Echo Global Logistics goes beyond AI to drive value

The trucking industry is increasingly leveraging sophisticated new technology solutions to tackle some of its most pressing challenges. 

Echo Global Logistics, a top provider of technology-enabled supply chain management services, rejects a one-size-fits-all approach to technology. It leverages a variety of intelligence capabilities to provide shippers and carriers with solutions that meet them where they are in their technology adoption journeys.

Echo provides larger shippers or carriers dealing with a high volume of shipments with access to a full suite of API and EDI integration capabilities that directly connect with their internal systems. Zach Jecklin, CIO at Echo Global Logistics, said Echo integrates with just about every TMS or enterprise resource planning system that’s out there, allowing businesses to integrate quoting, booking, tracking, document retrieval, invoicing and settlement capabilities directly to their core systems.

The industry continues to remain volatile, and accurate pricing prediction has become an integral way for businesses to budget and forecast. Echo leverages data science to confidently predict prices, which shippers and carriers can take advantage of across its platforms and technologies.

For small or midsize companies, Echo’s EchoShip platform gives them the ability to quote, book and track orders all from an industry leading front end for LTL and truckload shipping. Soon, this will include partial shipments as well. The pricing provided on EchoShip is driven by the advanced cost predicting algorithms that use this data science.

For carriers, the predicted pricing gives Echo the ability to provide access to their freight for carriers to bid and negotiate in an automated way directly through the portals.

Technology is only one side of the equation for how Echo handles over 16,000 shipments per day across its large network of shippers and carriers. Intelligent people are the other essential part, as Echo employees help solve transportation issues on behalf of clients and carriers. This leads to strong relationships between Echo and the shipper and carrier community.

“We still very much rely on people in those areas because we feel that’s the most value-added work that a person can do. All of the day-to-day mundane tasks — that’s where we put the RPA, AI, machine learning [and] the data science to work to automate those tasks so the people can do the things that really matter,” Jecklin said.

Click here to learn more about Echo Global Logistics.