Case Studies Visibility + AI-Based Capacity Matching Key to Customer Satisfaction

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	Visibility + AI-Based Capacity Matching Key to Customer Satisfaction

Visibility + AI-Based Capacity Matching Key to Customer Satisfaction

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Applicable Industries	Transportation
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases	Fleet Management Predictive Maintenance Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	Today’s volatile market has challenged 3PLs like Sunset to become more agile, simplify the load visibility workflow and find available capacity quickly. As Sunset continued to grow, its labor-intensive manual load tracking practices were unable to meet rising customer expectations for frequent status updates on the 30,000+ shipments moved by the organization per year. Similarly, with tightening capacity, load coverage became exceedingly difficult and time-intensive to manage with phone calls, emails, and load boards, compromising revenue opportunities and impeding growth. The company wanted to replace manual practices with technology to provide real-time freight visibility, strategic carrier sourcing, and automated capacity matching to boost productivity, unlock growth potential, and build stronger customer and carrier relationships. Read More
About Customer	As a third-party logistics (3PL) company, Sunset Transportation provides professional, reliable transportation solutions. Sunset serves customer needs with sophisticated systems and processes to support multimodal logistics and all sizes of freight spends while remaining committed to its roots with personalized, dependable service. The company is privately-owned and has been recognized with awards for its service. Sunset Transportation handles over 30,000 shipments annually and aims to elevate customer service, increase operational efficiency, and support growth through advanced technology solutions. Read More
Solution	In alignment with the five customer promises underpinning its success—savings, visibility through technology, data-driven decisions, continuous improvement, and relationships—Sunset implemented Descartes MacroPoint, a real-time freight visibility and automated capacity matching solution. Fully integrated with the company’s McLeod Transportation Management System (TMS), Descartes MacroPoint enables Sunset to view, analyze, predict, and communicate the status of any shipment in real-time, dramatically improving its ability to manage exceptions, minimize detention charges, and keep customers happy with frequent automated alerts and ETA notifications. The solution’s AI-driven capacity matching tool also automatically matches open customer loads with available forward-looking capacity in Sunset’s existing carrier network to help Sunset increase productivity, build stronger carrier relationships, and protect margins in competitive lanes. With visibility to capacity two to five days out, Sunset relies heavily on the Descartes solution for longer-term projects, bids, and loads with 48+ hours’ notice. In addition, Sunset expanded its carrier sourcing capabilities using the solution’s capacity co-op, an opt-in network to find capacity when trucks in a 3PLs existing carrier network are not available. Advanced visualization and algorithms unlock readily available capacity, enabling the company to better select carriers for upcoming loads from an expanded pool in a fraction of the time. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics

Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems

Applicable Industries

Transportation

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Fleet Management

Predictive Maintenance

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

Today’s volatile market has challenged 3PLs like Sunset to become more agile, simplify the load visibility workflow and find available capacity quickly. As Sunset continued to grow, its labor-intensive manual load tracking practices were unable to meet rising customer expectations for frequent status updates on the 30,000+ shipments moved by the organization per year. Similarly, with tightening capacity, load coverage became exceedingly difficult and time-intensive to manage with phone calls, emails, and load boards, compromising revenue opportunities and impeding growth. The company wanted to replace manual practices with technology to provide real-time freight visibility, strategic carrier sourcing, and automated capacity matching to boost productivity, unlock growth potential, and build stronger customer and carrier relationships.

About Customer

As a third-party logistics (3PL) company, Sunset Transportation provides professional, reliable transportation solutions. Sunset serves customer needs with sophisticated systems and processes to support multimodal logistics and all sizes of freight spends while remaining committed to its roots with personalized, dependable service. The company is privately-owned and has been recognized with awards for its service. Sunset Transportation handles over 30,000 shipments annually and aims to elevate customer service, increase operational efficiency, and support growth through advanced technology solutions.

Solution

In alignment with the five customer promises underpinning its success—savings, visibility through technology, data-driven decisions, continuous improvement, and relationships—Sunset implemented Descartes MacroPoint, a real-time freight visibility and automated capacity matching solution. Fully integrated with the company’s McLeod Transportation Management System (TMS), Descartes MacroPoint enables Sunset to view, analyze, predict, and communicate the status of any shipment in real-time, dramatically improving its ability to manage exceptions, minimize detention charges, and keep customers happy with frequent automated alerts and ETA notifications. The solution’s AI-driven capacity matching tool also automatically matches open customer loads with available forward-looking capacity in Sunset’s existing carrier network to help Sunset increase productivity, build stronger carrier relationships, and protect margins in competitive lanes. With visibility to capacity two to five days out, Sunset relies heavily on the Descartes solution for longer-term projects, bids, and loads with 48+ hours’ notice. In addition, Sunset expanded its carrier sourcing capabilities using the solution’s capacity co-op, an opt-in network to find capacity when trucks in a 3PLs existing carrier network are not available. Advanced visualization and algorithms unlock readily available capacity, enabling the company to better select carriers for upcoming loads from an expanded pool in a fraction of the time.

Impact #1	Elevated Customer Experience: In response to customer demands for more frequent status updates, Sunset now updates customers every 15 minutes instead of every four to eight hours by using Descartes MacroPoint to send automated departure, pre-arrival, and arrival notifications.
Impact #2	Increased Productivity: With the Descartes solution, Sunset covers more profitable loads faster. Leveraging AI-driven freight capacity matching and an expanded pool of carriers through the capacity co-op, the 3PL increased volumes from 200 to 670 loads per month.
Impact #3	Reduced Costs: Using location data and geofencing, Sunset has a system of record of arrivals and departures to help monitor wait times, minimize detention charges, and reduce customer penalties. Automated alerts minimize labor costs, reducing check calls by 60%.

Impact #1

Elevated Customer Experience: In response to customer demands for more frequent status updates, Sunset now updates customers every 15 minutes instead of every four to eight hours by using Descartes MacroPoint to send automated departure, pre-arrival, and arrival notifications.

Impact #2

Increased Productivity: With the Descartes solution, Sunset covers more profitable loads faster. Leveraging AI-driven freight capacity matching and an expanded pool of carriers through the capacity co-op, the 3PL increased volumes from 200 to 670 loads per month.

Impact #3

Reduced Costs: Using location data and geofencing, Sunset has a system of record of arrivals and departures to help monitor wait times, minimize detention charges, and reduce customer penalties. Automated alerts minimize labor costs, reducing check calls by 60%.

Benefit #1	Reduced time-consuming check calls by 60%.
Benefit #2	Increased volumes from 200 to 670 loads per month.
Benefit #3	Covered as many as 12 loads per day using the carrier co-op.

Benefit #1

Reduced time-consuming check calls by 60%.

Benefit #2

Increased volumes from 200 to 670 loads per month.

Benefit #3

Covered as many as 12 loads per day using the carrier co-op.

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Overview

Visibility + AI-Based Capacity Matching Key to Customer Satisfaction

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit