Business Management

When You Think Like an Owner-Operator Matt Sullivan| DAT Today’s freight market offers seemingly endless no-contract van, reefer, and flatbed loads to drivers. This has caused brokers to leverage load boards to ensure their freight stays in motion and finds its destination. So what’s the best way to connect to a far more selective pool of drivers in the face ...

Jay Delaney | TMW Systems Time is money. That’s why a brokerage needs to conduct every part of its operation quickly, efficiently and correctly. Laborious manual processes tie up your staff and eat into your profits. So do errors that people need to go back and correct essentially performing the same work twice. In addition, faulty communications can add hours ...

Ashley Caloia | Knichel Logistics “I have never seen a market like this in my entire career,” said Kristy Knichel, CEO of Knichel Logistics, summing up the freight market for 2018. Coming from someone with 25 years’ experience in the industry, this speaks volumes. With that in mind, expect these current market conditions to continue well into 2019 and potentially ...

Peggy Dorf | DAT Solutions On Aug. 30, 2017, less than 10 days after Hurricane Harvey made final landfall near Cameron, LA, trucks were moving freight out of southeast Texas with almost the same volume as before the storm. It was an incredible recovery and a testament to the hardworking people who helped restore commercial transportation in one of the ...

James T. Kenny, Ph.D., and Peppi M. Kenny, Ph.D.| WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY In today’s digital-centric environment, third-party logistics companies (3PLs) can’t ignore the importance of technology in their marketing efforts. Although social media is more than two decades old, most marketers will inform you that it really took off in 2006. This was the year Facebook and Twitter became available ...

Bob Farrell | GlobalTranz The logistics industry is evolving, bringing both risk and opportunity to corporate supply chains. Last year, natural disasters, government regulations and a healthy GDP created challenging capacity and rate conditions. The booming e-commerce space and demand for operational efficiency continues to amplify the need for increased automation and technology. Companies are putting more emphasis on logistics ...

DOUG CLARK | Douglas Clark Consultants The 3PL industry is seeing increased shipper requirements of financial security, and TIA is working to help shippers understand where unreasonable requirements only hurt their bottom line. Some shippers are requiring brokers and forwarders to have bonds or trusts up to $300,000. The benefits to the shipper for such a requirement are unclear: there ...

Jay Delaney | TMW SYSTEMS Just how much freight do third-party logistics companies (3PLs) and brokers move for tens of thousands of shippers every day? To answer that question, consider this: The $185.7 billion third-party logistics industry is 1.7 times the size of the beer market and four times larger than the candy market. In fact, one of every three ...

Andrew Gulovsen | TRANSTRATEGY PARTNERS Too often, pricing increases approved by shippers lag well behind transportation costs paid by brokers to the providers of capacity. Ultimately, broker profitability suffers. This is due to a number of factors: fear of customer attrition, lack of preparation in client communication and/or a poor carrier development and relationship program. Each of these factors alone ...

Gail Rutkowski | NATIONAL SHIPPERS STRATEGIC TRANSPORTATION COUNCIL We’ve heard it called all kinds of names; “The Perfect Storm,” the “New Normal,” “Predictable Surprises,” and the “Frankenstorm,” but what are we really dealing with now? Is this the capacity crunch to end all capacity crunches? Maybe, or maybe it is just a natural turn of events based on decisions and ...