The Data Challenge
As a shipper, you’re generating and capturing a ton of data around your transportation and freight, such as costs around loads, carrier OTD/OTP, lane history, and more. You may also subscribe to 3rd party data sources like DAT or Freightwaves. Some of this data is useful for RFPs, whether you’re doing those annually or more frequently. But that’s a lot of data to collect, store, and sift through if you’re just using it for (admittedly important!) seasonal contract negotiations. You also likely have a lot of other data that is underutilized or totally unused. Many (but certainly not all) shippers employ data analysts to process all of this data and produce actionable insights. Some TMS and ERP systems have some good analytic capabilities built-in. You may have a stand-alone analytics platform to aggregate data and help with this. Are you really using these solutions to their full capabilities, though? Are you looking at your data just in the bubble of what’s happening with your freight, or are you looking more broadly to see how you’re doing relative to the market? Without a person or a product dedicated to analyzing your data, you’re likely missing out on some valuable insights. How are you deciding which carriers to keep in your network, what rates need to change (and how much they need to change), and other critical transportation decisions? Are these data-based decisions, or are they based on history/experience/rules-of-thumb? As Mike talked about in a blog post last month a lot of shippers fail to segment their providers to and may unnecessarily be rewarding carrier who don’t truly qualify to be considering...
5 Tips on How to Strengthen Your Company’s Customer Service
Strengthening your company’s customer service is essential for building and maintaining a reliable customer base. Even if you believe your customer service skills are already strong, there's always an opportunity for enhancement. Here, we offer five tips to elevate your skills to the next level. These tips include: hiring/training the right people, empowering your employees, reflective listening, establishing customer service policies, and feedback/continuous improvement. Hiring and Training the Right People To start things on the right track, you should be hiring employees that have a positive outlook and are eager to learn. Studies show that employees who have a positive attitude are more likely to have long term success. Not only will that employee have personal success, but their attitude will motivate others in the workplace. Now that you have hired the right people, you need to set a comprehensive training program. This program should include product knowledge, how to communicate with customers, and conflict resolution. An employee needs a deep understanding of what your company is either selling or providing in order to communicate effectively. They also need to know how you would like them to communicate, ie should they be emailing or picking up the phone? An employee also needs to be trained on how to resolve certain issues that may arise in the workplace. Empowering Your Employees Let your customer service representatives have the opportunity to make decisions on their own. They should be able to resolve issues without any unnecessary escalation. This will lead to a faster response to the customer and then a quicker resolution. Also, make sure to keep motivating your customer service...
Navigating the Logistics Landscape: Why Reducing Variability is Key to Long Term Success
Removing variability from transportation management is critical in ensuring the overall efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and reliability of the logistics operations. By doing so, it can yield several benefits: Cost Efficiency: Constant changes can lead to unpredicted costs, which can negatively impact a company's bottom line. By reducing variability, a company can better predict and control its transportation spend. Improved Service: Variability can lead to delays or disruptions that affect customer service. Consistency in operations helps maintain service levels and customer satisfaction. Risk Management: A stable transportation process is less likely to encounter unforeseen issues or crises, thereby reducing the risk associated with the business. Performance Measurement and Improvement: It's easier to measure performance and implement improvements in a stable, less variable environment. By reducing variability, companies can more accurately assesstheir performance and identify areas for improvement. So how does a logistics organization reduce as much cost variability as possible? It really comes down to their overall approach when dealing with their carrier partners and how the procurement process is carried out. In times of extreme volatility, whether it’s in an oversold or undersold market, one's approach makes all the difference. Securing the lowest possible rate should be considered a short term strategy because low prices only benefit the shipper in the short term and may result in larger variability in the long run. Shippers need to be asking themselves several questions when potentially adding additional providers to their carrier network based solely on a lower rate structure. Does the provider have a proven track record in the markets they bid on? Can the provider seamlessly integrate with the TMS or are...
Shipper of Choice: Another Take
In today’s rate environment, many manufacturers and retailers believe they have solved their transportation problems because they’re getting high routing guide compliance and meeting their budgets. Is this the same false sense of security that accompanied the downturn in 2019 or do they have eliminated the problems in their network? “Shippers are misinformed or unsure of what it means to be a ‘shipper of choice.’ Ultimately, this can lead to inefficiencies, cost overruns and service erosion over time.” - Gartner The larger swings in price and performance over the past 5 years have led many shippers (Manufacturers, retailers, and distributors) to reshape their strategies in a number of ways. This has resulted in false positives when reviewing strategies for their effectiveness. The gap between spot market (what a carrier/trucker/broker can get in the open market) and contract rates (what they’ve agreed to in advance during a shipper’s bid process) is currently about 20%. In actual dollars, it’s $2.06 vs. an all in contract rate of $2.54 on a national basis. The ~$0.50 gap has been about the same for the past 12 months even as both spot and contract rates have been coming down. Providers that failed a shipper in 2021 but have performed well in 2023 are playing the market, they haven’t had an epiphany. “Logistics leaders must strategically align with carriers and implement the programs, segmentation strategies and digital investments required to become a shipper of choice.” - Gartner Comparing your historical data to market comps is the best place to start Routing guide compliance, Acceptance at contracted rates, On-time service levels, meeting your budgets are the ultimate...
