Today’s shippers have serious needs for high-quality capacity and affordable trucking rates. In 2022, global freight container rates for ocean transport have continued to break records, hitting $9,600+ according to the Freightos Baltic Index. Those rates may seem isolated, but they inevitably carry over into all forms of over-the-ground transportation, too, including expedited trucking companies, which will still see increases in 2022. As reported by Transport Topics, “ total truckload rates year-over-year are holding around 12% higher. They are forecast to grow 2.5% to 3% throughout the year.” As a result, shippers will need to work with expedited freight carriers to better apply resources to keep landed freight spend in check. Let’s look at how that comes together and what it means for shippers.
Shippers Need a Triad of Excellence in Expedited Freight Carriers
It’s not enough to have only capacity or technology, and even still, shippers need something a bit beyond a combination of the two. That’s where the origin behind Carrier 911 comes into play. Port X Logistics, the company responsible for creating Carrier 911, has an extensive freight culture that combines the best of people, technology, and equipment to create a proactive freight management strategy and service.
- People – Port X Logistics takes the time to train and work with our team to ensure everyone is an expert in freight execution and tracking to maximize results, meaning more OTIF deliveries and better overall performance.
- Technology – Port X Logistics values absolute transparency into every pallet or load activity, need, and plan to have the necessary data to help everyone make informed decisions.
- Trucks – Port X Logistics understands that working with a diverse network is key to finding coverage, keeping carriers accountable and informed, and putting all that information at the fingertips of our shippers and carriers to yield faster, more efficient moves.
That same triad is on display in Carrier 911.
The Reasons Shippers Need an Expert, Nationwide Expedited Freight Services Carrier
In recent years, shippers have discovered that more visibility in freight is possible through the right tech stack, but unfortunately, that gave rise to several realizations:
- There wasn’t a national carrier that could recover and expedite air cargo from any airport or terminal within two hours.
- Yet, shippers are still needed for fast airfreight recovery.
- That’s especially true with e-commerce expansion. While there is some variety in statistics and reports, e-commerce exploded to more than $750 billion in 2021, hitting nearly a 20% year-over-year growth.
So, where does that leave the industry? E-commerce growth means more demand for faster, free delivery.
Overall, the industry still has Amazon and Walmart to contend with, and shippers that cannot promise and get their freight shipped and picked up fastest will fall by the wayside.
But What About Disruption in the Industry?
The industry faces the significant uncertainty of more disruptions in 2022, including:
- New COVID-19 variants
- More extreme weather changes
- Economic changes
- Political upset and elections’ turmoil
- Continuing ocean import backlogs
It’s culminating in the perfect storm to push air cargo recovery and expedited trucking companies to a clear breaking point. And shippers have also had to deal with changing airport rules, unique air terminal requirements for paperwork, and a hodge-podge of disparate systems to try and manage it all.
However, that barely scratches the surface of the need for more transparency in expedited trucking companies and process management.
Consider these facts:
- Carriers have enjoyed record-setting profits year-over-year throughout the pandemic, yet miles may also be down compared to prior years.
- Drivers are aging out of the industry.
- Uncertainty over possible future driver training school closures might make the problem worse.
- And there’s also talk about moving more drivers to new pay schedules, including hourly pay.
It amounts to a clear caveat for any shipper that lacks a secure strategy for expedited freight carrier management.
What Can Carrier 911 Do About the Issues?
Let’s face facts. There’s no Silver Bullet service provider, at least not yet, that can handle every single pallet that needs to be picked up at every airport within minutes. But Carrier 911 is the next best thing because we know:
- The nuances of each location.
- Where drivers are and their availability.
- The overall demands for each market.
- How to use that information to find coverage for your air cargo pickup needs the fastest.
Then, we take a customer-centered approach to everything.
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- We recognize that every company wants to go digital, but in airfreight processing:
- Shippers need someone who can respond to oddball emails at 9:13 p.m. on a Sunday night.
- Shippers need someone who can answer the phone and find coverage for what’s already on the ground or in flight.
- Shippers need someone to be accountable for expedited trucking companies and a single resource to manage all drivers, much like Carrier 911 does today.
- Shippers need someone to manage the legwork of gathering documentation and getting drivers to pick up air cargo the fastest.
With our exhaustive tech stack and vision of absolute visibility and real-time actionability, we have created a turnkey process for all airfreight recovery within the U.S.
And that’s not only in the contiguous U.S. either. We’ve helped recover XX loads in Alaska, too, to get more freight to the destination on time and in full.
Enable End-to-End Expedited Freight Carrier Capacity With Carrier 911
There are also times when shippers might need overnight or short-term warehousing and storage, especially for the deconsolidation of full pallets and beyond. Carrier 911 can help manage the whole process from end to end, and doing it all with an powered by technology and people! Contact Carrier 911 to get started now.
