for Marten, considering its drivers
have only 11 hours in a day in which
to haul and that they operate specialized tractor-trailers that can run
$200,000 per unit and are costly
assets if they’re not moving.
The pressure on both sides is
unprecedented. Yet the burden
seems to fall more on the shippers.
After all, it’s their freight—and their
business—at stake. Many shippers
have never needed to think about
being “sticky” with their carriers.
The time to start thinking about it,
experts said, is now. Herewith are
four steps to being a “good” shipper:
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1Trust, communicate, and participate. These are time-worn maxims. But they
are worth repeating, especially since all carrier and third-party logistics (3PL) executives interviewed for this story did so.
“Carriers don’t want to be treated like
vendors,” said Ben Cubitt, who sits in the
middle of the fray as senior vice president
of consulting and engineering for Frisco,
Texas-based 3PL Transplace. “They want
you to be fair. They want you to engage in
fact-based discussions. And they want to be
recognized for doing a good job for you.”
This recognition, Cubitt said, should
come in the form of consolidating more
business with a top-performing carrier,
especially if the carrier has invested in
building a broad product and service
portfolio that reduces a shipper’s costs
and improves convenience.
Shippers should also take pains to roll
out the freight within four to six weeks of
accepting a carrier’s bid, Cubitt added.
Too many shippers wait longer than that,
a habit that tests a carrier’s patience and
won’t win that shipper many friends.
In a world where shippers no longer dictate the terms of engagement, carriers will
insist that their customers take the time to
understand their business and proactively
communicate any changes in their shipping patterns that may affect capacity allocations, carrier executives said.
J. Edwin Conaway, senior vice president, sales for Con-way Freight, the less-than-truckload (LTL) arm of Con-way
Inc., said shippers must have a realistic
understanding of their carriers’ capabilities and must negotiate in good faith
based on that knowledge.
Conaway said for shippers, a little
knowledge could go a long way. He said
many of his customers’ traffic departments
have been “too focused on the freight
charge, while upper management did not
realize there was a freight company that
could improve their customer experience.
Many times, it is our salespeople that help
them uncover the unanticipated solution.”
Conaway said the solution often doesn’t
show up as a cost reduction on the shippers’ freight bill. Rather, it manifests itself
in the benefits of fixing internal defects
that lead to improved customer satisfaction metrics.
