These creative strategies for winning over carriers can help even smaller organizations become a shipper of choice — reducing shipping rates and finding capacity in the process.
In a recent blog post, we talked about how an awareness of carrier profitability can help you work with carriers to find capacity and reduced LTL shipping rates. Here I want to dive into this topic in a little more depth, focusing on more specific ways you can improve your carrier relationships and, therefore, optimize your transportation.
By thinking creatively, even small shippers can earn shipper-of-choice status. Really, it’s all about focusing on your carrier partners and how you can make life easier (and more profitable) for them. Try these four tips for winning over your carriers and becoming a shipper of choice.
4 ways to become a shipper of choice
1. Provide amenities to carriers
Providing amenities to your drivers — just common courtesies that you’d appreciate in their position — offers an often-overlooked way to be an attractive partner to carriers.
Drivers work long, tough hours to transport your goods safely. Recognizing their efforts in small ways will boost their morale and keep you in their favor.
Break rooms, bathrooms, even a hot cup of coffee — all are welcomed by your hard-working drivers. With that in mind, mark
2. Respect your drivers' time
Time is money, so when you waste your carriers' time, you're also wasting their money.
Eliminate driver detention to increase your carriers' profitability and decrease your transportation cost by avoiding costly detention fees.
Consider ship-smart strategies like pool distribution and consolidation. Expand your pickup and delivery windows. And plan ahead to increase your lead time.
Shifting to a more holistic mentality about your shipping needs requires thinking about how to keep drivers on the road making money, rather than stuck at your dock.
