From empty runs to smart wins

For many logistics teams, spot shipments used to be the fire-fighting part of the job: a last-minute email chain, a phone marathon, a spreadsheet patch. That world is gone. Today, the spot market is a strategic lever for keeping assets moving, unlocking new revenue on low-yield lanes and starting relationships that often grow into contract business.

The challenge is that most spot processes are still fragmented. Carriers and LSPs juggle inboxes, WhatsApp threads and multiple platforms. That means slow response times, missed opportunities and higher operating costs.

Why spot loads are no longer a side quest

Transporeon’s Freight Exchange changes that. It gives you one place to find, win and run spot freight with speed and confidence, while feeding your team the data you need to make better decisions every day.

What is Freight Marketplace and Freight Exchange

Freight Marketplace is Transporeon’s suite for matching freight with capacity and managing the work around it. Freight Exchange is the freight exchange for LSP-to-carrier sourcing. Operations teams at LSPs list loads with clear details. Qualified carriers then search and respond using the filters that matter to planners: lane, timing, equipment and buyer. 

For carriers and LSPs, Freight Exchange helps to:

• Fill trucks on backhauls and imbalanced lanes
  
  

• Cut empty runs and reduce empty kilometres with smarter repositioning
  
  

• Act first with structured information in one place
  
  

• Quote with more confidence using market signals
  
  

• Turn urgent wins into regular business with the same buyers

Why spot is more than a backup plan

Spot used to be for firefighting when the plan went sideways. Today it is part of the plan. Four things moved it from the margins to the centre:

1. Demand is bumpy. Holidays, harvests, short production runs, weather, local roadworks. Plans change faster than fixed schedules can handle.
   
   

2. Costs keep moving. Fuel, tolls, driver availability, labour and compliance. Static tariffs struggle to keep up. Teams need a way to adjust in hours, not weeks.
   
   

3. Expectations are higher. Buyers want speed and reliability. If you answer fast with clean information and run the load well, you are already in a better position for the next conversation.
   
   

4. Digital transparency rewards speed. The team that sees the right load early, filters quickly and responds clearly will beat a slower and cheaper rival more often than you think.

How Freight Exchange changes the day-to-day

• Find the right load in minutes. Search by buyer, origin, destination, time window and equipment. Save the filters your planners use most. Less noise. More relevant results.
  
  
• Scale without more manual work. Post and update in bulk with prepared templates or push from your TMS or ERP. Keep planners focused on decisions, not data entry.
  
  
• Price with context. Get a view of current market levels for a lane and time window. Add your own constraints and guardrails. You keep control. The platform reduces guesswork.
  
  
• Work from one source of truth. Shipment details sit in a structured format. No lost attachments. No hunting through message threads to confirm a loading time.
  
  
• Grow accounts from a single urgent move. Spot wins are often the first step. When the same buyer comes back, you can move into lane requests and later into tenders inside the same marketplace.

Operational use cases: where Freight Exchange shines

• Backhaul recovery. Your truck unloads in a region with little contract volume. Freight Exchange helps you find a nearby load that fits your equipment and driver hours. Even a short reposition with a paid load beats empty running.
  
  

• Network balancing. You need more assets near a higher-yield corridor by midweek. Use Freight Exchange to stitch together one or two interim loads that move the truck in the right direction while it earns.
  
  

• Peak smoothing. A buyer ramps up for a product launch or seasonal push. Cover the spike without overcommitting long-term capacity. After the rush, the buyer knows you can deliver when it counts.
  
  

• Lane development. Use spot to test a corridor, learn the local constraints and prove service. When volumes repeat, step into a lane request. If stability grows, enter the next tender with a credible track record.

The KPIs managers actually track

You probably already report on these. Freight Exchange gives you cleaner input and a faster feedback loop.

• Empty kilometres and utilisation by week
  
  

• First response time to target loads
  
  

• Win rate by lane, buyer and time window
  
  

• Revenue per truck per day
  
  

• Number of repeat buyers and their share of revenue
  
  

When these are reviewed weekly, small process tweaks add up. Faster filtering. Tighter guardrails around price floors. Better handoff between sales and dispatch. It is not glamorous, but it moves the numbers.