McLeod Previews AI Capabilities Amid Freight Rate Challenges
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Even in the midst of a prolonged rate recession, trucking companies still have opportunities to grow their businesses by investing in their operations and offering better customer service than their competitors, the CEO of McLeod Software said.
“My recommendation is invest in your company. Invest in the future,” Tom McLeod said here at the trucking technology vendor’s 2024 user conference, held Sept. 22-24.
While offering analysis of current freight market conditions, McLeod discussed how new software features and artificial intelligence can help motor carriers and logistics providers become more efficient in a challenging business environment.
The company introduced updates for its LoadMaster and PowerBroker transportation management systems and its MPact suite of business intelligence tools, including its first proprietary AI product.
While freight rates typically fluctuate as capacity expands and contracts, trucking companies have endured a rate recession for two and a half years, largely due to a persistent oversupply of trucks, McLeod said.
At the same time, companies face increased operating expenses, including higher driver pay, equipment prices and insurance costs.
Meanwhile, with memories of the capacity crunches of 2018 and 2021 still fresh, many private carriers have grown their in-house fleets to limit reliance on for-hire carriers.
“It’s been tough on trucking companies,” McLeod said. “We’ve certainly seen companies under stress and strain.”
Conference goers meet with exhibitors at McLeod Software’s 2024 user conference in Charlotte, N.C. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
While the entire industry has felt the rate pressure to some extent, McLeod said a significant chunk of trucking companies — perhaps 35-40% — have managed the downturn pretty well.
“They’re not overly dependent on the spot market,” he said. “They’ve got their costs in line. They didn’t go crazy raising driver pay and their retention has been pretty good.”
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Even in a down market, some companies are still working to gain market share from competitors through improved business processes and superior service.
“That’s the kind of approach that wins in the marketplace,” McLeod said.
Looking to the future, McLeod envisions its customers expanding their use of data science and business intelligence and increasingly adopting AI in the back office, said Doug Schrier, McLeod’s vice president of growth and special projects.
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To enable that, McLeod is investing in its MPact suite, which “combines BI, data science and AI tools to maximize the value of the data within your TMS today,” Schrier said.
McLeod’s initial AI product, dubbed MPact.Respond_AI, will integrate with customers’ email and telematics systems to help accelerate and automate responses to common questions, such as requests for quotes and shipping status updates.
Schrier
“Our goal is simple,” Schrier said. “We want your people focused on complex issues.”
The AI tool automatically generates quick replies that users can accept and send with one click or choose to edit before sending. This reduces the amount of time back-office workers spend on routine communications, freeing them to shift their attention to more high-value tasks, Schrier said.
As McLeod invests its own research and development dollars into AI capabilities, the company also has expanded its software integrations and partnerships with third-party vendors offering AI-based products of their own, including dynamic freight pricing, dispatch and routing optimization and business process automation.
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“We’re taking a two-pronged approach,” McLeod said. “One is we’re doing a tremendous amount of internal development to get it tightly integrated into our products. We’re also integrating with a number of other suppliers and integration partners to implement their solutions so that you’ve got the widest choice and widest availability of solutions in AI.”
In addition, the company announced the pilot release of the next generation of LoadMaster, which will include updated workflows to boost productivity and will be accessible through a web-based user interface for the first time. The full launch is planned for early 2025.
