term mini bids.
Fortunately, conditions are improving. Industry economists say the market has hit bottom and will rebound slowly into 2025. Besides shifting capacity to dedicated contracts, fleets investing wisely in technology, such as a custom mobile app platform, retain customers by tailoring workflows for dedicated, contract, and spot-market loads.
This article explains how fleets like U.S. Xpress use a custom mobile app platform to provide concierge-level service to boost customer retention and driver satisfaction.
Consistency is Key
Every customer and load has unique requirements that must be communicated to drivers for executing safe, on-time, error-free deliveries. Sharing information with drivers manually via text messages and phone calls takes significant time and effort. It’s also risky since it leaves gaps in the information needed for trip planning.
With a custom app platform, fleets create dynamic workflows that give drivers an easy, consistent way of managing customer load details. The workflows can be easily deployed through pre-built integrations with ELDs and back-office systems to streamline operations and increase real-time visibility.
Communicating information to drivers through a mobile app workflow ensures they have everything they need at the right place and time to meet customer expectations by:
- Getting detailed information about pickup and delivery locations to plan the best routes to the final mile, including facility ingress and egress.
- Adding documents and training to an on-demand media library, such as oversized or hazmat permits or instructional videos to help drivers operate specific equipment like reefer units.
- When arriving at customer locations, drivers confirm their arrival, complete a customer-specific delivery form, and capture an electronic signature or a signed proof-of-delivery receipt.
- Prompting drivers to scan barcodes with the app to validate the correct delivery of SKUs and quantities.
- And much more. The possibilities are endless.
Taking a Page from U.S. Xpress
U.S. Xpress, one of the largest truckload carriers, uses its custom app to meet customer-specific load requirements. The Chattanooga, Tenn.-based truckload fleet quickly creates and deploys new features and workflows using the platform’s dynamic App Editor.
Some of the fleet’s top customers have unique data capture requirements for pickup and delivery events. U.S. Xpress has custom workflows to accommodate their needs. The workflows dynamically render on the app based on the driver’s current location and load under dispatch.
Their custom app, built on the Eleos platform, automatically prompts drivers to complete arrival forms at the customer locations. The forms have a few questions for drivers to answer before tapping the “Submit” button, explains Buddy James, the engineering manager for U.S. Xpress’ Driver Experience team. This gives U.S. Xpress greater flexibility and adaptability to meet customer needs.
U.S. Xpress also created a library of site maps for customer locations. The PDF documents give drivers an aerial view of facilities with instructions for ingress and egress. In addition, when using the app, Spanish-speaking drivers can toggle a switch to change the language on the dashboard and everything U.S. Xpress controls in the app to their native tongue, helping prevent miscommunications and giving U.S. Xpress a hiring advantage over the competition.
The Eleos Advantage
Are your driver managers frequently calling or texting drivers to share customer-specific load details? With the Eleos platform, you can easily create, edit, and adapt custom workflows that automate communications for any customer or business need.
The platform’s App Editor lets users select from a list of pre-built components. Users can add “cards” to a driver’s dashboard, such as a daily “to-do” list, load information, relevant messaging channels, hours-of-service data, fuel prices, weather, news, etc. You customize the cards to your fleet’s exact specifications.
You could set up unique dashboards for different driver groups — over the road, dedicated, van, flatbed, refrigerated, etc. If a customer has an arrival form for drivers to complete, simply add it to a workflow in the App Editor. The system can automatically insert values such as date, time, load number, etc., to save drivers time with data entry.
With the Eleos custom app platform, you can easily configure and deploy workflows that elevate customer service and driver satisfaction. Contact us to discover how simple and affordable this process is.
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