Freight Management & How It Works
How Fairgrounds Manages Your Freight
Specifically, LTL Transportation Management is simply the art of strategically using the right carrier, providing the right service, at the right price. With over 100 years combined logistics experience we assign strategic carrier solutions to improve DSO, Reduce Claims, and Increase Sales. Be a believer. Let us show you how we have done just that for others by asking us how.
Freight Management is more than just the process of controlling freight. It is the ability to utilize leading edge technology to look at past shipments, current trends, and future opportunities to put the right LTL, Volume, Flatbed, Truckload, Rail, or Specialty Services provider to increase efficiencies over your current transportation model. By doing this we achieve “best of class” service while reducing costs, not just price.
We use state of the art cloud based software through API tracing of carriers. We also use EDI for those carriers that do not have a robust enough API system to get all the vital data reported back. All updates are stored into our TMS system so you can view online. We use this data to run proper analytics as it relates to the overall transportation. By attacking each of these segments individually we are consistently improving the vital elements of transportation management that often go the wrong way unnoticed.
At Fairgrounds we benchmark and engineer individual customer management solutions for each of your customers based on their needs and expectations. Following the extensive domestic transportation review we Freight Bill Audit, and then direct the Parcel side of the business to come away with a complete Transportation and Freight Management solution.
Improve DSO with Freight Carriers
DSO or Days Sales Outstanding refers to the time it takes you to get paid. When we get products to your customer faster you get paid faster. This is the Bottom Line. As an example is if you have a freight spend of $1M worth of gross revenues. One day of transit can improve cash flow by $3831 a day, or $19,157 a week, or $83,014 a month. How? $1M / 261 (Working Days) = $3831.41. These are real and big numbers to give you an idea of what 1 transit days savings does for your cash flow. We often can improve transit by 2 days so add that up!
Reduce Freight Claims
We strategically find carriers for specific lanes that do not go through break bulk centers but go origin terminal to destination terminal and then out for delivery. All studies show that most of the damage to freight happens on the dock, not on the road. By increasing miles driven by assigning direct carriers to certain lanes we reduce claims. We continually monitor performance with KPI’s and note delivery exceptions to ensure the right carrier is on the right lane, for the right customer.
Increase Sales
Using similar formulas to the above we realize your product cannot sell if it is not in the fulfillment center or on the shelves of a retail store. You can increase the number of sales days by using carriers that can get product to market 2-3 days faster. For example, if you normally have 10 turns in a year of inventory. 365 (days) /10 (turns) = 36.5 days in a Sales Cycle. If you shave two days off each cycle you have a total of 20 extra days. That is almost a full cycle. $1M (Revenue a Year) / 365 = $2739 per day. Adding 20 days = $2739 x 20 = $54,794.52. $54,794.52/$1M = 5.4% increase in sales.
Transportation Cost
Want to drive down freight costs? Referring to transportation cost instead of price is essential. Our commitment is to give you the best price, with the right carrier, for each lane of service. It’s imperative you consider elements of quality of product arrival, carrier appearance, handling, transit time, and overall on time percentage. These are the determining factors when trying to determine the true transportation cost of a carrier. We put you in a better position to impress your customer. We help you find additional savings by reducing DSO, Increasing Sales, and Reducing Claims.
Quality of Product Arrival
We strive to deliver clean boxes. We work only with carriers that have few trans-loads or break bulk locations. This will ensure your boxes will be delivered as clean as when you shipped them. Freight hitting the dock is where 90% of the damages occur so our goal is to keep the freight off the dock and moving.
Carrier/Driver Appearance
Although you don’t really think about it, the cleanliness of the driver and his truck are direct representations of your product when it arrives. We use carriers that are uniformed and concerned about their cleanliness. If we find a driver made a bad impression we request that driver to not show up to that customer again. If they cannot accommodate then we select another carrier at the same competitive price for your move.
Handling
We have strategic carriers for the right lanes. With our combined experience we know what carriers service what lanes the fastest. We insure you have the fastest carrier option on every quote.
On Time Percent
Some carriers do not count the day of the pickup when quoting transit times, some do not count the weekend. We are specific when we quote the pickup day and delivery day. We have guaranteed freight options for the day requested, before noon on the day requested and before 10 am for most major lanes.
Delivery Solutions
We engineer strategic carrier delivery solutions. Our unique ability to align the proper carrier to each consignee based on the region of delivery will provide you with Time Defined Delivery Solutions to all US points. Our Specific Carrier Selection (SCS) process brings products to market faster to meet your customers delivery expectations. Don’t wait, click below to find a solution to your transportation needs.
How We Do It
Beginning in 2008 we spent time to find the right carrier solution for specific lanes. We continue to monitor and benchmark KPI’s to insure we put the right carrier in the right lane. This eliminates carriers who perform poorly in certain market sectors. By doing this, we will also check on every shipment everyday and closely monitor the delivery standard to insure shipments do not get delayed. Additionally, You will get notified of a delayed shipment. You also will get notified when there is a quote for transit times on your shipment. Subsequently, we advise you of the shipments timing. We always let you know what we have done to remedy the issues. This includes Hot Shot direct delivery options when necessary to get the shipment there when it is supposed to deliver.
Specific Carrier Selection
Over the years this process turned into an engineered solution and we named it SCS: Specific Carrier Selection. All we need is six months to a year’s worth of data and put it into our models. By doing this we rank and find lane improvements under the following categories:
- Transit Time
- On Time %
- Claims ratio
- Cost
Using these categories we deliver a cost minus appropriation report and carrier suggestion proposal. You simply look at the savings under the 4 categories and tell us what regions you would like to start in. After we have our solutions in place we continually monitor carriers and make new carriers suggestions based on the same performance criteria mentioned above. We know you’re working to build your business, so we make sure shipments are delivered in a time defined manner at the right price point.