On June 1 and 2, more than 800 Fortune 500 shippers, logistics providers, government officials, and industry heavyweights descended on Chicago to discuss how working together can help transform the industry by focusing on unlocking capacity, driving innovation, and revolutionizing supply chain execution. 

Convoy also attended, participating in a panel discussion on achieving sustainability goals and reducing waste in freight alongside Volvo Group and Bayer. When we weren’t discussing how the supply chain can help the planet, we were jotting down notes and taking names. We didn’t want to miss out on those insights, and we don’t want you to either. 

Across a jam-packed two days of panels and fireside chats, a few themes kept arising that we’re obsessing about at Convoy and believe other transportation teams should be too. 

No. 1: Achieving data visibility and the journey to digitization 

Every company aspires to have end-to-end visibility of their supply chain, and many Reuters attendees, like Wayfair, Bayer, and Mondelēz, have embarked on their journeys to get there. 

In his keynote, “From Cost Center to Brand Differentiator: Enhancing Efficiency & Speed in Logistics,” Sean Halligan, Wayfair’s global chief supply chain officer, shared his team’s ultimate goal: providing consumers at point of sale a 30-minute delivery window for two weeks out. The only way to reach this precise delivery experience is with full visibility, something they’re “constantly working on.” It starts with going digital. 

For Bayer, their digital transformation began six years ago, when the team started implementing a new transportation management system at remarkable scale — across 74 countries.

Facing a digital transformation project of similar scale? Johnny Ivanyi, global head of distribution at Bayer, shared his advice in “How Bayer’s Digital Transformation Journey Brings its Logistics Operations to the Next Level”: First, get your stakeholders engaged and leadership aligned. Break the larger project down into smaller chunks. And change management is hard, so keep people inspired. For instance, they created opportunities for employees to become “super-users,” who get to travel the world inspiring, teaching, and training their coworkers in other countries. 

For Mondelēz International, COVID accelerated their journey to digitization, recognizing that digitizing the supply chain helps unlock better quality data in real time. “It’s easier when you can see [the data] and react to it in real time,” said Andrea Turner, SVP of global customer service and logistics, “and that’s still a hurdle.” Andrea called for more data sharing across the industry in her interactive panel, appropriately named “Balancing Relationships and Technology in Logistics.”

“It’s great to have data, but it’s better to be able to partner with others to use their data too,” she said. “How do we really share that data? How do you move it together? Understanding truth is an opportunity in the collaboration space. That’s a daunting task among our providers.” 

No. 2: Building a more sustainable supply chain 

“The mentality has shifted,” said Perry Jones, president of North America Supply at Diageo. “How do we leave this Earth in a better position for the next generation? It’s a social responsibility, not an economic one.” 

Waste is a problem that every company has today – and must take action to solve. Leaders at Convoy, Bayer, and Volvo talked about how they’re working to be part of the solution, in their interactive panel called “Collaboration: The Path to Greater Success in Achieving Sustainability Goals & Reducing Waste in Freight.”

Ryan Gavin, chief growth officer at Convoy, cited that heavy trucks run 175 billion miles moving truckload freight in the U.S. every year. Of these, 61 billion are empty miles — miles driven by a truck without a load — that contribute more than 87 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually. Every year, 35% of all miles driven are empty miles.  

Gavin talked about how shippers partner with Convoy to reduce empty miles and achieve their sustainability goals: first, by bundling their shipments together for drivers, which reduces empty miles by 45%, from the industry standard of 35% to 19%. Also, shippers that can be flexible with their appointment windows help fit their shipments into carriers’ schedules, reducing carbon emissions by 36%. 

The industry can continue to make larger and more meaningful impacts for our planet by working together. 

“The one thing to take back is not to operate in a vacuum,” Jones said in “The Path to Net-Zero — The Role that Logistics Has to Play,” Diageo’s keynote. “There are partnerships out there, and people are willing to work with each other to solve this. We should be collaborating to get to a better outcome for that next generation. The folks in this room could lead that legacy.”

