{"id":3636,"date":"2019-10-27T17:16:42","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T16:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/?p=3636"},"modified":"2019-10-27T17:16:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T16:16:42","slug":"3636","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2019\/10\/27\/3636\/","title":{"rendered":"Visibility, Communication Key to Shipper-Carrier Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visibility, Communication Key to Shipper-Carrier Relationships<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe have to be able to make snap decisions. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s e commerce or in our brick-and-mortar stores, information is key for us to make the right decision at the right time,\u201d says Bob Welsh, Walmart\u2019s senior director of transportation sourcing and procurement.<\/p>\n

The ability to give customers real-time visibility into the status of their freight has become table stakes for landing business with larger shippers.<\/p>\n

That was a key message from a panel discussion during the American Trucking Associations\u2019 Management Conference and Exhibition in San Diego earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is incredibly important, partly because of what we offer to our end customer,\u201d said Jess Baumhoff, who handles strategic carrier partnerships and performance for e-commerce furniture giant Wayfair.\u00a0\u201cAnd we\u2019re only able to meet those obligations if you can see where the freight\u2019s moving. I think corporately we now demand there is that visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Friday I do movie night and dinner with the two little humans that I own,\u201d she said, sharing a story of ordering pizza from a small mom-and-pop pizza joint, getting pings at every step along the way, such as \u201cBailey is now prepping your dough,\u2019 and, \u2018Susan has put it in the oven,\u2019 and, \u201cCome get it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a small organization providing me that type of visibility,\u201d she said. \u201cYet sometimes it feels like even though I\u2019m dealing with a billion-dollar organization, when something leaves my facility it goes into a black abyss, which makes it very hard to keep that promise to our customers\u201d for visibility into the status of their orders. \u201cI am completely reliant on that repeat customer; that\u2019s what allows us to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just e-commerce.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Yone Dewberry, chief supply chain officer for Land O\u2019 Lake, said the company may not have a lot of shipments direct to the customer like Wayfair does, but it has more than 100 business facilities with materials that come from hundreds of suppliers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, visibility has become table stakes,\u201d Dewberry said. \u201cWe have facilities with less than a day\u2019s worth of raw material inventory. Even though we\u2019re not a big e-commerce player, it has become extremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Walmart, explained Bob Welsh, senior director of transportation sourcing and procurement, \u201cWe have to be able to make snap decisions. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s e commerce or in our brick-and-mortar stores, information is key for us to make the right decision at the right time. If a truckload shipment of produce is coming in and we know it\u2019s going to be late, that triggers a whole lot of things. We\u2019ve taken a monumental amount of inventory out of our supply chain, so if there\u2019s anything that happens en route, we have to have information faster and better than we ever have before.\u201d<\/p>\n

On time deliveries<\/h4>\n

Another big issue is deliveries being on time \u2013 not only not being late, but also not being early. \u201cThe acronym front and center these days is OTIF,\u201d said panel moderator Darren Hawkins, CEO of YRC Worldwide. \u201cOn time and in full has set new precision delivery standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmart has gotten a lot of press on this, as Welsh admitted. In 2017, it announced it would fine suppliers for early or late deliveries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the right product at the right place at the right time for our consumers, and that doesn\u2019t matter whether that plays into our traditional store business, our Sam\u2019s business, our e-commerce business, what have you,\u201d Welsh explained. \u201cWe have to make sure the product is arriving when we want it. If it\u2019s too early, that\u2019s just as much of an issue; it could be backing up in the back room of a store or distribution center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a customer goes to a store or orders online, they can be assured that product will be there. Running a more precise supply chain across the board allowed us to reduce the overall cost of the supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s supply chain changes have been driven by e-commerce, Welsh said. \u201cIt\u2019s caused us to create what was probably a more bulky supply chain and turn it into something that\u2019s got to be very nimble on a day in and day out basis. It\u2019s not without challenges, obviously, but it\u2019s made us better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A panel discussion during the ATA Management Conference and Exhibition emphasized the importance of visibility into shipments for fleets and shippers. Photo: Deborah Lockridge<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Addressing detention time<\/h4>\n

For fleets, of course, there is the frustration that while they may be expected to deliver within a narrow window, there\u2019s a big problem with drivers being forced to sit and wait to be loaded or unloaded at many facilities. In fact, driver detention for the first time made the American Transportation Research Institute\u2019s Top Trucking Issues list<\/a> this year, debuting at No. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetention ties up our most valuable resources, a CDL qualified driver, plus the tractor and trailer are tied up,\u201d said YRC\u2019s Hawkins. \u201cBut if we bill the shipper [for detention], that becomes a negotiation, when all we want to do is free up those investments so they can be productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s Welsh agreed \u2013 after all, the company has its own private fleet so it\u2019s aware of the issues on that side of the coin as well. \u201cI think dwell is such a major issue. As a supply chain company we have to maximize the time our drivers have to actually be driving and take the friction out of the supply chain wherever we can. Looking at it from being a carrier and a shipper, to be a shipper of choice, you have to find ways to minimize paperwork, bureaucracy, to keep those drivers moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmart, he said, uses internal tools to aggregate information from its carriers to identify which suppliers are causing carrier issues, then works with those suppliers and its own distribution centers and third-party operations it runs. We have a team that does nothing but monitor where we are from a dwell time perspective. We often will bring carriers to onsite meetings so they can share what happens when we can\u2019t keep drivers moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wayfair\u2019s Baumhoff also said her company does a lot of internal reporting to help discover bottlenecks. \u201cOne thing I will say where I think carriers can help in this is letting us know and communicating if drivers are going to be early or late, so it\u2019s not a surprise when a carrier shows up. We can help before it escalates to detention or other issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways it comes back to the need for better visibility into the status of freight.<\/p>\n

Land O\u2019 Lake\u2019s Dewberry explained, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing better for us as an organization\u00a0to understand when someone\u2019s going to be late, when someone\u2019s going to be early, how are we holding you up, are you going to be in traffic. You look at truckers who are willing to share that information and those are the ones we want to do business with, because it\u2019s so key to keep the supply chain moving and take the friction out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dewberry said detention \u201cis not a carrier issue, it\u2019s not a shipper issue, it\u2019s an industry-wide issue, and it\u2019s one we have to work on together. And we don\u2019t always work together well. We have to do a much better job of sharing information and come together to work on this dwell problem. Work with your partners on this \u2014 it\u2019s a big deal for shippers, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s Welsh said when shippers are looking at carriers, beyond on-time service and being a safe transportation provider, \u201cI think what makes a great carrier is the ability to partner and communicate. Getting beyond a transactional relationship, the value we can bring to each other\u2019s networks. Having that open dialogues between ourselves and our carrier base, and it doesn\u2019t matter if you are a very large carrier or a mid to small carrier\u2026. Looking to how we make each other more efficient, make each other better, to me that\u2019s the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

by Deborah Lockridge<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.truckinginfo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/h3>\n

Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n

Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n

\"fleet<\/p>\n

Graph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n

The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n