achieve freight savings. In addition to using parcel and
less-than-truckload (LTL) services, the retailer ships full
truckloads from the Rancho Cucamonga DC. When
workers go to load trucks, the weight and dimension
information is used to determine how to best fill the truck.
That’s good business practice, says Chuck Clowdis,
managing director for transportation advisory and con-
sulting services at IHS Global Insight, an industry
research and consulting firm. “You don’t want to leave
holes in trailers,” he says. “The idea is to fill the trailer.
The higher and tighter you can stack a trailer, the better.
Tighter stacking can also reduce product damage.”
“Dimensioning helps you to better understand your
freight,” adds David Ross, managing director and trans-
portation analyst for investment firm Stifel, Nicolaus &
Co. “Understanding your dimensions allows you to
redesign packaging to save money. You can also build
pallets in a different way to save space in the truck.”
A BETTER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Another company that’s using cubing data for a variety
of applications is Interline Brands, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based supplier of maintenance, repair, and operations
products. These products, which include parts for janitorial and plumbing needs, HVAC equipment, and
industrial tools, vary greatly in weight and size. Items are
shipped from 54 warehouses in North America. Four
large replenishment centers feed the warehouses, and six
CubiScans perform dimensioning within the system.
“We capture sizes at receiving and use the information
[in many different ways],” says Scott Lowther, Interline’s
vendor compliance manager. These include slotting
within the warehouses and determining other space
needs in both new and existing facilities.
The dimensional data are also used for shipping.
Although it relies on parcel and LTL service for shipments to customers, Interline has its own fleet of trucks
to handle much of the hauling between its facilities.
“We want to ship as little air as possible, so filling the
trucks to capacity is to our advantage and is most cost-effective,” says Lowther.
He adds that customers also want to know what their
freight charges will be at the time of order. Lowther says
that Interline will be using the data it captures on its
products to roll out a new program in the first quarter of
2013 that will provide accurate freight charges, enhanc-
ing the overall customer experience.
WORKING WITH CARRIERS
As valuable as weight and dimensional data may be for
internal shipping purposes, the story doesn’t end there.
Having accurate numbers can also prove helpful when
shippers go to deal with for-hire LTL and parcel carriers.
One example would be a case involving a dispute over
freight charges. “If there is a challenge on a shipping
charge, we have full documentation on that product’s
weight and dimensions,” says Entrikin of Monoprice.
Such challenges, he adds, used to be more common
when the company relied on manual measurements, but
rarely occur now because the information supplied to
carriers is much more accurate.
And then there’s the matter of building better relations
with carriers. Although parcel carriers tend to be more
exacting when it comes to a package’s weight and dimensions, LTL carriers often rely on data provided by the
shipper to determine freight charges. That’s largely a matter of expedience: Most truckers are focused on keeping
freight moving through the network and don’t want to
slow down processes to weigh and measure freight.
“Carriers don’t have the time to dimension every
load,” says Clowdis of IHS Global Insight. “But if they see
something that looks funky, they weigh and inspect it.”
That’s where dimensioning data comes in. “If you
have accurate info on your products, it just makes it eas-
ier for the carrier,” explains Michael Regan of TranzAct
Technologies.
Ross of Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. adds that making life
easier for the carrier can have a long-term payoff. “If the
shipper has better info on its products, it may be able to
get a better price and build a better relationship with the
carrier,” he says. ●