No. 3: Improving your supply chain resiliency

Dow Chemical, Pfizer, Cardinal Health, Macy’s, and others touched on resilience. In moderating the keynote, “Building Resilience, Agility and Sustainability into Your Global Supply Chain for a Better Customer Experience,” conference host Ryan Patel said resilience has become a buzzword. What does it actually mean?

Dow Chief Supply Chain Officer Greg Jozwiak started with a joke (“I wish I had a dime for every email I received offering me resiliency”) but went on to answer: “It’s about how fast you can recover and convert learnings from past events into your playbook. We will have disruptions. We don’t know what the next ones will be — hurricane season, floods, strikes, trade wars, wars. You can’t anticipate it, but you need a way to recover from it.” 

To be more resilient, Dow invested in its planning capabilities by creating playbooks that help everyone both tenured and new know what to do if a moment calls for a pivot. 

Others talked about being more resilient by avoiding single points of failure in their supply chain. In the keynote, “Resilient Network Design for Peak Season and Beyond,” Megan Evert, SVP of Operations at Flexe, recommended running an analysis to help identify and avoid any single point of failure to maintain business continuity. “All of your eggs in one basket is a huge risk to your network,” she said. “Find your plan Bs.” 

Others recommended avoiding single points of failure across the supply chain by diversifying networks and expanding provider bases.

In the keynote, “Drive Quick & Efficient Fulfillment in the Face of Unpredictability,” Jerry Mujica, VP of America’s Regional Supply Operations & Customer Support, says Pfizer manages two types of unpredictability: fluctuations in demand and routing challenges like weather or damaged products due to temperature sensitivity (you may recall Pfizer manufactures the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine). For the Pfizer transportation team, the key to resilience means working closely with their carrier partners to flex and reroute at a moment’s notice.

Here’s how we at Convoy are thinking about these three themes and how you can too

Achieving data visibility. Building a more sustainable supply chain. Improving your supply chain resiliency. 

At Convoy, we believe building resiliency into a transportation network centers around five operating principles, starting with two of our themes — visibility and sustainability — as well as reliability, flexibility, and efficiency.

We’re constantly working to deliver real-time visibility throughout the shipment lifecycle, most recently announcing on-demand access to next-gen facility insights to drive performance and control costs. Shippers partner with Convoy to reduce empty miles and achieve their sustainability targets — companies have saved more than 8 million pounds of carbon emissions by shipping with Convoy.

You don’t have to make trade-offs to get it all. It comes down to having a freight partner that can help you achieve all five, for optimal performance in any environment. Drop us a note if you would like to learn more, and let’s collaborate on making our supply chains as efficient as they possibly can be.

The post Three key themes from Reuters Supply Chain Execution that your transportation teams should be thinking about appeared first on Convoy.

Why have our incidental costs increased so much? What is going on with the dwell times in San Antonio? It can take shippers months to get to the root cause of problems like these. Without detailed visibility into what’s happening at the facility level, shippers don’t know what they can’t see.

But what if feedback was available across your entire network? What if you could see not only what was happening but also what you could do about it? What if your freight provider came to you and said, “Hey, we noticed a spike in incidentals at one of your facilities, and driver feedback indicates this is because of a broken robot on bay 5. It has cost you $18k in incremental spend in the last 30 days. How much would it cost for you to fix it?”

For this beverage manufacturer with the broken robot, the facility wasn’t reporting the issue to management, and they didn’t know what they couldn’t see — until we surfaced it. Convoy leverages robust data sets from our tech-connected carrier network of more than 400,000 trucks, boosted by an analytics and visualization platform that turns this data into real-time insights.

Starting today, Convoy shippers can get on-demand access to facility insights to help:

• Identify trends that help save costs. Track your incidental spend per shipment for each facility and break out incidentals by type, day of the week, or even time of day. 
• Drive operational performance. Get granular visibility into each facility’s average dwell time and on-time performance, including filters to quickly see the lowest-performing facilities in your network. 
• Get timely carrier feedback. See carrier retention, verbatim reviews, and star ratings for each facility.

Watch this video to hear Abhi Krishnappa, one of Convoy’s engineering managers, tell you more about what’s new.

So how exactly can facility insights help drive performance and control costs? Here are a few real-world examples.

1. Why did my incidental spend jump month over month at my highest volume facility?

The problem: A shipper noticed an unexpected 23% month-over-month increase in incidentals per shipment at their highest trafficked facility.

The process: They looked at the facility’s scorecards and discovered dwell time nearly doubled when volume increased by almost 20% within the same time frame.

The insight: The volume was taxing the facility’s ability to get trucks in and out, increasing dwell times for carriers and therefore detention costs — the number one incidental contributor — to the shipper. The shipper, in partnership with their Convoy account team, decided on a solution: a combination of load balancing and rerouting shipments to other facilities.

TIP: Dwell time is the single most important determinant of facility rating, according to Convoy’s Annual Freight Insights Report. Long wait times frustrate carriers, who make a living moving freight, and can end with bad reviews like “had to wait 3 hours for what was supposed to be a preloaded trailer. Never picking a load from here again.” According to Convoy research, negative facility ratings can increase the rate per mile from 5% to as much as 20%.

2. How can I reduce detention costs at this problematic facility?

The problem: A shipper struggled with bottlenecks and backups at their loading docks, but anecdotally, they couldn’t point to any specific problems or patterns. 

The process: Data within the incidentals scorecard of their dashboard showed detention started to increase at 1 p.m., reached its max point between 2 p.m. and  3 p.m., but returned to normal by 6 p.m. With these times of day, the shipper and Convoy together looked at shipment volume and detention costs, uncovering that they were paying an extra $40 per load, on more loads, during their peak hours from 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

The insight: Convoy recommended the shipper shift some of their morning picks and drops to the afternoon and evening, which was projected to save up to $150,000 per year.

TIP: The most commonly used words in one- and two-star reviews tend to be “wait,” “time,” “hours,” “slow,” and “long.” A suggestion from our Annual Freight Insights Report: Build processes and make improvements that get carriers in and out. Some customers put funds aside for extra dock space. Others, like in the case above, optimized appointment times for their busier days. Others provided more communication and extra signage so carriers know where they should wait, park, and drop trailers.

3. How much more efficient are my drop shipments compared to my live shipments? What would the budget impact be if I shifted more loads to drop?

The problem: This shipper wanted to convert more live loads to drop-and-hook but needed to better understand their live versus drop performance before making the switch. They knew drop as being the most efficient way to ship but couldn’t quantify the difference — Convoy’s insights dashboard could.

The process: The shipper simply toggled between drop and live loads to discover that, although both live and drop shipments were performing better than the industry average, their drop incidental frequencies were half of live’s, and the average incidental per load shipped was 34% less for drop.

The insight: By increasing the shipper’s load allocation to flexible drop, which provides nationwide drop capacity across primary, backup, and spot, from 6% to 25%, the shipper’s estimated cost savings totaled nearly $86,000.

TIP: Another benefit of converting more live loads to drop loads — drivers prefer them. According to our analysis of carrier reviews for our Annual Freight Insights Report, “easy” was the 7th most common word in facility reviews for drop loads in 2021 but ranked 64th for live loads in 2021. Also, drop loads received more five-star reviews than live loads did. 

4. Why do I have excessive dwell times at this particular facility?

The problem: For this shipper, facility insights helped expose excessively long dwell times for both pickup and drop-off, along with the resulting detention costs.   

The process: Convoy’s analytics team compared the driver’s actual transit time to the facility’s appointment times, with a stunning realization. Drivers were arriving so early for their appointment times that they were waiting for hours. For example, a driver picked up a load at 9 a.m. and arrived at the facility for delivery at 12:30 p.m. — but their set appointment time wasn’t until 6 p.m. The driver held onto this trailer for close to six hours longer than they needed to.

The insight: The shipper’s 3PL managed planning and transit time planning — and the shipper didn’t know about these transit inefficiencies (and their resulting operational and cost impacts). Convoy provided lane-level optimized transit recommendations that led to the shipper expanding their facility hours, implementing our recommended transit time (that their 3PL now executes), which reduced excess transit by 57.3% and pickup dwell time by 57.1%. 

TIP: Carriers can haul up to 11 hours a day, as permitted by hours-of-service regulation, but Dr. David Correll, a research scientist and lecturer at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, estimates that long-haul truck drivers spend, on average, 6.5 hours per day working. “This implies that 40% of America’s truck driving capacity is left on the table every day,” he said in his testimony for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The industry as a whole needs to be better about respecting carriers’ time, and according to our Annual Freight Insights Report, facilities that are successful earn the highest reviews.

Facility insights brought to you by the nation’s most tech-connected carrier network

Our vast network of small carriers and owner-operators totaling more than 400,000 trucks nationwide provide meaningful insights through the Convoy app. We require app usage to haul loads — this is how we provide GPS tracking on 95% of live loads and 100% of drop loads. It’s how we collect robust data around dwell times, detention costs, and more. To date, we’ve captured more than 2.7 million facility reviews in the Convoy app. 

As you’ve read, facility insights and carrier reviews help distinguish a well-functioning facility from one that needs improvement.

Shippers use facility insights to improve their own operational performance and the facility experience for carriers. They can better their chances of becoming a shipper of choice and actually improve their access to reliable capacity. When used wisely, facility reviews and ratings can become a competitive advantage. 

Shippers aren’t alone in finding this data invaluable; carriers do, too. For Convoy specifically, 84% of carriers often or always look at ratings and reviews before moving forward with a bid on a Convoy load. Positive ratings and reviews can compel drivers new to your facility to give it a try. For you, that means securing new reliable capacity can be the difference between “I hope to continue working with them” and “Never picking a load from here again.”

Tap into facility insights with Convoy

New to Convoy? Get a demo and learn more about shipping with us. Let’s talk. 

Already ship with Convoy? Log in to view facility insights or request access to your account today. With every shipment, facility insights are being updated on your insights dashboard.

The post “The robot in bay 5 is broken”: 4 ways you can use facility insights to drive performance and control costs appeared first on Convoy.

Flexport Chief Operating Officer Sanne Manders says it’s a good time to re-think your supply chain. “Instead of holding onto old patterns and wisdom,” he says, “maybe it’s time to rip things out and think ‘clean sheet.’” 

Historically, ocean and over-the-road (OTR) shipping have shared challenges: manual operations, a lag in tech adoption, and little to no real-time visibility. Flexport is the modern freight forwarder, using technology to help shippers manage today’s complexities of global shipping. 

Sanne leads operations, procurement, and carrier relations, but more simply, he’s known as Flexport’s digitization expert. We caught up with him to talk about how technology is helping shippers create a more efficient and resilient supply chain of the future. 

A: Let’s start with a question on partnership, in the spirit of Convoy and Flexport partnering to deliver end-to-end visibility from ocean to over the road. In what ways do you believe global shippers and supply chain partners could better collaborate to drive a healthier and more efficient supply chain?

S: You want to start with the customer. Our customers want visibility and control of their supply chain, and as a platform for global trade, we work to deliver that value for them. We do it through collaboration. For example, we partner with other freight forwarders to serve our customers in countries where we may not yet have a footprint. In fact, close to 70% of Flexport’s shipments start with another freight forwarder. We opened that ecosystem to them because it helps us, and they get a lot of business because of it. It’s a win-win. When you focus on the customer, everything you do is about creating these win-win propositions. The old mindset is thinking it’s a zero-sum game. The modern brokerage focuses on creating value for both customers and carriers. When the customer wins and the carrier wins, we win as well because it makes our platform stickier.

A: You mention “the modern brokerage.” Historically, brokerage services in both ocean and OTR have been inherently transactional, relying on manual, siloed processes that are both inefficient and error-prone. What qualities or characteristics must supply chain partners have to be that strategic advisor and help shippers navigate the uncertainty of the future?

S: Supply chain partners should have a willingness to try new things and constantly improve. If we don’t experiment, we will just create a digital copy of the old world. Our goal should be unlocking new opportunities through data. This can only happen when you fully digitize your supply chain so you can get better quality data in real time. 

Digitization is key. Humans should apply their judgment and problem solving; automation should do anything repetitive and transactional. Eliminate the manual processes that create waste. And you can’t get to the promised land with half of your partners still using those manual processes, email, and spreadsheets. Be sure you bring everybody along.

A: The cloud, Internet of Things, and machine learning all amass incredible amounts of data and visibility and empower us to make decisions more quickly. How can technology help create a more resilient supply chain? How do you believe technology will change the future of supply chains?

S: In 2014, supply chain leaders told me digitization was a nice-to-have. Today, everyone agrees it’s a necessity. You need real-time information to make good and fast decisions in our complex world. This comes down to the OODA loop: 1) Observe through data, 2) Orient or problem solve, 3) Decide, and 4) Act. Do this faster and faster and you will become more resilient and out-compete anyone else. 

To run that OODA loop quickly, you need a central database for data storage. You can’t do that if you have an old AS/400 system from the ՚80s, so make the investment in your infrastructure every five to six years. Our platform was seven years old, so we made the decision to maintain our existing platform while we build a new one in parallel. 

A: As you’ve mentioned, digitization helps shippers be more agile in their decision making, so they’re prepared no matter what comes their way. How else can supply chains be more prepared to handle ongoing volatility?

S: Everything is currently under pressure with lots of constraints, but the big wild card is how demand will evolve in the near future. Leading indicators show it’s slowing. If consumer confidence starts changing and people start to buy more services than goods, you might get a slowdown of global trade and possibly a bullwhip effect because we have so much inventory. Market dynamics could look very different a year from now.

To be resilient, be realistic in your expectations and plan for volatility. If you keep fighting the state of the industry, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage. Optimize for what is materially impacting your business instead of trying to fight it, and make sure you have the right logistics providers to help you do it. There will always be chaos — as we’ve seen, all we need is another boat stuck in the Suez Canal. When that happens, you want a problem solver that can offer you options.

A: How do you think this has impacted the way shippers are building their supply chains and transportation networks?

S: It’s a good moment to re-think. Instead of holding onto old patterns and wisdom, maybe it’s time to rip things out and think “clean sheet.” Imagine what this new world could look like for you — and then enlist freight providers like Convoy and Flexport to help you build it.

This story originally appeared in Convoy’s “The Future of Freight,” featuring 40 thoughtfully curated pages on supply chain disruption, freight procurement, market volatility, and more.

The post A Conversation with Flexport’s Sanne Manders appeared first on Convoy.

Today, we launched three new features that take this real-time visibility one level deeper while helping shippers save time:

• An improved Shipments dashboard that gives real-time visibility into driver ETAs and exceptions with reason codes, eliminating the need for load update emails
• A tool that locks in instant quotes for up to 24 hours and lets you tender in your own TMS
• A new locations filter within the Insights dashboard that allows you to drill into operational and performance metrics by facility

You’d be hard pressed to find this end-to-end visibility anywhere else, and it’s all because our shipper platform is built on top of the most tech-connected network in the nation. It’s how we deliver to-the-minute tracking on 95 percent of loads. 

Watch this video to hear Conrad, one of Convoy’s product managers, tell you more about what’s new.

