5 Ways to Improve Your LTL Performance With Evans

Even though expectations may have changed, Evans Transportation's ability to find the right shipping solution for you and your company remains the same.

We talked to Kyle Steel - VP Client Solutions and Travis West - Key Account Manager, about shipping strategies in the current LTL market. They shared five ways Evans can help you stay ahead of the game for your shipping strategy:

1) Accurate shipment information is key

Having accurate information allows carriers to make sure they preplan enough space for your pick-up. This information includes weight, class, piece count, and locations. Accuracy also gives the carriers the data in their system to preplan their routes and allocate their capacity properly. Another significant benefit to having accurate freight details is that it prevents the terminals from pulling your freight to weigh and make sure the class is correct. When carriers have to pull freight to validate, that freight can miss its next outbound point.

2) Cushion the published transit by 1-2 days 

While providing a cushion will not improve your transit time, it does allow a reliable delivery window. If you plan for your inventory levels, assembly lines, etc., you can make sure transit is not the main culprit to line-down situations.

3) Leverage Your Regional Carrier Mix

In other words, diversify your portfolio. Not only does it add to diversification, but it allows you to give relief to your national carriers. From the port strikes in California to the more recent pandemic, diversity has been a major topic of discussion in our industry. When you rely on one port, you can find yourself in a jam when it comes to your inbound material. This same principle applies to your LTL. Having all your eggs in one basket is no longer a good business practice. Utilize a good mix of regional and national carriers. When you have a disruption, you can rely on others to help out. 

 4) Preplan

Preplanning is one of the more complex rules to follow. Everyone is always trying to keep a clean dock or ship Just In Time. The problem is that when you look in the rearview mirror, you find a lot of waste. You could have held on to some LTL’s for 2-3 days and made a truckload or grouped several LTL’s all going to the same area missing a consolidation opportunity. If you know you have a heavy day of the week, evaluate one of the following: try and spread it out more evenly, see if you can hold the freight for a day or two, or look at leveraging other modes to alleviate any pressure. The bottom line is that you can find ways to be mode-neutral by creating a good preplan for your freight.

5) Talk to your customers and tackle roadblocks early

The following are barriers that can affect delivery:

• Appointments
• Small windows
• No docks
• Limited Access

One of the biggest reasons for carriers missing your planned delivery date stems from one or all of the above factors. If you can eliminate some of these factors -like appointment times- you can expect better, timely deliveries. If you know you have a lot of appointments and notifications before delivery, add a day to your transit times to account for those delays. On top of that, when you require special equipment -like a liftgate- because there are no docks, remember that not all carriers have access to special equipment daily. Your freight could be delayed by waiting on the special equipment or request.

We hope this helps you with your current LTL performance strategy. Evans can help you Keep Moving Forward with customized shipping solutions to meet your needs. Contact us today to optimize your LTL shipping.