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Check calls to drivers and partner carrier dispatchers sap productivity and company time. A lack of accurate location and status updates throughout the load creates a domino effect of missed opportunities. This inefficiency in communication and tracking leads to operational delays and missed business opportunities, affecting overall productivity and profitability.

With a complex distribution and logistics network across the U.S. and Mexico, Steelcase was experiencing issues with transportation disruptions with its logistics network. The company’s homegrown manual processes and reliance on carriers for status updates were leading to inefficiencies, late shipments, costly chargebacks and compromised customer service. Driven by the goal of accelerating response time to improve the customer experience, Steelcase sought a real-time freight visibility solution to increase the efficiency, speed and ease of communications between the multiple participants in its logistics network.

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.

To keep pace with business growth, Sunset Transportation implemented the Descartes MacroPoint real-time freight visibility and automated capacity matching solution in late 2019. By leveraging the Descartes MacroPoint Capacity Network to view available carrier density across North America, the 3PL has been able to better select carriers for upcoming loads from an expanded pool—in a fraction of the time compared to traditional manual methods. While the solution has helped Sunset to boost productivity and increase load volumes, low freight availability over the past two years has called attention to the impact of tight capacity on rates and margins. To further simplify capacity sourcing decision-making, Sunset wanted a more automated means of evaluating available capacity and market pricing intelligence by transportation lane.

In less than 10 years, BlueGrace has grown rapidly from a 24-person company to over 500 employees across 11 locations in the U.S. In August of 2016, the company decided to add expedited freight to its suite of offerings that already included less than truckload (LTL), truckload (TL) and transportation management services. In establishing the service level standards for the new division, BlueGrace outlined a number of key objectives, including the ability to meet demanding pick-up and delivery times; support specific appointments, as well as deliver weekends, nights and holidays; quote a guaranteed rate and capacity within 30 minutes; offer 2-day cross-country service—and provide not only 24/7 booking but also 24/7 tracking. Taking this even further, BlueGrace wanted to be able to provide its shipper customers with location updates every 2 hours for 1-day deliveries, and every 4 hours for 2+ day deliveries.

Spending two to three hours daily making as many as 60 check calls to 30 drivers was limiting the time Scout Logistics could spend working with customers and generating new business.

As one of the largest Idaho potato shippers, Sun-Glo’s modern facility has the capacity to process and ship more than 250 million pounds of potatoes each season to customers throughout the continental United States. The company’s manual load tracking process offered limited visibility into shipment status, compromising customer and carrier relationships, and risking sizeable penalties and detention fees. To elevate customer service through more efficient distribution, SunGlo wanted a real-time freight visibility solution that would enhance delivery performance, improve its ability to manage shipping disruptions, and reduce costly penalties.

To enhance the quality of its customer service, Mountain High Potato & Onion needed to enable an automated load tracking solution that would provide accurate information without relying on verbal communication.

Having to rely on drivers for notification of delays undermines productivity and compromises customers’ trust in services.

Freight Scouts, an Atlanta-based broker, faced significant challenges in managing truckload (TL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) freight originating from fulfillment centers managed by its parent company, PBD Worldwide. The company serves a diverse range of customers and load types, including construction supplies, refrigerated freight, consumer goods, and modular buildings. However, the existing transportation management system (TMS) was inefficient in handling TL transactions, leading to operational inefficiencies. Additionally, manual load tracking was error-prone, compromising customer service. Freight Scouts needed a brokerage-focused logistics solution that could manage the lifecycle of shipments from order creation through execution. The company also required an integrated real-time visibility solution to optimize delivery performance and strengthen customer and carrier relationships.

Nolan Transportation Group (NTG) faced the challenge of enhancing shipment visibility across its rapidly growing North American distribution network. With a carrier base consisting of over 60,000 independent transportation/trucking companies, NTG needed a solution that could provide real-time visibility into the location and status of every load. The company aimed to improve the efficiency of transportation operations and communication of in-transit freight status with customers. Additionally, NTG sought to be more proactive in managing potential supply chain disruptions with intelligent, actionable real-time visibility data. The increasing customer expectations for shipment visibility further emphasized the need for a robust and reliable tracking solution.

