How Community Load Match Helps Shippers Secure Capacity

/in , , , /by

Making sure that you are getting the best rate for your freight in an environment that demands fast shipping and detailed communication with customers is not an easy task. Shippers are struggling to keep operational costs down while improving efficiencies throughout their supply chains. Kuebix’s Community Load Match solves these problems and more by providing Kuebix shippers with a new, valuable source of truckload capacity and meeting them where their needs are.

CONDUCT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) TO SOURCE NEGOTIATED RATES

Conducting a request for proposal (RFP) requires a lot of time and effort from shippers who are already struggling to manage their growing carrier networks manually. Kuebix uses Community Load Match to take on the responsibility of conducting an RFP for its shippers. This opportunity isn’t limited to full RFPs – they can be quarterly or even smaller if necessary. Kuebix handles assembling the RFP itself and communicates the shipper’s needs and goals to incumbent and prospective carriers. Shippers receive the results of the RFP and carrier recommendations to empower them to select the best provider possible for their freight. 

SECURE CAPACITY IN REGULARLY SHIPPED LANES OR PROJECTS

Kuebix shippers can leverage complimentary lane analysis services to secure capacity in their regularly shipped lanes. Kuebix leverages Community Load Match to facilitate the direct relationship between shippers and carriers with empty capacity to fill for increased efficiency. Consistently securing capacity in preferred lanes makes it easier for shippers to identify rate changes and areas with potential for improvement.

FIND THE BEST RATE FOR ONE-OFF SHIPMENTS ON THE SPOT MARKET

Shippers looking to find the best rate for a one-off shipment can use Community Load Match to quickly and easily receive spot rates from a vast network of carriers. Kuebix users can compare rates from their connected carriers against rates from Kuebix’s vast network of Community Carriers to ensure they are making the best informed decision. Receiving, booking and managing truckload shipments on the same system makes it easy for users to supplement existing capacity with reliable alternatives. Shippers that leverage Kuebix TMS and Community Load Match can retain control by choosing the best provider for every truckload shipment.

Regardless of company size, Kuebix is committed to having a viable solution for every shipper. With Community Load Match, Kuebix shippers can easily discover alternate sources of truckload capacity to drive down costs while improving their operational efficiencies!

Save Money on Truckload Shipping Kuebix

9 Ways to Save Money on Truckload Shipping

/in , , /by

Keeping freight costs down while maintaining efficient logistics operations is no small task. Consumers are relying heavily on e-commerce in the wake of Covid-19 and aren’t sacrificing their heightened expectations. The transportation industry is struggling to keep up with the surge in order volume with a limited number of truck drivers. Supply chains are one of the largest cost centers for businesses, so finding ways to save on truckload freight is a top priority.

Here are 9 ways to save money on truckload shipping:

 

1. Improve Internal Efficiency

One of the easiest ways to save money is by streamlining logistics operations. Leveraging a transportation management system will help save time rating, booking and tracking orders. Replacing traditional methods with a transportation management system will eliminate tedious and repetitive tasks, cutting labor costs and saving time that can be reallocated into other areas important for operations

2. Increase Lead Time

Increasing the lead time of full truckload shipments will help companies save on shipping costs. Working a few days in advance helps companies avoid higher rates for last-minute capacity and gives them a wider selection of carriers to choose from. Carriers will be able to better manage their time and plan routes more effectively, all of which contribute to meeting consumer expectations.

3. Eliminate Manual Entry and Paper Trails

Recording everything by hand and calling carriers for every truckload shipment is old-fashioned and inefficient. Additionally, these traditional processes hold a higher risk for mistakes made due to human error. If the incorrect order quantity or weight is recorded, paperwork is likely to get messed up and getting paid gets complicated.

Instead, companies who implement a transportation management system (TMS) can integrate it with an ERP system like Microsoft Dynamics or NetSuite. An integration between a TMS and an ERP allows information to travel automatically between the systems and ensure that BOLs are correct every time. With an ERP integration, logistics professionals can avoid wasting time bouncing back and forth between systems and re-keying information.

