With so many moving parts, finding the right freight procurement resources can be a painstaking process for shippers today. In fact, given how rapidly the freight market can change, finding value, insights, and quality services can be hard to find. With that, here are three important questions shippers should ask when looking for freight procurement resources.
What experience do you have in our industry?
It’s important to know right off the bat if a prospective procurement resource has experience with similar shippers — or even competitors — to you. For example, if the bulk of your shipments are refrigerated, you are going to want to sync up with procurement resources that can give you the best access to climate-controlled trucking capacity. There is nothing worse than not being able to find the capacity you need– when needed most! So making sure your procurement resources, even backup resources, have the proven experience and success to meet your needs is a must!
What are the costs?
Hidden and opaque costs are a major issue when it comes to freight procurement/freight management as brokers routinely slap on high fees for themselves each time they facilitate a load. Therefore, shippers need to press for specifics around exactly what the cost structure looks like before they “sign on the dotted line” with a broker or any procurement resource.
What does your reporting look like?
With the amount of data available today, there is no reason why shippers should be receiving an invoice with one or two line items on it. Instead, shippers should expect — and deserve — not only detailed cost breakdowns, but also in-depth pick-up, progress, market pricing data, and more. This type of transparency is pivotal for shippers to make strong educated freight decisions, and accurate budgets, so if a procurement resource can not provide these insights, you need to look elsewhere?
If you can’t find acceptable answers when searching for freight procurement resources, you will need to consider technology solutions. For example, OTS software, has optimized freight procurement for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors. OTS users continue to increase tender acceptance rates, generate 12-20% truckload savings, increase OTD/reduce OTIF, and gain actionable carrier/rate data shared nowhere else on the planet.