Enhancing Broker Profitability Through Back Office Efficiency

Epay is at the forefront of equipping brokers with advanced tools that enhance profitability per load and expand business opportunities. Amidst a lingering freight recession, possibly drawing to a close according to FreightWaves SONAR’s high-frequency data, brokers face sustained pressures on their margins. The industry’s downturn, coupled with technological advancements and a surge in well-funded, non-profit-driven brokerage entities, continues to compress gross margins.

To combat these challenges, brokers are finding that proactive management of their operating costs, especially in back-office processes, is essential. Innovations in this realm are critical as they fall directly under brokers’ control. Emphasizing cost visibility and management down to the per-invoice level can substantially protect profit margins.

Leading the charge, Epay Manager, powered by OTR Solutions, leverages automation to streamline carrier invoice processing, dispute management, carrier payments, and customer billing within a unified AR and AP platform. Since its inception in 2003, Epay Manager has revolutionized back-office operations, boasting over 200,000 carrier and factoring company accounts. The platform’s Audit Proof Invoicing feature minimizes the need for traditional email-based operations and manual rate verification processes.

A significant innovation by Epay is the integration of AI-driven natural language processing (NLP) automation. This feature enhances operational efficiency by analyzing carrier documents to identify over 145 attributes and apply 166 custom business rules, achieving an impressive 83.48% straight-through processing rate. This high level of automation not only streamlines operations but also provides crucial insights into the approval or denial of invoices, shifting focus from manual checks to resolving real issues.

Despite previous challenges in adopting back-office automation, Epay’s solutions demonstrate tangible benefits. By engaging carriers directly through the platform, Epay creates a unified source of truth within brokers’ transportation management systems (TMS), enhancing connectivity and significantly reducing error rates in invoicing.

Epay’s approach fosters robust industry connections and helps mitigate carrier fraud. The secure access for carriers and factors to the Epay portal ensures transparent and accurate transaction handling, further strengthening trust and efficiency within the supply chain.

As the industry evolves, brokers utilizing Epay Manager can anticipate not only an increase in processing capacity—handling three to five times more invoices per team member—but also a future-proof strategy that leverages cutting-edge technology to sustain profitability and scalability in their operations.