See driver ETAs and exceptions with reason codes in real time

There are many ways to track a truck’s location: a provider’s own mobile app, a phone’s location services, ELDs, TMS platforms, and even more. And since not all providers require that drivers use any one of these tracking methods, they also offer another option — drivers can call in and leave their location update with a person, who manually records the information. 

We have to wonder: Is this real-time tracking? Is it true visibility? Tracking across platforms and people makes for inconsistent and inaccurate tracking data. And today, visibility isn’t just about where the truck is — it’s about what the truck is doing, and if there’s an issue, what your provider is doing about it. 

At Convoy, tracking is centralized around our GPS-enabled app, which is how carriers engage with us. This is how you can track Convoy shipments in real time on a map. It’s how you can extend that real-time visibility to your customers and facilities with shareable tracking links.

And starting today, you can get real-time visibility into driver-late exceptions. You’ll not just be able to pinpoint where your truck is on a map, but why it’s late (mechanical breakdown, delay from previous stop, and beyond) and what your dedicated customer experience team at Convoy is doing to resolve it.

Updates are available here as soon as Convoy receives them, so both your team and ours are on the same page. This means no more emails asking for load updates. And if you’d also like to automatically receive these notifications, send us an email at load-status-reports@convoy.com, and we’ll get you set up.

But wait, there’s more! The other feature we’re launching today is an improved Shipments dashboard, now providing detailed ETAs for all of your Convoy shipments. When you can see in real time, you can plan ahead. Check out the Status column to see what’s new. 

Alright, ready for the next feature?

Lock in instant quotes for up to 24 hours and tender in your own TMS

Many shippers use email to gather and compare spot quotes from multiple providers, then, when it comes time to tender loads, they’ll use their TMS or another system. We wanted to make this process a little easier. 

Say you’re in the process of collecting quotes. You start with Convoy and get an instant quote with guaranteed coverage, but you want to see what other providers are pricing the lane at. Since you’re not quite ready to book, simply choose “Save for Later” to lock in that quote for up to 24 hours.

When you’re ready to book, you can come back to the Convoy website to tender your saved quote or snag the quote ID number, which you’d then use to tender the load through your own TMS. You can customize the quote ID number to follow your own naming convention, too. 

Drill into operational and performance metrics by facility

Now, you can see operational and performance metrics by facility, using the new locations filter within your Insights dashboard. Those metrics include shipment volume, rate per mile, spend across spot and contract shipments, Convoy’s on-time pickup and delivery, accessorial spend, dwell time, and more.

Analyze facility performance to maintain positive ratings and reviews from carriers in the Convoy app. Forward-thinking shippers use facility insights to become a shipper of choice and improve access to reliable capacity in any market. An important stat: 84 percent of Convoy carriers “often” or “always” look at reviews before booking a load at a facility they aren’t familiar with.  

The ability to capture these metrics, along with carrier ratings and reviews, is just another benefit of our shipper platform being built on top of the most tech-connected network in the nation.

These features are available now 

New to Convoy? Let’s talk. 

Already ship with Convoy? Log in to view these real-time visibility features or request access to your account today.

The post View real-time driver ETAs and exceptions, lock in quotes, and more — new from Convoy appeared first on Convoy.

Over the past six years, Convoy has built the most tech-connected carrier network in the nation. Today, more than 300,000 trucks move with our GPS-enabled app, which captures more than 1,000 data points on every load and sends facility insights to shippers in real time. 

2021 highlights from across our digital freight network include:

• Shippers received to-the-minute tracking on more than 95 percent of live loads and 100 percent of drop loads. 
• Carriers have now provided more than 2.7 million facility reviews and ratings (and 40,000 emojis!), which shippers use to improve their facility operations.  
• Together, shippers and carriers avoided more than 775,000 empty miles and saved more than 2.7 million pounds of carbon emissions by shipping responsibly with Convoy. 

