Articles
Thought Leaders
Trading Partner Collaboration Yields Supply Chain Value
Q: How can value chain partners collaborate to create and share efficiencies? A: Retailers and manufacturers have made progress in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their individual supply chains. They have found savings and efficiencies, and implemented new processes. Now, trading partners must collaborate to find new avenues for improvement. The competitive retail landscape […]
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Intermodal Transportation’s Strategic Advantage
Q: Why are shippers making intermodal more integral to their logistics strategies? A: Shippers are using intermodal for a variety of reasons. In many rail corridors, intermodal provides a much better value proposition than highway. Rail transportation is often more energy efficient, so “going green” in intermodal means moving freight costs less. With the driver […]
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TMS or 3PL: Which Suits Your Business Best?
Q: How does implementing a transportation management system (TMS) compare to engaging a third-party logistics (3PL) service provider? A: A TMS provider’s core business is offering software solutions that solve customer transportation requirements. Companies that implement TMS solutions are looking for certain capabilities: maintaining relationships with carriers; improving supply chain management and effectiveness; streamlining operations; […]
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Natural Gas For Long-Haul Trucking: Working Together to Get It Right
Q: The trucking industry is poised to increase its use of natural gas for heavy-duty, long-haul freight. Is this a good idea? A: Natural gas sounds like a dream proposition. It’s cheap, domestic, and, when it burns, it emits a quarter of the carbon dioxide (CO2) of diesel fuel—and few other pollutants. So it potentially […]
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Why Mid-market Shippers Should Leverage TMS
Q: Mid-sized firms are often stretched for resources. How can they better manage transportation? A: Many mid-market shippers manage transportation "by avoidance." They know they could be doing it better, but don’t have the time or resources to focus on it. There’s always a fire somewhere, and if product is getting out the door and […]
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Shoring up Sourcing Strategies
Q: What factors are driving reshoring/near-sourcing consideration? A: A balance in labor rates between China and North America is warranting a second look at sourcing and manufacturing closer to demand. Mexico may be a first choice because of its labor cost differential, but the United States, with the promise of cheaper energy, presents another opportunity. […]
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Connect and Collaborate to Better Manage Freight Spend
Q: What are the current challenges of managing freight spend? A: In today’s slow-growth economic environment, organizations are pressured to reduce costs and manage inventory well. The result is demand for frequent deliveries, which amplifies the need to control shipment costs, according to research by the Aberdeen Group. In addition, organizations operate increasingly complex supply […]
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Truckers and Shippers Prepare to Meet Over-the-Road Challenges
Q: What challenges do domestic transportation service providers face today as a critical part of the value chain for manufacturers and retailers? A: One of the most competitive segments of the trucking market, truckload (TL) companies also represent the core business of most asset-based, but diversified, transportation companies. Their most common concern, according to a […]
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Transportation Management: A Layered Approach
Q: Why bother managing the inbound aspect of the supply chain? A: Historically, organizations built their transportation management strategies and tactics around the outbound aspect of their supply chain. The gravity of customer revenue pulls the attention in that direction. This inattention in the supplier direction often leaves the inbound supply chain exposed to margin-draining […]
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The Strategic Approach to Optimizing Inbound Shipments
Q: Knowing there are significant benefits to be captured using a transportation management system (TMS) and optimizer for inbound shipping, what are some of the typical roadblocks that shippers encounter when implementing an inbound optimization strategy? A: A very common obstacle to optimizing inbound shipping is arriving at the proper rate structure. The whole point […]
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Quantifying Transportation Performance With Technology Tools
Q: What strategic direction have shippers and carriers developed to increase partnership value? A: Shippers and carriers have become more collaborative in their approach to pricing. For example, in the less-than-truckload market, shippers have begun to use carriers’ rate base when running their bids. This creates value for shippers by using each carrier where it […]
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Managing Shipment Data to Meet Customs Requirements
Q: How are Customs agencies changing their approach to reviewing transactional data, and how will this affect shipments and traders? A: Collaborative Border Management (CBM) between Customs agencies will allow countries to exchange trader and shipment data in a live environment so non-compliance and perceived threats can be readily identified, measured, and monitored. Customs is […]
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Building an Effective Import Compliance Program
Q: How do shippers create an importing program? A: Meeting import control obligations need not be a painful experience. Proactive import compliance planning and governance will minimize the risks and negative consequences of non-compliance. First, understand current import laws and regulations. Familiarize yourself with government policies and procedures prior to actually importing your goods. You […]
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How Freight Classification Changes Impact Shippers
Q: What are some of the recent and proposed changes to the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) used to determine the class for rating less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments? A: The most notable change—effective Dec. 1, 2012—was in classifying computer equipment. Under the new classification, this product type moved to a density-based rating with the lowest possible […]
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Connecting Through an Online Network Gives Supply Chain Partners Strength in Numbers
Q: What is the Real Time Value Network, and what differentiates it from traditional technologies? A: The Real Time Value Network is a cloud-based "many-to-many" network platform that enables a virtually unlimited number of trading partners to plan, execute, monitor, optimize, and synchronize in real time all of the business processes and events that take […]
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Ports and Shippers Prepare for the Post-Panamax Age
Q: What are the key issues shaping the future of maritime trade? A: One of the greatest opportunities coming to the maritime sector is the widening of the Panama Canal, which will be completed in 2015. It will impact the face of global commerce, and affect trade patterns to the U.S. East Coast. Shippers bringing […]
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Trading Partners Work Together to Secure Maritime Cargo
Q: How are ocean carriers and shippers addressing security standards? A: When U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) introduced the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) initiative after the Sept. 11 attacks, it gave government, shippers, carriers, port authorities, and other transportation and logistics intermediaries a platform to build better security protocol into the supply […]
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SaaS-Based Transload Management Systems Enable Transport Efficiencies
Q: Why are rail shippers turning to transload facilities to ship products to receivers? A: Transload facilities bring significant economic advantage to shippers who are not directly served by railroads, but desire the cost-effectiveness of rail shipping. Transloading operations provide the capability to transfer products between transport modes—primarily truck to rail. Typically, products are transported […]
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Shared Technology Resources Hold the Key to Supply Chain Optimization
Q: How can value chain partners cooperate to create and share efficiencies? A: While it is understandable for each supply chain partner to maintain its own information technology, many companies rely on more than one IT system—along with spreadsheets and email—to manage supply chain operations. To further complicate matters, every transaction in the complex global […]
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