Our Will Cotten was at the Food Shippers Conference last week, where many attendees focused on truck capacity shortages. Their solution set seems to be:
- Make freight more enticing – offer drop trailers to help with hours of service, etc.
- Fix current processes – quicker gate check-ins, quicker in and outs at the dock, etc.
- Add technology – freight matching tools, trailer tracking, etc.
The focus was more on how to find trucks. We’d advance another important strategy: to cut the need for trucks. By better-filling trailers, our clients eliminate an average of 6 out of every 100 trucks…a nice capacity boost!
DHL is jumping back into the US domestic market with a novel approach to the last mile – use contractors. Package recipients will see on their smart phone exactly who is making the delivery and where they are. This may help to put a lid on UPS and FedEx price increases.