Hwy Haul Launches AI Platform To Boost Profits, Cut Costs For Freight Brokers

The logistics industry has been plagued by narrow margins and a growing number of bankruptcies. But trucking tech company  Hwy Haul, on Monday, officially launched an AI-based platform, it says, boosts efficiencies and profits while reducing costs.

In development for several months, the San Jose, California-based company’s “Miles” agentic AI platform is designed to totally automate the automate supply chain workflows from booking to transportation, even checking in on the status of drivers.

The video below contains an example of an exchange between the Miles AI agent and a shipper.

It’s all created to trim what’s traditionally a process with many steps, involving a number of individuals.

“We realized, after interviewing several companies, that on an average, a single load goes through 20 to 25 touches. Each touch costs you human time, one minute, two minutes, 45 minutes, depending on the task, in all, four-and-a-half hours per load,” explained, in an interview. “Imagine if you're doing hundreds of loads every day and thousands for the big guys. So what we are saying is we have this suite of agents that can give back almost 80% of your time because these are fully autonomous agents that can walk the walk and talk the talk, just like how your human teammate would do.”

Indeed, Aman says Miles would free up at least 75 hours a day for a company shipping 100 loads per day, along with “more margins per load anywhere between 10%, 20% to 50%-- you can make using the same load with the same set of carriers, but you will make more profit on every load.”

Specifically, Miles is designed to provide the following results:

• Reduce hours of manual work per load by replacing 25+ human touches.
• Improve gross margins from 20% to 50% during agent deployment.
• Parallel negotiations with agents that conduct 20-30 or more carrier calls simultaneously.
• Real-time Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration validation with fraud detection.
• Five-to-10 times return-on-investment through margin expansion and headcount efficiency gains.

Florida-based produce company  Lipman Family Farms, has been on the Hwy Haul AI system for 18 months and started subscribing to Miles once it became available during its shakedown period.

The results have been dramatic since adding the tool, according to general manager Ryan Focke.

“Operationally, the platform reduced manual touches across booking, carrier coordination, and execution workflows by approximately 30–40%, saving an estimated hundreds of hours per week and materially improving speed-to-cover, including during after-hours and peak periods,” Focke said in an interview conducted by email.

From a financial standpoint Focke noted, what he described as “improvements in per load margins driven by better rate execution, fewer carrier fall-offs, and improved compliance” as well as a 20–30% reduction in non-compliant or high-risk carrier interactions, which lowers operational risk and protects downstream service levels.

In terms of headcount, the Hwy Haul platform has enabled the Lipman team to handle approximately 1.3–1.5 times more load volume per planner without adding incremental headcount, according to Focke.

The ability to control costs while boosting efficiencies comes as the shipping industry continues to struggle against a number of headwinds.

In 2023, nearly 88,000 trucking companies and 8,000 freight brokerages closed, according to CarrierOK, as quoted by  Freight Waves .

That trend carried into this past October when at least a half-dozen major carriers declared bankruptcy including, G1 Transport, LLC, GEC Transport Solutions LLC, Styx Logistics LLC, Propel Trucking Inc., R&R Transport and Logistics LLP and Montgomery Transport LLC, according to a report in  TheStreet .

When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020 the demand for shipping skyrocketed to accommodate orders from a quarantined population.

But as Hwy Haul’s Aman explains, that resulted in a rush to enter a business by those seeking an opportunity to cash in, that simply didn’t last.

“It was a shippers market. They will say, man, I have 1,000 carriers standing on my door willing to take my freight, and they will just quote a price, do it at this price, or you don't,” Aman explained. “Unfortunately, these guys had to take it because they had to keep the trucks moving but they have to pay the bills, so ultimately, low margin business, they have to shut down their operations, and they could not survive and thrive. That trend is continuing to happen, as we speak.”

While Miles wasn’t developed to directly benefit consumers, Aman says the potential is there by reducing manual labor per load and waste in the system, especially in the case of moving refrigerated loads that can suffer losses if they are delayed.

“These efficiencies will definitely lower the cost of moving goods for shippers and retailers, and over time, that flows downstream in the form of better availability, less spoilage and lower delivered costs for consumers,” said Aman. “So definitely, you would hope that they would pass those savings on to their customers, but that is depending on everyone's business model.”

Miles is available now through a subscription model with pricing that depends on what kinds of agents or teammates are selected—voice, email or text-based—along with how many minutes of service are used each month, according to Aman.

TTAC Creator Ed Garsten hosts " Tales from the Beat," a podcast about the automotive and media worlds. A veteran reporter and public relations operative, Garsten worked for CNN, The Associated Press, The Detroit News, Chrysler's PR department and Franco Public Relations. He is currently a senior contributor for Forbes.

The TTAC Creators Series tells stories and amplifies creators from all corners of the car world, including culture, dealerships, collections, modified builds and more.

Republished with permission.

[Image: Alinstock/Shutterstock.com]

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