Trusted & Transparent Online Freight Solutions

VeriTread
Written by fmgadmin

Meet VeriTread – an online freight solution platform with three generations of equipment transport expertise here to solve every problem that heavy haul transport has ever presented. This high-level consultant’s superior software has changed the way the world ships large quantities of iron, for good.
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Hauling gargantuan, 100 ton-chunks of yellow iron at a time is a massive job, no matter which way you look at it. And, as freight companies can all attest, transporting mining and construction equipment across vast distances has never been fun. Not only are the complexities of finding and pricing trustworthy service suppliers online prohibitive, but getting equipment to the right destination, on time, safely is hard. Or it was, until now.

Traditionally, finding a service provider didn’t necessarily mean that you have it all covered yet, either. Breaking machinery down into individual parts for transportation purposes and getting it all priced correctly is a veritable nightmare with only a handful of experts really understanding the process. The good news is that VeriTread has changed all that. The first innovative transport expert ever to take this unbearable load off consumers’ shoulders, Jeff Cox decided to combine three generations of transport industry knowledge with his extensive IT expertise. The result is VeriTread’s game-changing online transport platform used for shipping oversized equipment across America and abroad. Suffice it to say that the industry will never be the same again.

With most of its cargo originating in North America, many of the company’s shipments find their way to international destinations across Europe, Asia and everywhere in between. The company’s international acclaim isn’t surprising: VeriTread’s complex suite of decision-making tools takes the slog out of heavy equipment shipping and takes care of issues such as what can be legally hauled, price, weight, service providers and more, saving customers massive amounts of time, money, and frustration.

Building this next-generation platform included breaking down and capturing the details of over 60,000 individual machine dimensions. Traditionally, customers would have to manually research and capture this information on service provider and equipment manufacturers sites in order to calculate an accurate quote amount. “This piece of software allows clients to complete a task that used to take hours in mere minutes,” says Jeff Cox, owner, and founder. It also identifies how equipment needs to be broken down, the permits required, what type of trailer and whether loading assistance will be required. It can even advise clients as to whether the cargo will need to be escorted.

“There are a lot of small components to this process that creates a lot of frustration throughout the process. Everyone in the trade knows it well – from the biggest dealership to the one-off buyer. It is really unpleasant when you don’t have the VeriTread tools at your disposal. Our services eliminate the frustration,” says Jeff. To ease the process even further, big clients are assigned an account representative who is a phone call away, while online customers have access to knowledgeable and professionally trained help desk personnel.

With 10 years’ experience in both software and trucking, Jeff realized that he was in the ideal position to support the construction business with a unique solution to what is arguably the industry’s worst hassle. To add to this comprehensive product, VeriTread customers never have to wonder whether or not their product will reach its destination. “We put an untold amount of commitment and dedication into this platform and into our offer because our customers are what make this business work,” says Jeff. The company’s transport partners are held to the same high standards that the outfit sets for itself. VeriTread only teams up with the best quality heavy haul carriers and that reflects in its high levels of customer satisfaction. One could say that VeriTread takes the fright out freight.

The overall process is simple. To get equipment from point A to point B, all that clients have to do is visit veritread.com and share some basic information while the system guides the user through each stage. Once the load is listed on the marketplace, the software introduces clients to a vetted list of industry-specific trucking professionals who will bid on the shipment. Clients are able to read carrier profiles and reviews then select their preferred provider; VeriTread earns a small fee for the introduction service. From here, the two parties can communicate at high speed with the help of the VeriTread platform in order to finalize the arrangements. At the end of the process, clients get to leave comprehensive reviews of all parties to assist future customers in making the best choices.

“The rating function has really enabled us to establish a community of users who care. Whether someone is a one-time shipper or they’re an enterprise level distributor, there’s a great sense of support on the site and amongst users and our staff as well. What is generally a very fragmented 40 billion dollar industry becomes a helpful community of transport providers and shippers on the VeriTread platform,” says Wayne Keyes, Chief Marketing Officer. As a large part of the company’s business is rooted in moving equipment for large distributors, these heavyweights bring experienced transport providers that benefit every user large or small.

