Carrier411 CEO Darren Brewer on Freight Fraud Prevention

In this week’s episode of The FreightCaviar Podcast, we sit down with Darren Brewer, CEO and Founder of Carrier411, an online platform that offers carrier compliance, safety ratings, and fleet monitoring services. He reveals the marketing strategy behind the company’s success, his business philosophy, and exclusive insights into the company’s upcoming beta platform.

The Origins of Carrier411

An idea Darren once wrote down on a piece of paper, today is the industry standard for brokers. But before he launched Carrier411 in 2004, he ran his own factoring company. To stay on top of all the insurance changes, he wrote his own software and soon recognized that others in the industry, especially brokers, could benefit from it as well. This led to the organic creation of Carrier411. Today, the company is used by manufacturers across the country, from Walmart to Walgreens,  Coca-Cola to Sony.

A Commitment to Fair Pricing

The secret to the company’s success? Keeping the same prices since 2004. Darren shared his business philosophy and explained why he refuses to raise prices.

“My philosophy is probably very different from a lot of others in the industry- I'd rather have 10 customers that pay less than three customers that pay a lot more. I've said this before and I'll say it again: as long as I own Carrier 411, I'm never going to raise our base price. I don't want to, I don't need to, and we don't have to.”

The Importance of Loyalty

This is a true testament to what it means to be loyal to your customers.

“I could charge a lot more. Even our customers tell us, ‘You guys need to charge more’. Sure, I could charge you 400 bucks a month. That'd be good for us, but it's not good for the industry or for small brokers.”

The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

He also reveals another marketing strategy that is so simple yet always effective and helped the company achieve its success: word of mouth. 

“Part of it was because of the way we set things up- how we do what we do from day one, going back 20 years ago. I knew what I wanted to do. I used to work for a big Fortune 500 company in Silicon Valley. I thought the ultimate thing would be to have a very grassroots-type approach where, if you provide a great service for a great price, and people are happy about it, they use it. They love using it, and they use it every day, all day. And it helps their business. Well, you know what they do? They tell other people.”

Customer Acceptance Guidelines

If you think that becoming a customer at Carrier411 is easy, think again. Darren outlined the strict guidelines they follow for customer acceptance, and what to expect when you’re on a call looking to join.

“Just because somebody wants an account with us does not mean they're gonna get one unless we feel comfortable with them. Usually, when we talk to customers– people who create trials– we'll spend at least 45 minutes to an hour on the phone with them asking all sorts of questions. Sometimes we ask more questions than the CIA. The irony is we usually know the answers to the questions before we ask them. We're just giving the person the opportunity to tell us the truth. But another way to look at it is, we're giving them the opportunity to misrepresent something or hide something or lie to us.”

The Future of Carrier411

Darren also gave us an exclusive insight into Carrier411’s plans for releasing a new platform, that’s easy to use, more intuitive, includes new technology, and much more.

“Maybe within the next four months or so, we might release it in beta to select customers. It is jam-packed. It's all new technology, new features, new functions, new capabilities. It's super easy to use. It's way more enhanced and powerful, completely new UI. I've designed it to be even more user friendly, more self-service for customers. And then my end game, too, is to help reduce the overhead of my staff by up to 50%.”

With the upcoming release of a feature-packed, intuitive platform, Carrier411 is set to elevate industry standards once again, promising even more value for its loyal customers and the broader market.

Listen to the entire interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or watch it on our YouTube Channel.