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Analysis/Need The transportation industry has embraced Internet-based exchanges. The key missing player is the transportation intermediary. Brokers are assumed to be fighting the tide, as exchanges could replace them. The TIE business enterprise allows brokers to ride the tide - creating an Exchange that bears the power of the Internet combined with the force of transportation professionals who have proven their value to both shippers and carriers. The Transportation Intermediaries Exchange will show the marketplace that brokers are indeed digital players. The simple truth is that either brokers will access the opportunity, or dotcoms will. This should NOT be the venue of dotcoms. It should belong to the people who know, who have spent years building up relationships, interaction and such. Need for Change Traditional brokers have not been willing to share knowledge. The New Economy requires new collaboration. Data security has been proven by the IT industry. It is no longer an issue. Brokers must now accept the same kind of principles of outsourcing and knowledge management that they sell to their customers. Trust in the security of the Internet has been earned. It should now be put to use. The TIExchange might very well be the piece that puts brokers on a par with shippers as carrier customers. A collaborative business arrangement among brokers could give the economics of operating scale, efficiency and buying power they need, without giving up the independence and value of existing carrier structures or the direct relations they have with customers today.
Transportation Intermediaries Exchange -
The Digital Broker is described as "one who invests in technology, understands the benefits of web connection and is moving his business operation to the Internet." He is not afflicted by a lack of Information Technology (IT) literacy that is holding back other brokers. Says BI editor Annette Petrick, "The Digital Broker is a market force to be reckoned with. He uses technology to wring every last ounce of cost out of a transaction, while leaving reasonable profit for himself and his carriers both. "He is as effective as a dotcom, with the added benefit of inter-personal relationships by phone and e-mail. It's not a machine talking to the clients; it's a person." The Digital Broker works fast, because the New Economy operates that way. She is using technology instead of the phone to find trucks. This one technological break-through alone allows him time to spend on special tending to clients. She converses electronically and has mastered the ability to create a relationship over bandwidth. The Digital Broker rules! Operations >> 
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The transportation intermediary publication, transportation/logistics businessINSIDER (