LTL/TRUCKLOAD SERVICES
Win by Collaboration and Integration
The current advantaged freight rates in LTL/Truckload modes that most companies have
secured during the down economy will not last. Tomorrow's leaders cannot rest and must
begin to embrace collaboration tools and technology to support process improvements around
the linkage of key partners both internally and externally and to embrace integration as the
key to process improvement and transformation.
—Bob Heaney, senior research analyst, Supply Chain Execution, Aberdeen Group
he area of largest transportation spend and
overall shipment volume is in the LTL/Truckload category based on over 180 companies in
Aberdeen’s October 2009 study on Integrated
Transportation. The transportation management sector is still
advancing in both continuous improvement and maturity
when it comes to technology adoption and solution capability.
Unfortunately, the speed at which costs are changing and
affecting daily operations has not slowed down. After years of
manual processes and documentation, companies are coming
to grips with the resources, time, and costs associated with trying to track and analyze the numerous truckloads of inbound
and outbound volume and process them effectively and with
agility. The daily/weekly changes in fuel costs and routing
options are affecting contracts and negotiations that once
seemed stable on a yearly basis. The global economy (with this
past year’s downturn) and the global supply chain have intersected; it is no longer acceptable to wait for fair weather to
combat costs and stay competitive. The Best-in-Class
responded by renegotiating with their carriers and partners to
deliver freight rate reductions across most industry segments.
The scale of these reductions (one large global chip manufacturer saved 36 percent) is unprecedented within the last
decade with some of the Best-in-Class delivering double-digit
T
reductions over the last year.
The current advantaged freight rates that most companies
have secured during the down economy will not last. New
strategies will continue to separate the Best-in-Class from the
rest of the pack. For example, Best-in-Class companies are
21 percent more likely than all others to leverage multi-stop
truckloads, and they are 23 percent more likely than all others to optimize their transport using backhauls. To effectively perform these advanced levels of dynamic
optimization requires the right technology tools be available
and that the daily practice of dynamic planning and routing
be advanced enough to address multi-constraint scheduling
and near real-time execution.
The Outlook
Today’s leaders must improve their ability to automate
their visibility tools and BI to effect dynamic optimization
of transportation activities across the end-to-end supply
network. They must also embrace collaboration tools and
technology to support process improvements with internal
and external partners. These strategies will only come
together if integrated well. Tomorrow’s leaders will understand that tight integration is the key to process improvement and transformation.