4. Treat Carriers Well 

It’s important for companies to treat carriers with the same level of respect as they would any other partner. Getting carriers in and out of the yard quickly by clarifying expectations (i.e. who is unloading the truck) and paying bills on time should be a priority.

5. Monitor Accessorials 

Accessorials are a tricky thing for most companies to manage. They are difficult to budget and often have spend that goes unnoticed until it’s too late. In order to keep overall truckload costs down, companies should constantly monitor and evaluate their accessorial charges. Find the root cause of carriers being told the wrong weight and address it. Communicating about any complications ahead of time will result in lower charges than if the carrier discovers them mid-trip.

6. Leverage Volume 

Truckload shippers are in a unique position to leverage volume. Instead of working with dozens of different carriers and only giving each one a small percentage of their volume, truckload shippers should identify preferred carriers and establish routine, reliable lanes with them. Preferred carriers may be able to offer truckload shippers a discounted rate based on the fact that it’s repeat business. This strategy is a win for everyone involved – truckload shippers maintain enough capacity to ship their routes more efficiently, resulting in better service to the end customer.

7. Leverage Kuebix Community Load Match 

Circumstances where regular or preferred carriers can’t fulfill a truckload that needs to be shipped will always exist. Maybe it’s a last-minute shipment or maybe it’s going to a new destination. Whatever the case, sometimes companies need to find truckload capacity fast. A situation like this works best when a full truckload spot market is available. Spot markets are places where companies can go to have different carriers bid on their freight. From there, they can select the best bid and book their freight.

Kuebix Community Load Match connects users with its extensive carrier community from Trimble’s network of 1.3 million commercial trucks, digital freight matching services and brokers to satisfy every truckload need. Users can input their shipping parameters and freight information and view carriers with available capacity in the lanes they requested. By comparing every option on a single platform, users can be sure they’re getting the best rate for their freight and maintain control over their logistics operations.

8. Stay Flexible

The supply chain industry requires teams to be ready for anything, including unforeseen circumstances like inclement weather or mechanical failure. Visibility down to the SKU level for orders helps companies react to situations they can’t plan for. Having all of the information regarding shipments in one place helps make answering questions like ‘Where’s my order?’ or ‘When is the truck arriving?’ easy.

Staying flexible goes beyond handling negative situations. Companies should aim to always be flexible when booking their truckload shipments. Orders with specific due dates are often flexible in terms of what time they get dropped off. Companies who work with all available options are able to discover the best rates for each and every shipment!

9. Leverage Analytics

Analytics on truckload shipments empower companies to make strategic decisions that will benefit their operations. Reports can reflect important information about carriers like their OTD percentage. Analytics down to the SKU level also help companies calculate their freight cost per item and determine if they are making enough of a profit. With a TMS, all of these different metrics and more are captured in one place for easy analysis.

 

Load Match Infographic Kuebix Truckload Freight Rates

*Infographic* Savings On Truckload Freight Rates

/in , , , /by

Truckload solution for shippers with regular shipping lanes

Kuebix provides complimentary truckload rate assessments leveraging the Load Match platform to help companies determine whether they are making the most strategic truckload shipping decisions. The assessment gives shippers insight into whether they can save money on recurring or spot freight by leveraging Kuebix’s vast network of truckload assets. Kuebix can also help shippers conduct formal RFPs to source negotiated rates with truckload carriers on the Kuebix platform.

 

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Kuebix Load Match Map Infographic Truckload Freight Rates
1

Gaston, SC to Manchester, NH ~17% savings

2

Gaston, SC to Woodford, VA ~12% savings

3

West Memphis, AR to Armonk, NY ~13% savings

4

Meta, MO to Bosler, WY ~13% savings

5

Tooele, UT to Danevang, TX ~4% savings

6

Salt Lake City, UT to Modesto, CA ~38% savings

7

Ripon, CA to Los Nietos, CA ~34% savings

8

San Bernardino, CA to Rancho Cordova, CA ~42% savings

 

 

For more information, email us at LoadMatch@Kuebix.com.

