Articles
Transportation Management
Cutting LTL Costs
Saving money on less-than-truckload (LTL) procurement is a laudable goal—except when operational problems eclipse savings gains. Shippers who prioritize securing the lowest price from carriers may actually end up paying more because of costs embedded in carrier expenses—resulting in problems such as service degradation and supply chain disruption. Danny Slaton, executive vice president of supply […]
Read MoreTransloading to Maximize Cost Savings
Transloading offers a cost-effective way to bring ocean containers inland to distribution centers. By transferring cargo without sorting the contents for shipment to a single destination, transloading services can reduce total landed costs, and—when combined with value-added services such as palletizing and shrink-wrapping—reduce handling at the destination. Jeff McCorstin, senior vice president of air and […]
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How to Find Savings Through Landed Cost Analysis
As shippers adapt sourcing strategies to build redundancy, economy, and responsiveness into their supply chains, the complexity of drilling down total landed costs increases. Shippers often focus resources and attention on procurement, looking only at production and logistics spend. At a more granular level, a myriad of other factors can impact the total supply chain […]
Read MoreEnsuring Routing Guide Compliance
When vendors fail to comply with shippers’ routing guide instructions, all parties involved experience frustration. To improve compliance, shippers must provide clear and concise instructions about how they want their freight to move. Here is advice on ensuring routing guide compliance from Harold B. Friedman, senior vice president of global corporate development at freight payment […]
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Inbound Transportation Management and Control: Why It’s Important and How to Grab It
Do inbound shipments just seem to appear on your dock? Here’s how to seize control.
Read MoreKeeping Shipping Costs in Check
With fuel costs continually rising, and consumers demanding faster delivery—preferably for free—it is more important than ever for companies to control their shipping costs. John Haber, founder and CEO of consulting firm Spend Management Experts, offers these tips for managing freight costs. 1. Carefully analyze your current carrier base. Be sure to take into account […]
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Cross-Border Shipping: The Road Now Taken
Electronics manufacturer Siemens switches from air freight to over-the-road transport for shipments from Mexico to the United States and Canada and lights up savings.
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Jumping Through Hoops: The Importance of Vendor Compliance
Companies execute acrobatic leaps to ensure they satisfy customer shipping specifications. For small businesses, meeting supplier requirements calls for extra agility.
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Integration: The Dawning of a New Era
When baseball cap maker New Era’s business growth hit critical mass, it realigned its distribution operations, fusing Menlo Worldwide Logistics’ outsourced solutions with its global supply chain.
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Getting a Handle on Transportation Costs
Plumbing fixture manufacturer TOTO Global Group taps a third-party logistics provider to benchmark freight spend.
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Coordinated Transportation Improves Margins for Wholesalers
Q: What are wholesale distributors hoping to achieve with transportation initiatives? Mulqueen: Transportation initiatives are approved and funded based on their track record of delivering quick ROI through freight spend reduction. However, leading wholesalers understand that siloed transportation planning, while beneficial, has limitations. It does not take into account the impact of transportation on the […]
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Delivering a Slice Of Fresh Supply Chain Solutions
To help manage rapid expansion, Papa John’s orders an inbound/outbound logistics operations solution—with the works.
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Looking Beyond Rates: The Road to Smoother Carrier Contract Negotiations
Carrier-supplied data can provide valuable insight for writing contracts, but shippers who want to pave the way to strong business relationships must dig deeper.
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Colgate Logistics Delivers Smiles
Cutting logistics costs makes management happy. Sharing savings and collaborating to improve efficiency makes customers and suppliers happy. And when it all hits the bottom line, even Colgate’s investors start smiling.
Read More10 Ways to Gain Control Over Parcel Transportation Costs
The amount of effort shippers put into carrier management directly correlates to their success at controlling transportation costs. Incumbent carriers often know more about their client’s shipments than the shipper does. But shippers can tilt the actionable information scales in their favor to achieve lower parcel transportation costs. Here are 10 points shippers should consider […]
Read MoreBenchmarking Data Supports Pricing Decisions
Q: How can shippers and logistics service providers (LSPs) ensure that their business methods and metrics conform to best practices for the industry? Schrader: The best transportation companies identify and measure their key performance indicators and strive for continuous improvement. Most companies have done a good job using their transportation management system or enterprise resource […]
Read MoreEstablishing a Successful Core Carrier Program
It’s easy to assume that the “core” in core carrier is synonymous with “one of just a few.” But the success of a core carrier program has less to do with the number of carriers than it does with ensuring that each provider selected is equal to the task of meeting your company’s needs in […]
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PETCO’s Pet Project
For pet supply retailer PETCO, honoring its commitment to superior customer service meant finding a loyal logistics partner.
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Five Market Concerns Driving Shipper Cost Increases
It has never been more expensive or frustrating to be a shipper. Rates are up, capacity is down, and, while Wall Street analysts are bullish on the transportation sector, many businesses are still struggling. It’s a disparity that contributes to billions of dollars of shipper overspending each year. The following market concerns will have the […]
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Unleashing Logistics Excellence
Dogged pursuit of supply chain and warehousing efficiency led pet food manufacturer WellPet to partner with two 3PLs.
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