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Something is happening in freight right now, and it’s not subtle.
The companies pulling ahead aren’t necessarily the biggest ones. They’re not always the ones with the most trucks or the longest client lists. What separates the leaders from everyone else right now is simpler than that, and a lot more actionable.
They’re organized. They’re using better data. And they’re letting technology do the heavy lifting so their people can focus on what actually moves the needle.
The gap between that group and everyone else is widening, and it’s not slowing down.
Running a trucking operation today means managing a thousand moving parts simultaneously: drivers, loads, lanes, rates, fuel costs, fraud risk, and a market that can flip on you overnight. For a long time, the “solution” was just more people. More planners. More hours. More hustle.
The problem? That math doesn’t scale. And it’s not sustainable.
The carriers gaining ground right now have figured out how to get more out of their existing teams without burning them out. They’re consolidating the chaos by pulling load opportunities into a single dashboard instead of logging in and out of a dozen different portals. They’re automating the high-volume, repeatable decisions so their planners can focus on the lanes and customers that actually need human judgment.
Stevens Trucking, a 46-year-old family operation out of the Oklahoma City area with 400 tractors, is a good example of what this looks like in practice. Their team was shouldering a massive manual burden, only using 5 to 10 planners keeping trucks loaded and rolling the old-fashioned way. However, after partnering with Manifold, the results weren’t incremental. They broke mileage records every single month, even in a soft market. Their workflow changed completely.
As Cole Stevens put it: “If you’re not using Manifold, you’re going to be left behind.”
That’s not a marketing line. That’s an 2nd generation operator with 46 years of institutional knowledge telling you what he sees on the ground.
The carriers who are thriving right now share a few things in common:
If you’re a freight broker in today’s market, you know the squeeze. Spot rates climb, tender rejection rates spike past 13%, and you’re suddenly covering loads at carrier premiums while trying to honor fixed shipper agreements. The margin that used to be there evaporates fast.
The brokers who are protecting, and even growing their margins in this environment aren’t doing it by grinding harder. They’re doing it by seeing more.
The average broker is still logging into 10 to 20 different portals every single day, manually tracking emails, and hunting for loads worth quoting. Research suggests this can consume up to 60% of a rep’s day — time that could be spent actually winning business.
Tom O’Donnell, VP of Logistics at Leonard’s Express, described it simply: “Before Manifold, I was manually bidding in 10 or 15 different portals. Now it’s all in one. My time has been cut in half.” He also noted that his quoting opportunities increased “10 to 15 times” what they had been before.
That’s not a productivity tweak. That’s a different business.
The brokers pulling ahead are:
Whether you run trucks or move freight on behalf of shippers, the pattern is the same. The companies that are getting ahead aren’t chasing shiny tech. They’re not buying software because a vendor had a great demo. They’re investing in tools that solve specific, painful, daily problems, and they’re working with partners who actually understand transportation.
That’s a philosophy we hold at Manifold. Our product roadmap is built almost entirely around what our customers tell us they need. Not what looks impressive at a trade show. Small, consistent improvements like shaving latency, bumping accuracy, streamlining the workflow that slows a planner down for 10 minutes every morning, compound over time into a platform that people actually love to use.
And that’s what creates the gap.
On one side: operators who are moving faster, bidding smarter, and compounding small efficiency gains every single week.
On the other: operations still running on gut instinct, fragmented tools, and the hope that working harder will be enough.
The market doesn’t wait for anyone to catch up.
Whether you’re a carrier looking to keep more trucks loaded or a broker trying to protect margins in a volatile market, the path forward looks the same: get organized, get visibility, and let technology handle the repetitive work so your team can focus on what matters.
We promise every new customer they’ll see real, measurable value within 21 days of their kickoff call. Not someday. Not after a long implementation. Within 21 days.
If you’re ready to see what that looks like for your operation, we’d love to talk.
