Leveraging Logistics Blog

Often, companies start their quest in optimizing their logistics and supply chain management strategy by implementing a transportation management system (TMS) to improve their company’s cost and service structure for freight movements, while also bringing full transparency to all inbound and outbound product moves for its supply chain stakeholders.

As we have shared previously, less-than-truckload (LTL) can be one of the most difficult freight moves to get “right”.  Between NMFC class ratings, confusing tariff schedules, various service coverage maps and claims, there is plenty in play that can take a great deal of energy away from other priorities in a shipper’s logistics and supply chain strategy. With all the moving parts LTL brings, the priorities of cost and service often takes a back seat to just getting the product from your dock to the ultimate customer at a better cost than last year.

Managed transportation services continue to be the #1 topic we talk with shippers about as they look to optimize their supply chain performance against the challenging backdrop of rising freight rates, tight truck capacity, along with changing and more challenging customer requirements.

The freight broker market continues to evolve its value-add proposition for shippers.  Technology has put this transformation process into hyperdrive transitioning many freight brokers into logistics service providers (LSP’s).

Managed transportation services is the #1 topic we talk with shippers about as they look to better manage their supply chain performance.  Surprisingly, there is very little information about how much managed transportation costs, who the largest providers of the service are in the market and what are all the options a shipper has with the types of services they can obtain through a managed transportation solution.  

People connect with us every day on our managed transportation services to ask various questions about how the solution can help them.  While the questions vary, the one question on everyone's list is how much it costs to bring a managed TM solution to their organization.

Outsourcing non-core competencies has been a long-standing business strategy, but for many shippers the decision to outsource freight activities brings on a number of anxieties starting with the perception of losing of control of what the C-Suite believes should be a core internal competency and continues from there.  While some shippers may be anxious over the decision to outsource freight activities, the larger market is not and the practice is far more common than others think.  Today's logistics technology and business processes within the managed transportation space makes outsourcing seamless to the shipper and its customer base, while providing significant value in price, capacity, market knowledge and overall supply chain performance. 

Outsourcing logistics services puts the day-to-day execution in the hands of trusted logistics experts that frees up a shipper's resources and capital to focus on their competitive advantage and growth.  According to a recent Armstrong & Associates report, ninety percent of Fortune 500 companies use third-party logistics providers (3PL) for outsourced logistics and supply chain services, which is a strong endorsement to the value in outsourcing to a logistics service provider (LSP).