Now, we celebrate. Our first-ever year in review honors how each of our shippers got ship done in a year like no other. They’re receiving a hyper-personalized, data-driven look at shipment history and empty miles avoided with Convoy’s digital freight network in 2021. It’s hitting inboxes today.

The data within each year in review is just a sliver of the data shippers can access on demand in their insights dashboard, but it offers transportation teams a chance to look in the rearview mirror and celebrate all of the ship they got done with Convoy in 2021. 

What’s inside the year in review

Each year in review is unique to each shipper and unique to 2021. They can see: 

• Completed shipments – Shipments successfully delivered to their destinations.
• Miles driven – Miles driven by Convoy carriers to deliver a shipper’s freight. 
• Unique carriers – How many individual carriers moved a shipper’s loads, no matter how many times they did it. 
• Empty miles avoided – Empty miles prevented through our automated reloads program, which automatically batches full truckloads for greater efficiency.
• Carbon emissions saved – Amount of carbon in pounds saved as a result of those avoided empty miles. 
• Unique lanes – How many individual lanes a shipper ran with Convoy, no matter how many times we shipped on the lane.
• Network of trucks – Convoy shares each load to thousands of qualified carriers through our app. This number represents how many carriers viewed or bid on a shipper’s lanes. 
• Top lanes by volume – A shipper’s top three lanes by volume, which will include the pickup and delivery location and the number of shipments moved along each.
• Top-rated facility and star rating – Based on written reviews and star ratings provided by the carriers that delivered into a shipper’s facilities. More on this below.

To receive a year in review, shippers had to have moved 50 loads or more with Convoy in 2021.

A look at facility reviews and ratings

The year in review celebrates a shipper’s top-rated facility and its star rating, as nominated by the carriers on the ground. Every carrier has the opportunity to share in the Convoy app a written review and star rating of their facility experience. 

Carriers give the highest reviews to facilities that respect their time. That’s one of the insights we talk about in Convoy’s 2021 Annual Freight Insights Report, highlighting 2021 freight trends and facility insights from Convoy’s more than 2.7 million written reviews and star ratings.

Forward-thinking shippers look to facility insights as their competitive advantage. Convoy shippers can contact their account manager for a deeper look at their facility operations, or log in to their insights dashboard to see performance on dwell times, accessorial spend, and more.

Reduced carbon emissions in 2021

Each year in review shows a shipper’s direct impact on eliminating empty miles and reducing carbon emissions. Because a Convoy year in review wouldn’t be complete without highlighting our progress toward our mission to transport the world with endless capacity and zero waste.

Collectively, Convoy’s digital freight network avoided more than 775,000 empty miles and saved more than 2.7 million pounds of carbon emissions in 2021. This is progress toward a more sustainable supply chain. And yet, with each passing year, the trucking industry generates more than 72 million metric tons of carbon emissions through empty trucks. 

We have a long way to go to #NoEmptyMiles. Here’s to making every mile count in 2022.

Want your year in review for 2022? Get started today with Convoy 

New to Convoy? Get started.

Already ship with Convoy? You may have a shipper account created. You’ll just need to log in or request access. 

The post Data-driven 2021 year in review shows how Convoy shippers #getshipdone appeared first on Convoy.

This was yet another year where nothing went according to plan, with COVID-19 variants, supply chain congestion, labor shortages, severe weather events, and more. So with this year’s report, we thought we’d focus on a place where shippers can retain control in an otherwise uncertain environment: their facilities. 

To create this year’s report, Convoy’s data science and shipper insights teams dived deep into more than 2.7 million star ratings and written reviews from our freight network. They even analyzed the use of more than 40,000 emojis!  

The result: Convoy’s 2021 Annual Freight Insights Report, featuring:

• How facilities rated in 2021, amid the pandemic, port congestion, and labor shortages
• The single most important determinant of facility rating 
• The five characteristics of top-performing facilities
• How seasonality affects facility ratings and how you can prepare
• Unedited facility reviews shared from our driver network
• How logistics teams can use data to improve facility performance

Download the full 2021 Annual Freight Insights Report now.

