After weathering years of pandemic-fueled headwinds, enterprise supply chain teams have regained pricing power in the trucking market. How they manage that power will determine their fate in today’s market — and tomorrow’s.
While increased capacity availability and reduced transportation costs are a welcome sight for companies across virtually all sectors, it can be difficult to strike a balance between scoring lower rates and maintaining important service standards across many carrier relationships.
Shippers have the power to access rock bottom rates in the current market. Doing so, however, will put their reputations with carriers at risk. When the market inevitability turns, these companies will have a hard time finding carriers to move their freight at a reasonable price, or in some cases, at all.
It is possible to drive down rates without sacrificing important relationships, but doing so requires a commitment to data-informed decision-making across your lanes and comparing rates to various service risks. In order to make data-informed decisions, shippers must first have access to accurate, real-time industry insights. That is where FreightWaves SONAR comes into play.
SONAR gives users insight into upward of 85% of transportation orders happening in the trucking market at any given time. Shippers can utilize these high-frequency, actionable insights to benchmark their businesses, improve relationships, de-risk their transportation performance and bolster their bottom lines.
While SONAR offers endless ways to save time and money, the bulk of the platform’s opportunities for return on investment can be sorted into three main categories.
Transportation cost savings
When shippers benchmark their supply chains against the greater market, they tend to uncover inefficiencies and ill-priced lanes. Once logistics leaders are able to pinpoint these areas, they can optimize their operations based on current market conditions and gain significant cost savings.
On average, SONAR users realize about 4-10% in transportation cost savings. These freed-up funds can be used to grow bottom lines, reinvest in the business and/or strategically compensate reliable partners at standout rates.
Increased tender acceptance
Companies that act in cost alignment with current market conditions are typically able to offer the most competitive — and realistic — terms for their carrier partners. Fair, data-backed practices lead to better routing guide compliance, allowing shippers to simultaneously save money and strengthen carrier partnerships.
SONAR users can see up to a 5% increase in tender acceptance compared to before they began using the platform. This jump represents better relationships, fewer headaches and a more competitive presence in any market.
Improved organizational efficiency
Shippers that utilize SONAR see efficiency gains across their businesses, not just in the transportation department. Data-informed practices lead to a wide array of organization-wide benefits, including increased interdepartmental transparency and improved forecasting.
For example, utilizing data-backed business practices can ensure various departments — including transportation, finance and procurement — are on the same page from the very beginning, driving efficiencies and saving shippers more than 200 hours per year in wasted time.
Not only does SONAR offer shippers the data they need to thrive in any market, the platform comes with an elite team of experts, poised and ready to help users understand — and make the most of — the insights available to them.
This combination of high-frequency data and expert guidance is critical for taking supply chain efficiency to the next level.
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