We’ve been hard at work on something big. And now, we’re ready to share more about it!

We recently released our new, in-house decision engine to our freight agents. Later this year, we’ll push out this incredible technology to the public. Let’s talk more about why this is such a big deal for all of us at Tallgrass Freight.

First, a bit of background. A decision engine is a digital platform that aggregates LTL rates from various partners who work in a particular service area. Once the list of partners is created in the platform, the freight agent can select the best possible provider based on factors like price, service times, brand or even guaranteed delivery dates. Think of it as Travelocity for LTL freight carriers. As a result, the entire logistics process becomes more efficient and streamlined, which is especially beneficial to freight agents.

One of the things that makes Tallgrass Freight stand out is our commitment to our freight agents. We want to help them be as successful as possible without feeling constrained by the unnecessary limitations they might find at other companies. Equipping them with a decision engine is an important part of that commitment.

“We want to make our agents’ lives easier, more efficient and help them better serve their customers by giving them the best option based on their client needs, every time,” says David Barnes, Tallgrass COO.

Until now, you’d typically only find proprietary decision engines used by huge logistics companies, thanks to the technology’s hefty price tag. One of the only options for smaller firms is to partner with another company that has a decision engine, similar to a relationship you’d form with a SaaS vendor. Yet while your company could benefit from the technology, you’d have no ownership in the platform.

That’s why we took a different approach. The Tallgrass Freight decision engine is built and owned by us, which not only gives us more control over the platform and how it’s used — we can also easily refine the technology to ensure we’re staying ahead of the industry curve.

“One of our early goals with Tallgrass was to transition from a freight broker to a technology company that brokers freight, and the launch of our new decision engine is a big step toward fulfilling that goal,” Barnes says.

Our choice to significantly invest in building our own decision engine isn’t one we took lightly. But as we continue to implement an aggressive growth strategy that’s catapulted us among the fastest growing companies in the U.S., we couldn’t imagine missing out on this sort of opportunity. After all, we continually urge our freight agents to seize their own destinies — and we’re doing the same.

“We’ve got a seat at the table now,” Barnes says. “We’re a force to be dealt with.”

Now that the Tallgrass decision engine has been released to our freight agents, we’re giving them an opportunity to explore and use the platform. Then, we’ll make it available to the public later this year. Be sure to stay tuned to the blog and we’ll keep you posted on this exciting development!