Grace Sharkey
3 min read
In today’s turbulent freight environment, where uncertainty lingers over everything from tariffs to tender volumes, freight brokers are facing increasing pressure to make smarter, faster decisions, often with less margin for error. At the heart of that challenge lies the critical but often inefficient process of RFP management.
In a recent conversation with FreightWaves, Transfix CEO and co-founder Jonathan Salama shed light on how the company’s newly enhanced RFP workflow tool aims to transform this complex process into a strategic advantage.
Salama acknowledged the anxiety gripping the freight market, driven not only by volatile demand and geopolitical shifts, but also by the ambiguity of how to prepare.
“There is a real worry out there of what’s going to happen,” he explained. “It’s much deeper than, ‘Will the market respond positively or negatively?’ The worry is more, ‘Will I make the right decision now for either outcome?”
In such a scenario, he emphasized, technology becomes not just useful, but essential to react faster than people can respond.
That belief is core to Transfix’s updated RFP workflow platform. Released recently, the tool has already evolved. It now offers collaboration alerts, more granular data visualization, and sophisticated lane grouping and rule-setting features. These updates help brokers not only price faster but also gain a deeper understanding of their true costs, both carrier and operational.
Much of the freight brokerage industry still runs on tribal knowledge — insights built over years of experience that are often lost when employees move on or roles shift. Salama emphasized how seasonal margin fluctuations can lead teams to forget the original pricing strategy behind a lane. Without a system to track expectations versus actual performance, it’s easy to misjudge success or overcorrect.
Transfix’s latest tools are designed to preserve this kind of strategic intelligence by embedding historical context directly into the workflow, helping brokers make more informed decisions and maintain continuity even as teams evolve.
While the knowledge is unique, brokers are understanding the importance of leveraging valuable technology partners, shifting away from building custom in-house tools and instead turning to ready-made solutions that deliver immediate value. The logic is simple: Time spent maintaining code could be better spent understanding true business costs and improving operational efficiency.
This shift has sparked a broader reevaluation of tech stacks across the industry. Instead of chasing the latest AI buzzwords, brokers are starting to prioritize functionality and ROI, according to Salama. Solutions that streamline core processes, like RFP management, are gaining traction.
