3PL Perspectives
IN A FREIGHT MARKET WHERE PRICING, DEMAND AND CAPACITY CAN ALL CHANGE OVERNIGHT, IT PAYS FOR TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS ORGANIZATIONS TO BE NIMBLE.
For freight brokers and 3PLs, the option to automate certain parts of your operations allows gains, not just in efficiency, but the ability to focus on other core parts of the business.
Cincinnati-based Kingsgate Logistics has been pushed to find innovative ways to deliver speed and efficiency to their shipper customers, with unique specialties in e-commerce, retail and food supply chains.
Kingsgate partnered with DAT Freight & Analytics to fully automate the load-tendering process for their motor carrier network. Using the Book Now tools within the DAT Load Boards, Kingsgate uncovered new opportunities and set new land speed records.
“If we want to automate something, we don’t want to automate half of it–we want to automate all of it,” said Tom Curee, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at the Cincinnati-based 3PL.
Embracing innovation allows Kingsgate to not just keep up with the demands of a volatile freight market, but set the pace — especially when it comes to speed-driven e-commerce
“The amount of time it takes for us to cover a load has been trimmed to probably less than five minutes,” said Curee.
“Last week, a rep posted a shipment to the load board, and two minutes later it was already covered by using Book Now,” he continued. “That’s hard to even put a number to, because we wouldn’t have even started working on the load yet using the traditional methods.”
Better Relationships
It isn’t just about speed, though. The automated load-tendering has allowed Kingsgate to expand their carrier network while also making better use of it, all through a customized Book Now experience.
“We’re taking a lot of the hassle out of booking a load, so even if a carrier is not already onboarded with us, we’ve got that process entirely automated as well,” said Curee.
Offering an automated booking solution also makes them more attractive to carriers they haven’t worked with before.
“We have had more carriers reach out to onboard with us, plus carriers that we’ve maybe loaded once or twice and haven’t seen for months,” Curee explained. “That’s been an exciting piece for us—seeing some of those carriers who were already in our network get exposure to some of the shipments we’re trying to move.”
To learn more about automated load tendering, visit dat.com/BookNow
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