Redwood Logistics has entered into a strategic partnership with telematics and process automation provider Transflo, with the companies integrating their platforms to widen their customers’ ability to find new capacity, while increasing visibility.
“Transflo had an interest in building a marketplace solution for freight brokerages in the U.S., and Redwood has been building its own ecosystem of connectivity with carriers for a number of years,” said Michael Johnson, executive vice president of strategy at Redwood. “Redwood found it compelling to partner with Transflo since they have mobile adoption of over 1 million drivers in the U.S.”
Redwood can now access that new-found capacity and streamline its freight transactions by leveraging Transflo’s technology. Redwood’s Digital Transportation Management Platform will integrate with Transflo’s cloud-based transportation software technology, creating an “exponential network effect” that benefits customers of both companies.
Johnson explained that Redwood had achieved a scale that is critical to driving high utilization rates in the trucking market. As one of the leading brokerages in North America, Redwood moves hundreds of thousands of shipments every year. By finding optimal carriers through tapping into a more extensive carrier network via Transflo, Redwood can increase the overall effectiveness of its platform.
“Within our proprietary TMS, we have matching algorithms that will select carriers based on deadhead miles and optimal utilization,” Johnson said. “And now, through this partnership with Transflo, we can introduce hundreds of thousands of new carriers that might be better candidates for our freight network, and we can better fulfill their backhaul needs as well.”
While Transflo has created a 1.3 million-strong community of small and medium-size carriers, Redwood has built a TMS solution that meets the demands of modern-day brokerages. Through the synergies the companies’ partnership generates, truckload and LTL shippers will gain a competitive advantage with better capacity, pricing and shipment visibility.
Johnson said Redwood would initially roll out the go-live in beta mode, where customers will have access to new capacity of over 500,000 trucks that the company did not have visibility into previously. By introducing new carriers into customers’ supply chains, Redwood can remove much of the friction in the booking process by electronic tendering.
“We are very excited about partnering with a progressive company like Redwood Logistics to leverage their technology with our digital footprint in transportation to accelerate the delivery of services and drive significant efficiencies to our mutual customers,” said Frank Adelman, president and CEO of Transflo. “We are extremely comfortable at how well our visions align and look forward to multiple opportunities in the near future.”
Johnson added that the partnership between Redwood and Transflo would continue to evolve and expand based on feedback from customers who use their mobile platform.
“From just a competitive value perspective, there are lots of digital freight marketplaces, and Transflo represents the second marketplace that we’ve partnered with to introduce into our ecosystem of carrier connectivity,” he said. “From a positioning standpoint, Redwood is agnostic to the marketplace that we’re trying to connect into. Ultimately, we want to build our own ecosystem of carrier liquidity and then leverage the algorithms and pricing engines of our TMS to drive optimal utilization.”
