Freight Guides

As a member of The Climate Pledge and a Certified B Corporation, Flock Freight balances profit and purpose by meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.

Flock Freight is looking back on the positive impact we’ve had on people and the planet, as well as outlining our plans for greater impact in the future.

Read our inaugural impact report to:

• See our 2021 emissions data, including spotlighted Flock Freight shippers’ emissions savings.
• Learn about our employee-led Impact teams, community involvement, and 2021 accomplishments.
• Hear directly from purpose-driven stakeholders about their experiences working with Flock Freight.
• View Flock Freight’s 2022 goals.

News reports covering major supply-chain disruptions have highlighted delays at ports and driver shortages, but have missed a key piece of the transportation equation: half the trucks clogging dockyards and highways are moving at less-than-maximized capacity.

Unused trailer space is evidence of broader inefficiencies—including freight size restrictions and unnecessary handling—that increase costs and deliver shipments late. Such inefficiencies exist in two traditional over-the-road (OTR) shipping modes: less than truckload (LTL) and truckload (TL).

This report reveals new data and actionable insights to help today’s shippers overcome their most pressing challenges.

Traditional shipping modes subject shippers to noncompetitive pricing, unpredictable transit timelines, surprise fees, and unsustainable truck transfers — leaving you unable to tailor services to your unique needs.

Flock Freight believes shippers should be in control of how their freight ships. That’s why we created our shared truckload solution, which allows you to ship freight the way you want to.

With our shared truckload service, FlockDirect, you’re able to choose pickup and delivery times that work with your schedule, receive sustainable, hubless transit, and get a transparent pricing experience.

The 2021 peak season poses several challenges to supply chains. Amid tight capacity and high demand, industry issues are at an all-time high, ranging from domestic delivery issues and congested ports to high volume shipping rates and more. 

As consumers return to pre-pandemic shopping norms, supply chain leaders will need to prepare for the mounting impact of holiday purchases and shipping needs.

Midsize freight shippers: Ever find yourself choosing between price, service quality and speed when shipping 10-28 linear feet of freight?

You’re not alone.

The good news is your partials can:

• Ship faster
• Incur less damage
• Cost less to ship

The solution? Shared truckload.

Rather than force you into a trade-off, shared truckload lets you have your cake and eat it too. Learn how your partials can get the priority they deserve.

Transportation within the United States emits 1.9 billion tons of carbon every year, and 23% of these emissions come from medium- and heavy-duty freight trucks. As global markets expand in the coming decades, freight-trucking emissions could double.

However, just 23% of transportation businesses have emission-reduction goals, and less than half of those companies have reduced CO2 emissions versus last year, according to our research.

Shippers don’t need to blow up their bottom lines or sacrifice their service performance standards to receive a high-quality TL experience. By recognizing and rejecting the faults of today’s TL RFP process, mid-market and small shippers can realize the benefits of Flock Freight’s Instant Prebate program and implement other best practices—including lessons from the pandemic—to reduce costs, increase service levels, and secure capacity.

Instant Prebate doesn’t just provide the shipping industry with a better way to move TL freight, it helps solve the macroeconomic problem of ever-increasing cost of goods.

According to research by Flock Freight, North American businesses spend an estimated $7 billion on truckload (TL) freight that ships with unused trailer space every year. That’s equivalent to five out of every 100 truckloads moving empty. Flock Freight has found a solution to the industry’s empty-truck problem that unlocks a financial arbitrage. We call it “Instant Prebate”.

In this guide, we’ll propose Flock Freight’s Instant Prebate program as an alternative to the standard TL RFP process. We’ll also give larger shippers the strategies they need to conduct smarter TL RFPs, while increasing service levels, securing capacity, and reducing costs.

This white paper outlines technologies and services that will have a big impact on shipping businesses in 2021 and beyond, including:

• Blockchain
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Internet of Things
• 3D printing
• Autonomous mobile robots
• Self-driving trucks
• Shared truckload shipping

Shippers that implement these new technologies and leverage shared truckload shipping will be in a better position to reduce freight costs and meet demand — no matter what next year holds.

Shared truckload service, which enables several shippers to share trailer space in one multi-stop full truckload, takes a familiar concept (sharing) and applies it to the trucking industry to help shippers and carriers create optimal shipping outcomes. In this guide, we’ll dig into: 

• The benefits of shared truckload shipping
• The drawbacks of LTL, TL and partials
• How to choose the best shipping mode for your needs
• 23+ reasons that other shipping modes just can’t compare to shared truckload

Confronted with coronavirus, supply chains have weakened, and globalization is on the hook. The pandemic has revealed that there’s little slack to help international supply chains bounce back if one link in the chain breaks down.

As a result, businesses are examining how much they rely on other nations.

The increasing demand for less than truckload shipping paired with the decline in full truckload tender rates is leaving many carriers with empty trucks. This guide goes into detail on how the private carriers can tap into the LTL market by moving FlockDirect loads.

With FlockDirect, drivers also have the chance to collect more money — without doing more work. Download the guide to learn more.

Shippers are starting to realize that a sustainable supply chain can positively impact their bottom lines.

This white paper explores the countless inefficiencies that affect sustainability within the less than truckload shipping industry, how to combat these inefficiencies, and what green solutions are available for shippers.