Transporting Relationships

From One-and-Done to Long-Term

The nation’s truck drivers are the backbone of our transportation industry and, in large part, the national economy.

NATCO’s mandate is to treat our carriers as we do our customers: with the respect they deserve. These are human beings, working long and often thankless hours, to deliver our essentials, building materials, fuel, and creature comforts across the country.

So, it’s no surprise to find a recent Transport Topics headline: “Freight Market Volatility Highlights Importance of Broker-Carrier Relationships.”

The article itself reflects the headline. Yes, it folds in emerging technology to streamline the process of moving freight from Point A to Point B. Yet, the theme returns to how we treat our carriers.

Part of the focus pulls in and references the spiking inflation numbers, which is just the latest Thing to happen to transportation and the economy. (Like a variant, it seems to be replacing spiking gas prices as the topic of the day. Before that, it was the war in Ukraine, and port bottlenecks, and supply chain disruption, and driver shortage, and ⏤ oh, yeah ⏤ the pandemic.)

The article leads with this:

“The freight market volatility of the past few years has created an even greater need for carriers and brokers to strengthen their business relationships, especially as uncertainty and supply chain disruptions persist.”

And there is this nugget:

“Brokerage is a relationship business. Good brokers treat their carrier partners like their shipper customers, industry experts said.”

We couldn’t agree more. Time and again, we’ve seen the positive power of simple, decent, respectful communication. It helps prevent confusion, and it helps assure that everyone is on the same page (and the right road) with the right permissions and paperwork.

And when there’s a glitch with something like a traffic jam or a weather delay or an off-loading wrecker that can’t make the schedule, we’re there to deliver the news so that our drivers can deliver the goods.