2Don’t skimp on the data (but make sure it’s both accurate and up-to-date). It’s been said that “there is no bad
freight, just bad pricing.” And bad pricing
frequently stems from being forced to
work with incorrect and insufficient shipper data, according to carrier executives.
Schneider generates up to 35 percent of
its volumes through the competitive bidding process. However, the data contained
in many bids is often stale or inaccurate,
according to Van Alstine. As a result,
Schneider finds itself in the uncomfortable position of revising its initial bid
based on subsequent changes in the data
elements, he said.
“I believe carriers … are going to be far
more diligent in tethering their pricing to
the bid data and far more assertive on
recalibrating their pricing to the actual
freight experience,” he said.
Kenneth Burroughs, vice president of
revenue management for UPS Freight, the
LTL unit of UPS Inc., urges shippers to
provide as much information as possible
about their business and freight. “Our
advice is to give us all of the available data,
and let us sift through it and see if we can
build a proper network solution around
it,” he said.
Burroughs said that without robust
data streams, it becomes difficult for UPS
Freight to assign the proper amount of
truck cube to the freight, the paramount
objective of any successful shipper-LTL
carrier relationship.
“We really need good, accurate data that
we can model,” he said. “Unless we already
have a lot of experience with that cus-
tomer, we don’t know how the character-
istics of [its] freight will fit into our net-
work.”
The lack of visibility has in the past
made for unpleasant surprises when UPS
Freight received the goods, according to
Burroughs. “We were assured of one
thing, and we got something else,” he said.
Full knowledge of the customer’s
unique freight needs triggers a virtuous
cycle, according to Burroughs. It gives UPS
Freight insight into the customer’s business requirements, which then helps it
build workable shipping and logistics
solutions. Without that level of data detail,
the task would be much harder, he said.
3Know your accessorials. The treatment of accessorial charges
is a perpetual work in progress. In
the past, carriers lacked the visibility
into the various scenarios that trig-
gered accessorials to price them cor-
rectly. And shippers have pushed
back on many of the charges because
they were unsure they were actually
responsible for the exceptions that
triggered them.
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