While traditional freight brokers are seeing increasingly more web activity in heavy haul transport, VeriTread is the only software provider who works in depth and detail. The growing trust in its online presence and capabilities is gaining great momentum and the team is seeing healthy quarterly growth. With its distribution clients seeing an average five percent increase in online sales every quarter, VeriTread’s statistics are climbing accordingly. “Online buyers are online shippers,” says Jeff.

This business may be based online, but it doesn’t lack in building warm relationships. “For us, trust and transparency is everything. Our people are always on the phone to clients making sure they have what they need for their next successful shipment,” says Wayne.

It was the family’s history in heavy-haul, international freight forwarding that gave Jeff the foundation he needed to create this forward-thinking product. At first, he developed software for the Federal Government right out of college. As his grandfather had founded a Komatsu distributor, of which Jeff’s father had been president of for 30 years, father and son decided to tackle a few of the frustrations in distribution with a simple website. Here, 21 dealers could upload their freight. The study involved a number of very simple processes and managed to bring freight costs down by around 13 percent in a mere two months – simply by offering operators visibility.

“When I realized the potential of this product, I quit my comfortable government position, took my life savings and bought a fleet of Peterbilt trucks in 2004,” says Jeff, who spent the next 10 years operating his own trucking fleet, third-party logistics, and international freight forwarding businesses. He then decided to put all his energy into the new VeriTread initiative. After a year’s development, the company was ready to roll and the team has never looked back. Today, it is the industry leader in solving myriad transport-related problems through on-point, easy-to-use technology. Jeff’s logistics technology patents have allowed the company unbelievable growth and close working relationships with OEM distributors like Caterpillar, Komatsu, and John Deere plus massive players IronPlanet, Ritchie Bros., United Rentals, and Rock & Dirt.

Its growth was organic, as VeriTread set out to solve industry problems, one problem at a time. Many of the company’s earlier customers became equity partners and today, its collaboration list is rather impressive, with big players like Sumitomo, the world largest trading company; United Rental, the world’s largest equipment rental company; Ritchie Bros., the world’s largest machinery auctioneers; and another major partner to be announced within the next month or so.

The decentralized team works around the clock to keep systems running smoothly. Jeff is based in Florida and so is the core sales team, while Wayne is in Tennessee and the rest of the sales force operates from Chicago. Its development team works primarily from Atlanta. “We focus on getting the best people for the job in the industry. We focus on skills rather than geographic locations,” says Jeff. And its avant-garde approach is being rewarded with phenomenal growth, as the team expects an expansion of around 250 percent between the end of 2018 and the last quarter of 2019.

Having consolidated a fragmented, complex and dangerous process on one trustworthy and transparent software platform, VeriTread has stepped up in a big way to improve the nature of the freight industry. “This is very much a relationship business and we are here to give people the support they need while improving on the old ways,” says Wayne. For the VeriTread team, this is all about helping people feel comfortable and confident in the shipping process from the moment a customer gets onto the website to the moment of delivery, saving customers between 25 and 30 percent on average. From big distributors to small operators, VeriTread develops its product to suit every individual client’s needs and the company is set to launch an even more advanced, updated version of its software in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Strong support and savings are not the only ways in which VeriTread likes to help out. From sponsoring and personally picking up garbage as part of the local Florida neighborhood clean-up initiative to supporting local ADD and scholarship programs VeriTread cares a great deal about its communities.

Moving forward, the company’s aim is on becoming the best and largest operator in the open deck freight market. “Even if people don’t ship with us, we still want to give them the support they need to help them find a solution that serves their purpose. It’s not just about money for us. Stewardship is very important and we want to be a trustworthy member of the construction community,” says Wayne. VeriTread also welcomes requests for advice – even if you don’t end up buying any of its services. For this reason, it encourages folks in the construction industry to get in touch and share their pain points and problems – VeriTread is here to help alleviate the stress of oversized construction freight and to build relationships as big and strong as the equipment it transports. There is no doubt that this industry heavy-weight will go from strength to strength and we will be following its growth with great interest.

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