For brokers and carriers, the simple reality is that their customers expect real-time insights on every piece of freight, and they want the peace of mind that comes from knowing where their assets are during transit. DAT Keypoint, a leading transportation management system, faced the challenge of providing 100% visibility on all freight, including those run by third-party providers. With a long list of non-asset based customers, DAT needed a solution that could offer real-time tracking without relying on driver check calls or in-cab tracking hardware.

It has always been very difficult to get accurate and timely location updates on brokered loads. Traditional in-cab solutions are too costly to install and too difficult to deploy to all outside carriers.

With 100 trucks and a freight brokerage business that was doubling year over year, Circle Logistics was trying to keep pace with exponential growth. Customer demand for real-time status of freight was also increasing. Plus, without real-time visibility, employees were spending too much time on the phone checking load status. The company realized that, in order to meet rising customer expectations and its commitment of providing no fail service, personalized communication and innovative solutions to upgrade its shipment tracking and monitoring practices were critical.

Covenant Transport Solutions lacked the in-house capability to provide its customers with shipment location and ETA information in a uniformed, scalable manner. Brokers and carrier reps were bogged down with manual load location and status tasks, such as calling drivers while they were on the road, and were unable to prioritize revenue-generating activities to grow the business. Driven by an aggressive revenue target and rising customer expectations of real-time shipment status updates, Covenant sought an automated load tracking solution that would provide real-time freight visibility while eliminating inefficient and costly manual processes.

Handling delivery of temperature-controlled food and beverage products, time-sensitive shipments to job sites, and emergency supplies for FEMA, ENERGY depends on real-time freight visibility to optimize on-time delivery performance while keeping customers informed of the status and location of their shipments. After moving to a low-cost visibility solution, the 3PL faced carrier connection and compliance issues. With only one core carrier successfully using electronic logging device (ELD) connectivity and the mobile application not widely adopted by drivers, freight visibility was compromised; drivers also experienced cellular coverage limitations with the app, further reducing visibility. Plus, solution stability was an issue, creating blind spots and forcing ENERGY to manually track loads when the system crashed.

With a steady stream of contract customers, each with always evolving transportation demands, Sunline needed to provide location updates on every load, even on shipments run by third party drivers and brokered carriers.

Henkel faced challenges with visibility into the location of its in-transit shipments, which affected efficiency and customer satisfaction. The company needed to improve supply chain visibility to better monitor and benchmark logistics service providers (LSPs), track and troubleshoot late shipments, and minimize associated fees and penalties. Henkel also aimed to eliminate manual processes for tracking shipments, which placed a significant burden on customer service teams.

Clearwater Paper sought a supply chain visibility solution in 2016 to improve efficiencies, communication, and collaboration throughout its network. The company aimed to shift from a 'tender-a-load-and-forget-it' culture to one that provides higher customer service and proactive operations management. Prior to deploying FourKites, Clearwater Paper was bogged down by home-grown technology that lacked tracking tools and communication capabilities, leading to strained relationships with carriers.

Triple T Transport faced growing demand from its customers for real-time supply chain visibility. The logistics industry required them to bridge the gap for their shipper customers, providing superior service and cost-effective transport solutions. Many large shippers preferred to manage fewer carriers or brokers that brought significant value, rather than a large pool of smaller operations. This necessitated the need for a robust visibility solution to monitor carrier performance and streamline operations.

KeHE Distributors faced a complex and time-consuming process for distributing supply chain information across its 16 distribution centers and more than 30,000 retail locations. The workflow required multiple phone calls involving Sales, Operations, and Transportation teams before reaching the carrier. This manual process was inefficient and often resulted in delays, impacting customer satisfaction. KeHE needed a solution to streamline communication and improve the accuracy and timeliness of shipment information.

Raybul, a mid-size Belgian trucking firm, faced significant challenges in managing its logistics operations efficiently. The company was moving 1,000 loads a week throughout Western Europe, but the process of tracking these shipments was cumbersome and time-consuming. The old system required manual calls to each driver to get an overview of each shipment, which could take up to an hour for 100 shipments. Information was siloed, leading to wasted time and inefficiencies. Additionally, a significant portion of Raybul's business came from a major global food and beverage company, which required timely and accurate shipment tracking. The need for a more efficient and centralized system became evident to meet customer demands and improve operational efficiency.

