MFW Social Posts
November 21, 2022
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MAKING SENSE OF 3PL & FREIGHT BROKER “SOLUTIONS”
First things first. If you are a constant reader of our posts, we hope that you’re discovering significant value, including strategies and tactics that help lower costs while improving profitability, customer satisfaction, and overall certainty. After all, that’s why create this content – for you!
With that in mind, let’s dive a bit deeper into your 3rd party providers’ claimed “solutions,” paying close attention to how * aligned * they are with YOUR most urgent and expensive problems (based on multiple industry studies here in late 2022):
🚚 LABOR SHORTAGES. The problem persists and will most likely continue into 2023. Truck drivers. Pickers. Packers. And many other critical roles. Data shows that these are the hardest positions to retain. That’s why your provider should have a proven qualifying system that gives you access to the most reliable carriers, warehousing options, and other resources. Purchasing “certainty” is a shipper’s unequivocal right.
🚚 TECHNOLOGY AND DATA. This one ranks near the top of surveys for shippers. Do you know exactly how your provider’s tech investment in new capabilities will improve your world? Do they even have a tech investment (and associated strategy)? What’s the timing when you’ll see and benefit from it? Data transfer and capturing key information – the “right intelligence” – should optimize your operations, improve real-time visibility, and enable rapid decision-making. Otherwise it’s just window dressing.
🚚 COLLABORATION. How does your provider work closely with you to achieve a “fine-tuned ability to innovate, change, and transform supply chains as a prerequisite to realizing transportation goals and objectives?” Is the offer of teamwork palpable and sincere? Mere order-takers need not apply.
If you’re checking critical boxes for 2023, please know that #mfw satisfies each of the above topics – IN ABUNDANCE, in fact. This is what real innovation is all about … continuing to improve and create ample value for our shipper partners and their end-user customers.
👉 If ongoing labor challenges, strategic misalignments, and supply chain disruptions are straining your 3rd party relationships, it’s time to give us a call. We stand at the ready to help you achieve your goals.