Hoplite Logistics is a third-party logistics brokerage specializing in domestic freight with a strong niche in cross-border shipments between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. For COO and Co-Founder Brian Rakowski, analytics and operational efficiency have always been central to the company’s strategy.
With more than 15 years in transportation and a background shaped by data-driven organizations like Coyote Logistics, Brian and his team built Hoplite around continuous improvement and deep performance analysis.
By implementing GoodShip, Hoplite gained deeper lane-level visibility, stronger analytics for customer reporting, and new tools that help the brokerage make smarter pricing and network decisions.
Hoplite already operated with a strong analytical mindset, but like many brokerages, gaining consistent insight across the network still required significant effort.
Understanding performance at the lane level, analyzing service metrics, and preparing reports for customers often meant pulling information from multiple systems and manually piecing together insights.
At the same time, the brokerage wanted to become more strategic in how it responded to customer RFQs. Rather than submitting broad pricing proposals, the team wanted to better align bids with the actual strengths of its network.
To do that effectively, Hoplite needed a platform that could unify its data, surface insights faster, and support a more analytical approach to pricing and network development.
Hoplite partnered with GoodShip because the platform provided the depth of analytics and transportation expertise the brokerage was looking for.
Brian and his team already had long-standing industry relationships with members of the GoodShip leadership team and were confident in their understanding of both shipper and brokerage operations.
Beyond those relationships, GoodShip’s ability to analyze performance at the lane level stood out immediately. The platform allows Hoplite to evaluate pickup and delivery performance, examine network trends, and generate customer-facing performance reports that clearly communicate results.
GoodShip also introduced new capabilities that help the brokerage approach pricing and RFQ strategy more intelligently. With the upcoming RFQ pricing tools, Hoplite will be able to ingest customer RFQs, analyze them against its network strengths, and tailor proposals based on where the brokerage is most competitive.
Instead of relying on generalized pricing assumptions, the team can evaluate opportunities through the lens of its actual operational network.
Since implementing GoodShip, Hoplite has gained faster access to the insights needed to evaluate network performance and support customers.
The platform enables the team to analyze data at the lane level, monitor service metrics like on-time pickup and delivery, and generate reports that help customers understand how their freight is performing.
These capabilities have strengthened Hoplite’s ability to communicate transparently with customers while improving responsiveness across the business.
The brokerage is also preparing to use GoodShip’s RFQ pricing tools to take a more strategic approach to procurement opportunities. By analyzing customer RFQs against existing network strengths, the team can submit more targeted proposals, avoid weaker lanes, and identify areas where the brokerage can expand its network.
Hoplite has also begun exploring Laney, GoodShip’s AI transportation analyst. Brian first saw the tool during a webinar and quickly recognized its potential for brokerage operations. The team is particularly interested in using AI to ask deeper operational questions, explore network opportunities, and uncover insights that might not have been obvious through traditional analysis.
For Hoplite, the biggest advantage is speed. Instead of manually piecing together insights, Laney can analyze large datasets almost instantly and surface patterns or opportunities that would otherwise take much longer to uncover.
Brian believes this combination of analytics, automation, and industry expertise is what sets GoodShip apart. The team’s deep understanding of both shippers and brokers, combined with a strong data culture, made the partnership a natural fit.
For Hoplite Logistics, GoodShip has become an extension of its analytics-driven approach, helping the brokerage evaluate performance faster, price freight more strategically, and continuously improve how its network operates.