One of Plan2Transport’s customers, a major international food and beverage company, required real-time tracking data for its over-the-road shipments to accurately track products across the supply chain and know exactly when they would arrive at their destination. The customer requested that Plan2Transport leverage FourKites, the world’s leading supply chain visibility platform. The group was under tight time constraints to get up and running with the platform, and was pleased with the carrier onboarding they were able to achieve right away. Early on, van der Heijden’s top potential concerns with FourKites pertained to data privacy and security. Transport firms are often skeptical when a company like FourKites says it can bring visibility, as they are hesitant to share their data. However, the customer insisted on it, and providing superior service is a key value for Plan2Transport.

To maintain its status as a global leader in healthcare and combat pandemic-induced disruption and shifting market demands, Cardinal Health launched a digital transformation strategy focused on building a 'cognitive supply chain.' This digital supply chain network aimed to facilitate the unencumbered flow of inventory, manage demand, track and protect goods in transit, and streamline communication with retailers, practitioners, and patients. Cardinal Health also committed to ambitious sustainability goals, including reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and addressing Scope 3 supply chain emissions.

Hütter Spedition faced significant challenges in manually tracking and sending temperature and location data to its customers. The process was time-consuming, requiring over five hours per week to manage 300 consignments. The data was sent to up to 20 different systems via email and phone calls, leading to inefficiencies and wasted time. The company needed a solution to streamline these processes and provide real-time visibility to its customers, especially for those in the pharmaceutical industry where temperature control is critical for patient safety and product integrity.

One of Unilever’s biggest challenges during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was establishing end-to-end visibility on carriers hauling cross-border shipments. Border crossings are traditionally a difficult challenge for supply chain and logistics professionals, and this was no exception for Unilever’s South Africa team. South Africa shares a border with six other sovereign nations, two of which are located entirely within South Africa itself. To make matters worse, the country was hit particularly hard by COVID, with a unique strain of the virus arising relatively early on. All of these obstacles escalated an already-difficult situation into a crippling challenge. In normal times, the average wait time at South Africa’s borders is between 4 to 6 hours. With the onset of COVID-19, these wait times skyrocketed to more than 10 hours a day due to congestion and new checks at the border. With delays at the borders increasing and demand for consumer packaged goods on the rise throughout the greater Sub-Saharan region, the Unilever team needed a solution, and they needed it fast.

Averitt Express, a leading provider of freight transportation and supply chain management, faced a scheduling challenge for a national chain of restaurants and retail stores. Averitt operates a dedicated fleet for retail deliveries from the customer’s distribution center near Nashville, TN, to over 600 retail locations across 45 states. The complexity of the transportation operation, with each store typically receiving multiple deliveries per week based on demand, created variability in delivery times and routes. This variability made it difficult for store managers to ensure team members were on-site and available to unload trucks without having underutilized staff waiting around. Accurate, predictive visibility into delivery times was critical for store managers to schedule store labor effectively.

Purolator International faced challenges in streamlining its operations, particularly in managing cross-border truckloads between the United States and Canada. The company needed to improve carrier compliance, reduce delays at border crossings, and enhance exception management. Additionally, they sought to improve communication with carriers and reduce unnecessary emails to focus on managing true exceptions.

PetSmart faced significant challenges with late and early deliveries, which disrupted store operations and increased labor costs across its 1,650 stores in the U.S. and Canada. With over 180,000 shipments annually, these disruptions led to unnecessary communication loops between store associates, carriers, and company headquarters. This situation strained customer-facing personnel and reduced overall productivity. PetSmart needed a solution to bring greater visibility to its deliveries in transit, identify the causes of disruptions, and minimize their impact on staff productivity.

Averitt Express, a leading provider of freight transportation and supply chain management, was tasked with ensuring precise, on-time delivery of an automotive component to a specific point in a car manufacturer's just-in-time assembly line. The challenge was to maintain high accuracy and visibility for multiple daily runs between the component manufacturer’s facility and the assembly line. Inaccurate or delayed tracking data could disrupt the supply chain and impact Averitt’s ability to meet customer commitments.