Social Media Connect Fleets to Drivers, Customers

This story appears in the Sept. 1 print edition of Transport Topics.

Trucking and logistics companies willing to invest time and resources in social media can gain an edge on rivals who are slow to develop the online tools, which can help carriers connect with customers and elevate a fleet’s profile, carrier and technology executives said.

“We are at a similar inflection point today with ‘social’ technologies as we were with the Internet and Web 20 years ago, but many companies are treading slowly and cautiously toward the ‘social era,’ ” Adrian Gonzalez, founder of Logistics Viewpoints, said in a blog focused on logistics trends, technologies and services.

Reasons for that caution, executives said, are rooted in doubts about the business value of social media and a perception that their use on the job gives employees a new way to waste time at work. But some fleets are seeing productivity gains through various social networks.

“We get a lot of good feedback,” said Angie Buchanan, vice president of safety and human resources for Melton Truck Lines Inc., based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “We get to take the pulse of the community, if you like. We get immediate response, and you can feel the tone directly.”

Among the most popular social media pages are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Google+ and LinkedIn. While each has unique functionality, all of them generally offer business and personal users a way to connect to other users — either through public and private conversations or via the sharing of images, video or other information. In some cases, users must register with the site or send and/or accept an invitation to join from another user.

For Melton Truck Lines, this kind of access offers a way to speak directly to people who, by virtue of their decision to connect, are interested in what the company is doing.

“YouTube is where we post [our] president’s monthly video,” Buchanan noted. A video-sharing site, YouTube requires users to create an account to upload content, but anyone can view videos on the site.

That kind of direct connection to customers is valuable, but companies should exercise restraint with what they post, said Gary Snyder, business development manager for Carrier Logistics Inc., a developer of system technology and freight management systems for the trucking industry based in Tarrytown, New York.

“It’s OK to post relevant information, but posting the fact that you have a new carpet in the office doesn’t do what you want from business social media,” he said.

A review his company conducted of the Transport Topics Top 100 list of for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada for 2013 determined that 87% are using LinkedIn, and 73% have a presence on Facebook. Google+ is used by 67% of the Top 100, while 57% of the fleets have a YouTube channel.

But some companies cannot get past the word “social” and the perception it creates, Gonzalez said.

“ ‘We come to work to get things done, not to socialize,’ said an executive at one of my workshops, ‘so I don’t see any role for social media in supply chain management,’ ” Gonzalez said. The term social media, he said, “carries a lot of baggage.”

Executives also view social networking as more work for themselves, he said. “I barely have enough time in the day to get through my e-mails and voicemails; how do you expect me to use yet another system to keep track of discussions and status updates?” encapsulates the objections managers often voice, Gonzalez said.

“We are creatures of habit, and getting us to change is not easy, especially if we believe that our way of doing things is better than the new way being proposed,” he said. “Change management is another roadblock.”

In fact, about 30% of supply chain professionals surveyed by Logistics Viewpoints — Gonzalez’s company — reported that their companies block access to social media sites, he said.

But the tide has turned in the trucking industry in recent years, said John Taylor, president of JTMarCom, a marketing agency in Nashville, Tennessee, that specializes in social media and inbound marketing. In 2011, he heard a keynote speaker warn the audience at a trucking trade show to avoid social media to protect sensitive data. Today, he sees that fleets did not heed the warning.

“I was encouraged by a recent random sampling of fleet Facebook fan pages I took,” he said. “Many fleets are using Facebook to create active online communities of drivers, employees and their families. The tone of the companies’ posts and [the] sharing [of] helpful information are helping them communicate their corporate culture — to really bring it to life,” he said.

He pointed to the Facebook page of Schneider, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which boasts a fan base of 139,974 users.

“They do a good job engaging their fans, such as live chats with recruiters and hashtag discussions such as #Tuesday trucking tips and #Wednesday weather,” he said. Hashtags — commonly known as pound signs — are used at the beginning of terms or topics as a way to generate interest and spark discussion. Users can click on a hashtag to see other discussions in that topic.

But Taylor believes more opportunity exists for fleets.

“Many fleets could take their Facebook marketing to the next level by livening up their pages with contest widgets, surveys and the like,” he said. He pointed to Shortstack, a tool that for about $75 a month enables users to create contests that can help fleets develop relationships with users.

And some executives in that same Logistics Viewpoints survey agree; Gonzalez noted that 45% said that social networks will “make supply chain processes more efficient, responsive and cost-effective” over the next five years, while 30% said that social media will “transform supply chain processes [for the better] in ways we can’t imagine today.”

Companies making progress today include Con-way Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 2010, the freight carrier began offering available loads via Twitter, a social media site through which users upload posts limited to 140 characters in length. The messages are called “tweets,” and users are identified by “handles” that begin with the “at” symbol.

The “@Conway TweetLoad” handle enables carriers to view the latest available loads from Con-way Multimodal. Twitter followers of the company also can see additional information on the company’s link board. And Con-way has vetted all of the carriers that can access the loads. Load information is updated every 15 minutes, the company said.

“It’s been well-received,” said Greg Orr, vice president of operations for Con-way Multimodal. “We’re posting 50 to 75 loads a day and still seeing continued success. We have a real opportunity to gain as we get more followers. And we’re getting them.

"Some of the interest comes by word of mouth. Some look at TweetLoad and merge it with their book of business.”

One of the best features is the mobile access of Twitter, Orr said. “The availability of TweetLoad on handheld devices has been positive for the customer and carrier groups,” he said. “Drivers use it on a regular basis to find loads, then they can use the device to process the paperwork. Handheld devices have changed the whole spectrum of these services.”

“This is a great example of how innovative transportation companies can make it easier for carriers to do business with them, which will be a benefit to our industry overall,” Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations, said about the Con-way initiative.

In 2011, MercuryGate International Inc., of Cary, North Carolina, launched FreightFriend, a Web-based load-posting service for shippers, brokers and carriers through which users create private networks and can utilize technology that automatically identifies appropriate matches.  The system is designed to give companies real-time visibility to book trucks and find freight with companies they know, the company said.

Peter Yost, vice president of marketing at MercuryGate, said the program has been well-received in support of its other products.

“MercuryGate saw a need for an application that connects brokers and shippers with the carriers that they trust,” he said. “Social media sites are great at creating trust-based connections but hadn’t been applied specifically to the transportation industry.”

The program was developed in tandem with broker company Optimal Freight, which is based in Chicago.

“The great thing is that it is free to carriers and brokers,” said Noam Frankel, Optimal’s founder. “We have upward of 2,000 members, but building a social media site takes time. Now it’s expanding very rapidly and catching on.”

Regardless of the outlet, Carrier Logistics’ Snyder said, companies should plan methodically when developing a social media presence, starting with building a strategy. Included, he said, is developing an identity for the company’s brand. Beyond that, a company must identify its target community, determine what that audience needs from the company and build a plan.

“You’re often dealing with a community of eager learners,” Snyder said. “Business content must be informative, not promotional. You receive the marketing benefit by just putting out great content that people consume,” he said.

“A lot of businesses throw up a logo to create a presence but don’t actively pursue the technology,” Snyder said. “In some ways, this is worse than doing nothing at all. This is not a place for halfhearted adoption.”

And that gets back to ensuring that managers support any commitment to social networking initiatives, Gonzalez said.

“Just because you deploy a social networking tool and tell people to use it doesn’t mean that they will,” he said.