Kuebix Load Match Truckload

Kuebix Has Your Truckload Needs Covered

/in , , , , /by

Finding the right truck at the right price has always been a challenge…until now!

Kuebix, a Trimble Company has built the largest connected shipping platform in North America. Kuebix offers our shipping members unprecedented access to a vast ecosystem of carriers and intermediaries including asset carriers, private fleets, truckload brokers, freight forwarders, and digital freight matching services.

Stop spending countless hours navigating various systems, sending emails, making phone calls, and researching multiple websites to find a truck. Kuebix has a one-stop solution for ALL your truckload moves. Simply post your load to Kuebix Load Match to connect to our vast carrier network, or contact the Kuebix team to help with RFP and other truckload needs. The best part – with Kuebix you can manage all your truckload moves (spot and negotiated) on the same platform where you manage your LTL and parcel shipments. One platform. Every shipping need. Kuebix has you covered.

With Kuebix Load Match you can:

  • •     Manage spot volume
  • •     Build your bench of carriers
  • •     Improve pricing

Truckload solution for shippers with regular shipping lanes

Kuebix provides complimentary truckload rate assessments leveraging the Load Match platform to help companies determine whether they are making the most strategic truckload shipping decisions. The assessment gives shippers insight into whether they can save money on recurring or spot freight by leveraging Kuebix’s vast network of truckload assets. Kuebix can also help shippers conduct formal RFPs to source negotiated rates with truckload carriers on the Kuebix platform.

One time load coverage for occasional truckload shipments

Shippers can use Kuebix Load Match to quickly and easily receive spot bids from Kuebix’s vast carrier network to compare and book side-by-side with their negotiated rates. This service is free to use and helps shippers expand their booking options to always get the best rate and service type for their needs.

For more information, email us at LoadMatch@Kuebix.com.

 

USPS Is Testing Self-Driving Trucks With TuSimple Autonomous Technology Kuebix

USPS Is Testing Self-Driving Trucks With TuSimple Autonomous Technology

/in , , , /by

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has awarded autonomous-truck creator, TuSimple, a contract to conduct a 2-week pilot program of self-driving trucks starting on Tuesday, May 21, 2019. The self-driving truck startup reached “unicorn status” earlier this year with a $1 billion valuation.

This trial run will transport mail more than 1,000 miles each way between Phoenix and Dallas over the two week period and be used to gauge the affect self-driving trucks could have on delivery times and operational costs for the mail service. TuSimple will complete five round-trips, hauling USPS trailers from a distribution center in Phoenix to another in Dallas.

Each autonomous shipment will be accompanied by a safety engineer to ensure nothing goes wrong during the journey. TuSimple’s self-driving trucks are ranked as Level 4 autonomous, which means that they are capable of operating without the need for a human driver or monitor in certain conditions. Safety engineers will only be present during test runs and are not expected to be needed long term.

During the USPS pilot, the TuSimple trucks will autonomously navigate I-10, the southernmost cross-country interstate highway in the American Interstate Highway System. The I-10 is one of the busiest highways in the country and roughly 60% of all U.S. economic activity touches its pavement at some point.

TuSimple vehicles will also traverse the I-10 in the USPS pilot, indicating that road conditions are suitable for Level 4 autonomy. 60% of U.S. economic activity touches I-10 at some point, according to TuSimple’s press release announcing the contract. In addition to good operating conditions, the length of the route along with on OTD pressures makes it an ideal candidate for self-driving trucks to replace traditional, human-operated ones where drivers work in teams to relay shipments, often working overnights. These factors make it the ideal testing grounds for a long-haul pilot program.

“It is exciting to think that before many people will ride in a robo-taxi, their mail and packages may be carried in a self-driving truck,” said Xiaodi Hou, the founder, president and CTO of TuSimple.

TuSimple’s announcement comes after stalling news about autonomous trucks throughout the industry. Self-driving vehicle creators must battle challenges from regulations to different weather conditions nationwide before they can hope to begin selling to the public or government. TuSimple’s new contract with USPS to conduct a two-week pilot is seen as the next step in the process of making autonomous delivery a reality in the United States.

