You Need Market Intelligence - We've Got It

High-level market intelligence is what's required to achieve better rates and service levels. Below are seven scenarios pulled from an article by Niko Michas, President & CEO of BridgeNet Solutions, published earlier this month by IMPO. Each scenario depicts a way that shippers with access to market intelligence could potentially achieve greater savings and better service levels than they likely would be able to do without access to high-level market information.

Scenario 1: Mode Conversion
According to market intelligence, there are LTL and air freight carriers that will take some of your shipments for 20 percent less than you are paying right now with parcel. You turn to your parcel carriers and tell them that unless they can reduce your costs, you will need to move this volume, and to do it with their support.

Scenario 2: Shipment Consolidation
Market intelligence shows that companies similar in size to your own are setting up staging areas and consolidating the boxes of their top 30 customers who place multiple orders each day. Because this would reduce your cost of sending to those shippers by 15 percent, you tell your carrier to lower your revenue tier to compensate for the reduced expense.

Scenario 3: Zone Skipping
The majority of your operation’s shipments are sent from one warehouse. Market intelligence proves that other companies similar in size and with similar operational capabilities are creating their shipping labels as if shipments are being sent from five locations: Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, L.A., and Seattle. You begin doing the same in order to bring your zone distribution to 85 percent under zone three. Even when you take into consideration new line haul expense, you can confidently expect to save 12 percent on your total parcel expense.

Scenario 4: Rate Benchmarking
A market intelligence study is showing that companies your size are shifting their five-pound-and-under shipments to a post office consolidating service. You tell your carrier that you need them to reduce the cost of shipping your own five-pound-and-under shipments or support your efforts to move 15 percent of these shipments to another carrier.

Scenario 5: Premium Service Reduction
Market intelligence indicates that companies like yours that have implemented a premium service reduction strategy have had a success rate of 60 percent, without disrupting customer service. You inform your carrier that a 60 percent success rate would allow you to reduce your total expense by five percent, which means that implementing your own premium service reduction strategy would be a worthwhile cost savings initiative. You tell your carrier that you need the system that automatically chooses the lowest cost service to your 200 locations available at no cost.

Scenario 6: Determine Chronic Issues with a Carrier
Market intelligence reveals that when a certain carrier has a 5:00 PM pickup from a certain area, the carrier has trouble maintaining its service levels on the East coast. Ask the carrier to direct haul your shipments to guarantee service levels. If they do not comply, select another carrier.

Scenario 7: Vendor Enablement – Reduce Inbound Shipment Costs
Ask your carrier if they will provide an aggressive rate for inbound product after explaining that market intelligence shows that your company could save 30 percent on its inbound shipping costs if vendors would only ship under your account number. Will they also develop a plan to visit all of your vendors and educate them on how to ship using your account number?

How could high-level market intelligence lower your company's shipping costs? E-mail us at sales@bridgenetsolutions.com to find out.