Highway pitches shared standards as freight fraud shifts
Highway has lost one load out of a million under its $100,000 performance guarantee. Its CCO says the next step is getting insurers, factors and ELD vendors to vouch for their data The post Highway pitches shared standards as freight fraud shifts appeared first on FreightWaves.
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Cargo thieves have learned to work the space between a broker and a carrier. They impersonate carriers, intercept load data and redirect shipments. Michael Caney, chief commercial officer of Highway, says no single vendor can close those gaps, and that freight needs shared standards for the data brokers use to choose carriers.
Highway sells carrier identity and vetting tools to freight brokers, and Caney has described it as the Plaid for freight. He said Highway answers to the 1,500 brokers that pay it to manage risk, and that its customer base and integrations give it more data than anyone on who is moving North American truckload freight and how likely each load is to be stolen.
That data backs a performance guarantee. If a broker follows Highway’s recommendations and the load is stolen anyway, Highway pays $100,000. Caney said Highway has covered a million loads under the guarantee and lost one. Highway walked customers through the guarantee at its Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 user summit in Frisco, Texas.
The other topic was an expansion of what Highway calls its shared accountability model. window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {var gptSlot = googletag. defineSlot('/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1', [[300, 100], [320, 50], [728, 90], [468, 60]], 'div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0').
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display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); The model starts from who touches a load. For years, Caney said, he thought a load had two parties, the broker and the carrier. He now counts five. The other three are the insurance agent and insurer, the factoring company and the telematics provider.
“All of these parties provide data and introduce risk, yet none is accountable when a theft occurs,” Caney said in an interview with FreightWaves. “There’s no incentive alignment.” Gaps in insurance and factoring data In insurance, a carrier takes a truck off its scheduled auto policy, and the change never makes it from the insurer to the agent to Highway.
The broker learns the truck isn’t covered after an accident or cargo damage. “How many insurance agents have come forward and said, ‘I’m sorry. That’s on me. Let me help you, Mr. Freight Broker’?” Caney said. “Zero.” Many factoring companies, which buy carriers’ freight bills, care only whether the broker on the other end will pay.
“As long as the debtor is creditworthy and the factoring company can collect what it’s owed, it has little incentive to care if its customer steals freight. There’s no accountability,” he said. Providers that vouch for their data Highway’s answer is a certified network of providers that agree to stand behind their data.
The first phase, Highway Certified Insurance Agencies, launched June 1 with 10 founding agencies. They commit to accurate certificates of insurance, coverage detail down to the VIN and timely notice of policy changes, cancellations and nonrenewals. Highway plans to extend the certification to other service providers in brokered freight. window.
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The data reaching brokers had accuracy problems, he added, including bad policy dates and VIN data. Caney argued in an Oct. 7 FreightWaves commentary that ELD data needs an enforceable standard too, and that Highway sets integration requirements beyond FMCSA registration. “There are FMCSA-certified ELD providers that we won’t integrate with,” Caney said.
The certification pitch split the providers Highway approached. “We heard from people who said, ‘This is exactly what the industry needs. I’m tired of competing against those who cut corners,’'” he said. “But not everyone welcomed that level of accountability.” window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd.
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This briefing is based on reporting from Freightwaves. Use the original post for full primary-source context.
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