Leveraging Carrier and Shipper Feedback to Improve the Digital Freight Matching Experience

The Rationale for Digital Platforms

After more than a year of carefully observing marketplace behavior and soliciting input from shippers and carriers on its platform, digital freight technology company PostBidShip recently released new features for its award-winning digital freight matching platform.

This article examines the rationale for digital platforms offering a rating system, the benefits all digital freight matching participants derive from participating in a two-sided rating system, and uses PostBidShip’s rating system as an illustration.

Why Introduce Feedback and Scorecards?

Online marketplaces for goods, services, and experiences have been embraced throughout society because they are efficient, immediate, and provide access to a far greater set of options for parties on the supply and demand side. However, these positives have come with some challenges working with unknown individuals or businesses. What is the quality of the offering like? What is the reputation of the party? Will I regret buying from or selling to this party? All these challenges have driven the need to provide a greater level of trust to all parties.

Widespread Use of Feedback In eCommerce and Social Networks

With the widespread adoption of both eCommerce and social networks, the concept of giving feedback (rating an experience) has become a standard part of securing goods, services, and even experiences online.

Whether one is buying a product on an eCommerce site, renting a property using an online marketplace, or grabbing a lift using one of the ride-sharing platforms, immediate feedback can be given to the provider of the goods, services, or experiences. Likewise, providers can also give feedback to their customers.

Working Through Platforms While Building Trust and Safety

Modern online marketplaces need to build trust when buyers and sellers come together to do business, especially for the first time. Unlike many business-to-business technologies, marketplaces like PostBidShip connect buyers and sellers of a service or product (in this case, freight services). It is critical that users on both sides of the market have a good experience and are provided a convenient manner to share feedback on the experience.

As a “provider neutral” platform, PostBidShip neither offers freight services nor is controlled by a freight service provider. Accordingly, PostBidShip does not directly control the quality of the freight services or the behavior of the shippers on its platform. Mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure participants have little-to-no fear about doing business on PostBidShip. The goal of feedback and scorecard is to eliminate or minimize improper behavior, such as a carrier dropping loads with no consequences, or a shipper changing the nature of a load after tendering it.

The introduction of this rating and review approach aims to engender trust between shippers and carriers on PostBidShip.

People-Powered Scoring That Leverages the Social Nature of Marketplace Platforms

While algorithms have their place within any technology stack, first-hand user experiences provide definitive, immediate feedback. Although extensive technology is used throughout, at its core PostBidShip is a platform for connecting parties efficiently. It is people-powered. PostBidShip scorecard’s introduction is designed to be powered by users, not an algorithm. All scores are supplied by people transacting loads on PostBidShip.

People providing first-hand experiences help guide others in purchasing or bidding behavior. Documenting positive experiences provides proof to fellow users (shippers or carriers) as to the value being derived from the interactions and allows leverage of these positive relationships with other parties on the platform.

How it Works for Feedback on Carriers

PostBidShip offers shippers the ability to provide feedback and scorecard on carriers. For any load that is awarded to a carrier, the shipper can provide feedback to the carrier as to its experience. The feedback uses a five-star scale to provide feedback that may range from a high of “Excellent” to a low of “Poor”. In most cases, all will go according to plan and a 5-star review is in order. While optional, feedback is encouraged to help parties share experiences that will help other shippers.

Download Why Shippers Need a Digital Freight Matching Platform

However, there are times when constructive feedback is important to share with a shipper’s freight partner. Perhaps the carrier gave back the load or increased the rate post-award, had poor communications, did not meet its appointment commitments, or damaged freight. The shipper feedback and scorecard permit a shipper to provide feedback at any time after the load is awarded and for up to a month after the delivery was completed. Feedback can be a simple star rating, or it can also identify any issues that may have occurred and, if desired, offer comments as well.

Over time, this feedback is aggregated and quantified on a 5-start rating scale so that carriers can see if there are recurring opportunities to improve upon in working with their freight partners. Other shippers on PostBidShip can view the overall 5-star score of any carrier quoting its freight.

How it Works for Feedback on Shippers

PostBidShip offers carriers a similar ability to provide feedback and scorecard on shippers. For any load awarded to and accepted by a carrier, that carrier can provide feedback to the shipper on its experience. The feedback uses a five-star scale to provide feedback that may range from a high of “Excellent” to a low of “Poor”. In most cases, all will go according to plan and a 5-star review is in order. While optional, feedback is encouraged to help parties share experiences that will help other carriers.

However, there are times when constructive feedback is important to share with a business partner. Perhaps the detention at a stop was excessive, or the specifics of the load was not clearly or accurately communicated in advance, or there were payment processing delays post-load. The carrier feedback and scorecard permit a carrier to provide feedback at any time after the load is accepted and for up to two months after the load was completed. Feedback can be a simple star rating but can also identify any issues that may have occurred and, if desired, offer comments as well.

Over time, this feedback is aggregated so that shippers can see if there are recurring opportunities to improve upon in working with their freight partners. Other carriers on PostBidShip can view the overall 5-star score of any shipper for which it is quoting its freight.

Meaningful Feedback is Actionable

For feedback to be useful, it must be actionable and not just be comments on some page. PostBidShip’s rate-and-review functionality supports both shippers and carriers rating their experience with the other party, starting at tender, and extending to include delivery, post-delivery, and freight payment. At its most basic form, ratings provide feedback to both parties, where each party views its expectations being met and areas for service improvement. Such feedback is not isolated.

Written comments on carriers get shared across each shipper’s users and the five-star ratings get scored, compiled, and shared across all shippers on the platform. Similarly, feedback on shippers gets shared across each carrier’s users and the five-star ratings get scored, compiled, and shared across carriers on the platform. In both instances, positive and negative experiences are amplified.

Such ratings may play into whether a shipper invites a carrier to a load, retains them as a partner, and awards loads to them. Carriers may interpret ratings as shippers that are desirable, shippers that do or do not warrant most competitive pricing, and whether to continue working with a shipper. At the most serious end, feedback can serve to filter out and remove untrustworthy or poor carriers from the platform that consistently provide poor experiences. For shippers, those with inadequate practices or those that are less compelling to work with getting identified in the rating process over time. Left unaddressed, this could lead to them receiving less competitive future quotes on its loads or lead to a decline in the quality level of responsive bidders.

In the future, top-rated providers will be more prominently featured, and providers of poor services will be downgraded or eliminated altogether.

Improved Experiences by Avoiding Future Mistakes

In the end, shippers and carriers both want positive experiences and seek to avoid or at least reduce the likelihood of negative experiences. People value the opinions of others when assessing new options to meet these goals. Looking to others to affirm the making of a smart decision is (important and) well understood. Using the collective experiences of others helps avoid future mistakes and, in doing so, improves the probability of positive outcomes.

About PostBidShip

PostBidShip is a neutral digital freight platform that replaces outdated workflows with quick, cost-effective, and efficient matching of loads to transportation capacity in real-time, using near-time data analytics, market indices modeling and real-time digital collaboration, benefiting both parties through an optimal mix of cost, performance, convenience and asset utilization. For more information, visit www.postbidship.com.

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