Why Tracking Apps Benefit Drivers
Truck driving as an industry has changed a lot over the years. One of the most recent changes involves customer requirements when it comes to tracking shipments. Customers have always wanted to know where their freight is and liked to be notified of any delays when occurring. About 10 years ago, to track, you had to call up a driver or dispatcher and ask them where the truck was. Although most trucking companies were pretty good at giving accurate updates, some were not. Miscommunications between drivers and dispatchers were common. In other cases drivers would be unresponsive and this led to a lot of misinformation and supply chain disruptions. Thankfully today with our Sleek Fleet App it is pretty easy for just about any shipment to get accurate tracking data. This has led to fewer appointments being missed and has also made it easier for customers to get a heads-up when a shipment is going to be late for whatever reason. While certain carriers require their drivers to allow tracking, there are still a lot of drivers that I talk to that don’t understand why they should have to download an app for tracking. I hear truck drivers say things like “I’ve been around for 30 years and have never been late…why do I have to download an app?” or “It should be illegal for you to see where I am.” One thing that I think the industry has failed to do as a whole is to explain to drivers why it benefits them to get on board and allow tracking on their shipments. First off, when a driver uses...
Thank you, Drivers!
This is just a shout-out from me, and on behalf of Sleek, to all the drivers out there. It may not be driver appreciation week but you deserve a round of applause daily. Thank you for your efforts, your patience, your drive, literally and figuratively. It’s not easy out there. Sure, we get some flexible shippers that get you in/out and it’s a breeze, but from time to time, not everything goes according to plan. We want our shippers to load on time as they requested but sometimes they get delayed, and believe me, we do everything we can to move things along. I just had a driver the other week do every single thing requested; bid & book his own load, dispatch on the app, arrive pre-cooled ahead of schedule and he still had to wait because the product wasn’t staged. He was stuck sitting in his cab for several hours while it was 100 degrees outside and all the while, he was calm and cool…he’s actually my inspiration for writing this so thank you to Andrew at DRU Transport LLC (MC004259). We were both incredibly frustrated and I felt terrible, but our hands were tied, as were his, and all he wanted to do was get back home to his family. It will happen, and how we handle it is on all of us because at the end of the day, there’s only so much we can control. Andrew was calm and collected, and I just assured him detention. Drivers, you put in long hours ensuring the rest of us get what we need and want, while working...
Trucking & Cell Signal Infrastructure in the Rural U.S.
Mobile Communication is Critical for the US Supply Chain It may or may not be common knowledge, but parts of the United States’ countryside are in great need of better cell coverage & technology options. The reasons are vast, but there’s even more at stake than the quality of life and communications for rural residents. While that should already be enough to get on board with infrastructural updating, I’m going to offer another reason: Trucking. It’s easy to take trucking for granted, but supply chains impact everyone. We trust that we can find the products we seek at the retailers that sell them. The reality is that transportation logistics is a complicated, detailed world, and there’s no doubt that technology brings new efficiencies to that world every day. Technology aims to streamline logistical processes: scheduling & planning, load tendering, shipment tracking, facility/dock management, and many other aspects. Trucks move through some of the most disconnected regions of this country, and often enough, shipping and receiving facilities are found in these areas as well. The Impact of Unreliable Communication Trucks and manufacturers count on technology to keep everything connected and running smoothly. Information and speed are required to efficiently move products. The greater the demand for products, the greater the need for fast & accurate data. Data flow is compromised in “dead zones”. This often puts the burden on drivers, using devices with low-or-no signal, to report mechanical problems, work around delays, receive appointment & dock updates, and book their next loads. One driver, frustratingly having to fight against a spotty signal, can prevent entire shipments from reaching their destination in...
Sleek Technologies Named “Procurement Solution Of The Year” From SupplyTech Breakthrough For Second Year In A Row
Annual Awards Program Recognizes Sleek Technologies for Innovation in the Global Supply Chain Technology and Logistics Industry CHICAGO - June 22, 2023 – Sleek Technologies, a technology data company, and leader in AI-driven autonomous procurement, today announced that for the second year in a row, it has been selected as “Procurement Solution Of The Year” in the annual SupplyTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by SupplyTech Breakthrough, a leading independent market intelligence organization that evaluates and recognizes standout technology companies, products, and services in the supply chain technology and logistics industry around the globe. Advanced freight procurement data from Sleek Technologies helps shippers optimize their existing carrier network, as the AI-powered software instantly finds, vets, and transacts with any qualified truck across North America. The company provides both data visibility and automation, helping shippers understand truckload activity, optimize their entire carrier network and comprehend factors that may impact load cost. Sleek’s technology is able to match loads to compliant, asset-based capacity at the right time, location, and price. As a load becomes available, capacity is expanded. The platform implements over 80 configured shipper attributes, predictive AI algorithms, and a system of measures considering the likelihood of a driver’s interest in a particular load. Carriers who best match the criteria are the only ones granted access to bid on the load. This eliminates the middleman from the process and allows carriers to set market pricing. Sleek helps full truckload shippers across multiple verticals including Building Materials, Paper & Pulp, Plastics & Chemicals, Food & Beverage, Retail, and more. “A short-sighted approach to freight procurement will lead to temporary gains at the expense of long-term losses....