DC Velocity - September 2013

Of the U.S. shippers that have engaged in co-loading to date, most have used a third-party logistics service provider (3PL) to coordinate the shared hauls. Typically, the shippers pass along their shipment plans to the 3PL, which marries their loads up into a combined shipment. The

3PL then tenders the consolidated load to a carrier.

One U.S. logistics service provider
that’s heavily involved in this prac-
tice is Scranton, Pa.-based Kane Is
Able. Kane’s co-loading customers
include a number of mid-tier con-
sumer packaged goods companies,
including Sun-Maid and Topps. The 3PL
uses its proprietary TMS to identify com-
mon ship-to points and requested deliv-
ery dates, and then uses that information
to build consolidated shipments for deliv-
ery within the retailers’ delivery windows.
Another U.S. company that’s active in the
co-loading arena is Transplace, which bills
itself as a 3PL as well as a technology
provider. For the past year, Transplace has
been working with three consumer pack-
aged goods companies—Colgate-Palmolive,
Clorox, and Del Monte—on a co-loading
pilot. The three shippers are combining
loads into full truckload shipments on one
lane, using Transplace as a broker. Prior to
the pilot, the three companies were mak-
ing deliveries on different schedules.
Transplace modified its TMS to facilitate
the co-loading process, according to Cubitt.
Because Colgate-Palmolive and Del Monte
are Transplace customers, they have fully
integrated their processes and shipment
data into the Transplace TMS. Clorox sub-
mits its shipment requests to Transplace as
electronic data interchange (EDI) mes-
sages. The Transplace TMS then merges the
requests from all three shippers into a sin-
gle consolidated load if a combined move
meets the shippers’ requirements.
If Transplace is unable to build a com-
bined load that meets their needs, the com-
panies have backup plans in place. Del
Monte, for example, simply submits the
order through regular TMS channels. “The
rule has been to make the best truck com-
bination,” says Roger Sechler, Del Monte’s
director of transportation. “If all three
don’t fit on the truck, some will ride sepa-
rate. We’ll use our normal carrier if it’s not
possible to do a consolidated shipment.”
Sechler says his company has realized
freight savings from the program, which
allows it to take advantage of truckload
rates—as opposed to using the more cost-
ly less-than-truckload (LTL) option. He
adds that the retailers involved have been
pleased with the co-loading program
because they’ve seen a reduction in inven-
tory due to shorter leadtimes and more
frequent replenishments. In light of the
pilot’s success, Sechler says, Del Monte
and the other two shippers plan to expand
the pilot to additional lanes this summer.
But not every shipper doing co-loading