Strategic Partnerships Expand Opportunities in Cloud-Based Transportation Communities

/in , , , , /by

Cloud-based transportation communities are digital networks where companies connect to find opportunities for efficiency and cost savings. These networks are comprised of shippers, carriers, suppliers, brokers, freight forwarders and every other type of company involved in the shipping of freight. On these digital networks, members connect to leverage efficiencies such as finding additional truckload capacity and filling empty fleet miles.

A new eBook, Putting Community in TMS: Enabling the Network Effect in Transportation Management by industry analyst and President of Adelante, SCM, Adrian Gonzalez breaks down how the network effect can be enabled in transportation management. He discusses how network-based transportation management systems (TMS) act as a conduit for shippers to maintain thousands of relationships without needing to manually forge relationships one-by-one with other companies.

“Instead of establishing and maintaining hundreds or even thousands of one-to-one connections, companies make a single connection to the network to communicate and collaborate with their existing trading partners.”

In order to attract the most users and keep them engaged on a routine basis, network-based transportation management systems serve as the operating system for these communities. Shippers are already accessing the TMS for their daily logistics needs and can therefore easily pivot to community-specific features like truckload spot markets and load matching services.

To make these community-specific services enticing and valuable for shippers leveraging the TMS, there need to be a multitude of opportunities flowing into the network-based TMS from the other end. That’s to say, there needs to be extensive available capacity exposed to the community of shippers for opportunities to be found. That’s where partnerships come in.

Kuebix, as the first and only network-based transportation management system, is pioneering this concept. By partnering with external communities and thousands of individual brokers and carriers, Kuebix is able to expose available capacity from all over the supply chain industry to its TMS users.

Partnering with Emerge Private Freight Marketplace

A new partnership with Emerge has enabled Kuebix to rapidly expand the number of opportunities available to its customers in Kuebix Community Load Match, a truckload spot marketplace. Through this partnership, members of the community can tap into Emerge’s Private Freight Marketplace and seamlessly book with thousands of verified carriers without needing to maintain individual relationships.

Partnerships like that with Emerge quickly grow the shipping community and provide users with more opportunities for collaboration. The key is to connect every transportation player through a single system where it is easy to find opportunities for collaboration while simultaneously keeping users engaged with the community, even when they aren’t actively looking for additional capacity.Kuebix and Emerge

 

Kuebix TMS and the Network Effect in Transportation Management

Kuebix TMS was built around the concept of the network effect and is proving the theory in conjunction with transportation management as described by Gonzalez in Putting Community in TMS. As more users join Kuebix’s logistics community by becoming users of the TMS, more carriers, brokers, freight forwarders and other supply chain players can be partnered with to expose available capacity. This creates a snowball effect where when more shippers join to leverage the new opportunities, new partnerships with carriers and brokers can be established to take advantage of more shippers seeking capacity. It’s a win-win for all supply chain players and grows the cloud-based community exponentially.

Currently, there are over 16,000 members of Kuebix’s shipping community and that number continues to grow. The new collaboration with Emerge and other strategic partnerships will continue to drive shippers to the technology, encouraging more partners with available capacity to expose their assets through the technology, and so on and so forth, creating the industry’s largest cloud-based shipping community.

compare freight rates kuebix

Why You Should Be Comparing Your Full Truckload (FTL) & Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Freight Rates

/in , , , /by

Logistics professionals have their work cut out for them just to get their freight to the customer on time without the added pressure to shop around to find the best deal. At least, that’s the case for folks who are still managing their freight operations in the old-fashioned way, with phone calls to carriers and spreadsheets to track loads. Companies that have already turned to transportation technology to help them optimize their supply chains can easily compare freight rates without wasting extra time.

Technology lets companies automatically pull in all their negotiated carrier rates side by side for easy viewing and comparing. Instead of needing to switch between vendor portals, logistics professionals have all their tariff information contained in one, user-friendly location. This means that they can choose the most attractive rate at the service level they need for every shipment.

