SCDigest editorial staff

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In many companies, there has been increased attention given to transportation in the last 18-24 months, due to the usual factors (capacity constraints, raising freight rates, fuel services charges, etc.).

In addition, an increasing number of companies are finding they must support multiple transportation modes, including truck load, less than truck load, and parcel, driven by market and customer dynamics. Many of these multi-modal shippers also have high volumes and short order cycle times, adding further to the pressure.

Despite the growing attention to transportation and the operational pressure, many companies are really continuing to operate with practices, processes, paradigms and technology tools of 5-10 years ago – maybe workable in 1998, but not sufficient for top level performance in 2006.

In SCDigest’s new research report, High Volume, Multi-Modal Shipping – What Executives Need to Know, we quote transportation consultant Stephen Craig of CP Consulting, who notes that in response to these transportation challenges, too many companies are “muddling through, taking a band-aid approach, and just getting by.”

In this new report, you’ll find our insights into how transportation performance in multi-modal shippers can be improved. Shippers with extensive parcel as part of their overall mix, for example, can implement “parcel planning strategies” that look across parcel shipments to look for opportunities for use of zone skipping tactics or consolidation of several parcel shipments into LTL.

SCDigest believes a preponderance of shippers have opportun http://www.scdigest.com/assets/Reps/SCDigest_High_Volume_Multi-Modal_Shippers.pdfities to reduce transportation costs – the good news is that these opportunities are easily quantified. While some companies are wary of the low cost assessments from consultants and transportation technology vendors, we believe they are a good first step to understanding whether your potential improvement opportunities are small, medium or significant.

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o you agree that traditional TMS tools have not been well-suited to shippers with strong mixes across modes, especially if there is a heavy parcel component?

Let us know your thoughts.