The following story is an example of how a good freight broker provided freight management to a local manufactured and helped retain customers and acquire new ones.
A company in the upper Hudson Valley region of upstate New York who is in the business of manufacturing after-market auto parts had a few large customers in the Miami, Florida area. Some of them were for local suppliers in Florida and some were for export. They had a couple of issues moving their freight from upstate New York to the metropolitan Miami, Florida area.
- Cost, since most of their pallets were heavy, approx. 2,500 lbs., it was not economical to ship via standard NMFC freight class.
- Transit time, since normal transit time from metropolitan NY & NJ to Miami, FL is three days and they had the added day to ship from their manufacturing plant to the freight hubs of NY & NJ metro areas.
- Pick up delays, since most common carriers did not have regular daily pick up service in their area. Only regional carriers would be able to pick up daily, but these carriers did not go down south to Florida.
- Freight management at the local delivery area in Miami. Some customers requested change of delivery in the last moment or added services like lift gate delivery or delivery appointments.
The company turned to Rapid Express Freight not just for freight quotes but for help on how to plan their production and prepare their freight.
Our first step in helping this company was to sit down with them and listen. We got the whole story and how their profit margins were thinned by the high cost of freight shipping. We realized that this company has a superb product and they have eager customers all over Central and South America that will be happy to arrange for the freight from the port of Miami. But they needed delivered prices to either the port of Miami or their agents in the metro Miami area. If only we can bring down the cost of the freight and streamline the freight pick up process.
We approached one of our contacted carriers that specializing in NY & NJ metro area to all of Florida. We negotiated a flat “Pallet Rate” up to 3000 lbs. so that the customer would pay a flat fee for each pallet. The rate would not be based on the freight class.
The carrier agreed to commit to provide pick up’s once a week in upstate New York. We set the day of the week to Wednesday. The carrier consolidated freight to be delivered in the surrounding areas on Wednesday and then send the empty trucks to pick up from the manufacturer.
Our customer was able to get so much more business, mostly from export, that they couldn’t produce orders fast enough.
- Since we had a contracted pallet rate, the cost of shipping went down to less than half and was predictable.
- Since this carrier had a normal transit time of two days from NY to Miami, we only added one more day (for the upstate pickup). They were able to deliver in 3 days! Most carriers would take more than a week.
- We no more had missed picks up because carriers did not “have a truck in the area today”.
- Since this carrier had two terminals in Florida (Miami & Orlando), they had a local presence and were able to accommodate for added requested services at the last moment. This included change of delivery address, lift gate delivery, special appointment request, break bulk and more.
This is just one example of how our freight management services can help our customers be more competitive, grow sales and deliver more.