Why Should You Compare Your Freight Rates?

Many shippers have carriers that they partner with over and over again, and those relationships can be crucial for the success of the delivery. But if you never get a feel for the market price on a particular lane, you could be vastly overpaying. By comparing rates, you can go back to your carriers to negotiate better terms. You may also discover cheaper capacity is available, helping you save money on total freight spend if you alter your processes for certain lanes.

By shopping around for different freight rates, you could also discover opportunities to deliver faster to your customers. Trends like the “Amazon Effect” are increasing customer expectations, namely the speed at which they can expect their deliveries. Even if you don’t discover freight savings when you shop around, you may discover ways to improve your customer satisfaction.

Another reason to constantly be comparing your freight rates is that prices are continuously changing. Diesel prices fluctuate, the driver shortage and capacity crunch alter carriers’ ability to service their customer base, and competition for capacity grows worse. What may have been the best price one day could suddenly be outperformed by another rate the next. Instead of doing a monthly or quarterly audit of tariffs, companies should be comparing their freight rates each and every time.

Comparing freight rates also allows logistics professionals to determine what mode they want to ship their product. This is particularly important for orders that could be either a parcel shipment of an LTL load. Many people wouldn’t consider shipping what they assumed to be an LTL load as a parcel shipment, or vice versa, though there could be significant savings. By using technology to display multiple mode options all on one screen, companies can be sure to pick the best price, no matter what mode is selected.

Using Technology to Rate Shop

Technology is the answer to this problem for most shippers. By leveraging a transportation management system like Kuebix TMS, companies can quickly view all their options and select the best one. This is like booking a flight online were each and every price and timeline is viewable. At Kuebix, we believe that logistics should be just as easy as booking a flight online. And by comparing multiple modes side by side, users get even more opportunities to save money and provide superior service to their customers.

load builder optimizer kuebix

Building and Optimizing Truckload Shipments with Technology

/in , , , /by

There’s increased pressure on logistics teams to build perfect truckloads and optimize every route. Freight costs are rising and cutting costs is top of mind for many companies this year. But building the perfect truckload is a challenge for companies that are still manually building and routing their truckload with only the help of a spreadsheet and tribal knowledge.

The Barriers Between Your Business and the Perfect Truckload

There are countless factors associated with building the ideal truckload that need to be taken into consideration such as delivery date, location, class, weight and size. Weighing all of these factors without the help of technology usually results in missed opportunities and wasted resources. Instead of pouring through spreadsheets and manually grouping orders onto a single truck, companies can leverage technology to build and optimize the perfect truckload every time.

How Technology Can Help Logistics Teams  

Smart algorithms within technology suggest combinations which make sense, save time and help companies achieve the lowest possible costs for their shipments, all while still adhering to pre-determined parameters. Users set the parameters for the truck they want to build, adding in LTL constraints, specifying single stop, pickup and delivery date, maximum capacity, or unit of measure, etc. This ensures that logistics teams still have the flexibility to make changes based on customer requests and other unknown factors.

When load building and optimization technology is built directly into a transportation management system (TMS), the router or scheduler can view all unscheduled orders in an intuitive portal before seamlessly routing the shipment. They can filter by route, warehouse, order type, commodity group, date for delivery, account, order source or even pooling location to build a load with the parameters of their choosing.

Technology like Kuebix’s Load Builder and Optimizer is helping companies move away from manual processes and ensure they are always building the most optimized truckloads. Users can view routes on an interactive map, consolidate shipments with easy drag and drop features, and get alerts if any pre-determined parameters aren’t met. Users save time by comparing the most cost-effective and optimized loads and routes can easily manage first mile, final mile and pool distribution shipments.

With load building and route optimizing technology, companies gain complete control over load consolidation and optimization. They never miss an opportunity to save money and can plan loads and routes with transparency in an organized way. With pricing analytics at their fingertips, logistics teams can even compare pre-consolidation and post-consolidation to see exactly how much money is being saved.