Dwell Time - get used to hearing it because the focus here is going to intensify rather quickly! More on that in a bit.
Broken Record Time - yep, same old, same old - rates continue to fly, capacity stays tight, labor shortages are killing everyone, LTL performance is low, and weather is wreaking havoc on all of this. Key charts are below that tell the story so the message remains the same - you HAVE to look INTERNALLY to have an impact these days! Look at and optimize your own processes - they will have an impact on your overall performance!
Here's another nice plug for Recon's new Smart Select™ feature which you cannot find anywhere else. Look at the shippers statistics below in our Smart Select™ Analysis tool. Wouldn't it be nice for your company to reduce cost, reduce transit times to your customers, and increase LTL carrier performance??? Well you can - so do it. By adjusting our "secret sauce", this shipper (a real case for 1 month) could save 11% on their LTL costs, reduce the average transit time to their customers by 13%, and increase carrier performance by 5%. Hmmm? Seems kind of like a no-brainer doesn't it?
Back to dwell time. We've been highlighting the power of data for a very long time now and our Smart Select™ is another advancement of that. Carriers have this data too and are getting far more serious about figuring out how to dynamically price their services. We've heard about changes to the prehistoric LTL pricing model for quite some time now, but progress is happening right now. Carriers know exactly how long they have to wait at each dock. So, as one small example, they are taking these data points to adjust pricing models to favor shippers who turn them in 10 minutes and penalize shippers who keep them for 45 minutes. Seems fair to me so expect this to gain momentum very soon! And that's only one piece of the dynamic puzzle coming!
Don't just take my word on it. See below quote out of Logistics Management Magazine:
Finally, Jindel says, shippers should collaborate more closely with both carriers and warehouse managers to strip inefficiencies out of the unloading and loading process. “Part of the reason we have a driver shortage is because there’s too much time wasted waiting at the warehouse,” he says. “No one makes any money when this happens, and logistics managers end up telling their companies that rates have to be hiked.”
Once again - look at your own internal processes to positively affect your freight operations - it will pay off in the long run!
On to some cool charts! Some of these, heck, all of these, continue to stun!