The post What does it take to be a top-performing facility? Get the answer and more in Convoy’s Annual Freight Insights Report appeared first on Convoy.

Today, we launched three new features designed to help our enterprise customers manage their freight more efficiently:

• An insights dashboard for accessing shipment data and understanding your operational performance
• A tool for quoting, building, and tendering dozens of loads at once
• A dashboard for viewing your contract rates on file

Just log in with your Convoy shipper account to access these new features. And for those of you who haven’t signed up with Convoy, you can create an account today to track your loads, access shipment documentation, and tap into our network of more than 300,000 trucks.

Today’s new features will improve your team’s productivity, increase visibility across your network, and ultimately help you take control of your freight. We’re excited about the feedback we’ve received from early adopters: 

“By managing our freight and accessing shipment analytics in an easy-to-use online platform, we’re improving our team’s productivity and directly contributing to our company’s growth.” 

– Jon Hanna, Senior Logistics Manager, Wincorp International

Watch this short feature overview or keep reading to learn more.

Access real-time insights on demand

Freight data that’s clean, accurate, and complete is hard to get — unless you work with a freight provider that invests in data capture technology and has an entire network of drivers committed to using it. 

With Convoy, carriers use our GPS-enabled app to find and bid on loads, keep track of their fleet, upload shipment documents, and interact with Convoy. This is how we have industry-leading tracking on more than 95 percent of live loads and 100 percent of drop loads. Throughout the life of every load, the app captures more than 1,000 data points related to shipment status and location. 

Starting today, you can access this shipment data with Convoy’s new insights dashboard. It provides you with analytics that help you identify trends in operational performance, improve service, and reduce transportation costs. Access to this real-time data is one of the many benefits of shipping with a digital freight network.

“Convoy’s freight insights allow us to see things in real time that would’ve taken multiple people hours or days to collect and analyze. It’s significantly improving our operational efficiency.” 

– Jon Hanna, Senior Logistics Manager, Wincorp International 

Log in to your shipper account to track operational metrics like shipment volume, rate per mile, spend across spot and contract shipments, Convoy’s on-time pickup and delivery performance, accessorial spend, dwell time, and more. 

View your freight performance across the board, or dive into the details of individual shipments with a click. And because we know you’ll want to dig into the data yourself, you can customize your view directly within the dashboard or export the data for an even closer look.

If you use Convoy’s modern TMS, you can also access data and insights on shipments booked with your other preferred carriers. 

You’ll automatically get data in your insights dashboard starting with your first Convoy load — if you’re new to Convoy and want to start gathering these insights on your freight, contact us to get started. If you already ship with Convoy, request access to your existing shipper account.  

Quote, build, and tender dozens of shipments at the same time

Many of our customers tell us they still manage freight through spreadsheets and emails. They rely on phone calls to confirm load status, and are looking for ways to be more efficient.  

So we created a tool that saves time by managing shipments in bulk. Now you can quote, build, and tender dozens of shipments at the same time, all in one workflow. 

All you need to do is drag and drop a spreadsheet with your shipment details (we’ve already created the template for you). 

“Convoy reduces the chaos of freight and gives our transportation team peace of mind.”

– Jon Hanna, Senior Logistics Manager, Wincorp International

If you use our TMS, the system will also identify opportunities for consolidating shipments, reducing the number of truckloads needed to get the freight moved. This lowers your costs and reduces carbon emissions from empty miles. 

View your contract rates on file in a central dashboard

No longer do you have to track your lane rates and agreements via email and store them in spreadsheets. We designed a new contract rates page where your team can quickly audit your Convoy lanes and get up-to-date pricing on demand through a single view. 

For all of you Guaranteed Primary users who aren’t working with a fixed rate, this means you can get current pricing on a regular basis (depending on the cadence you set) and benchmark your current rates against historical rate data.

If you want to dig into your contracts, you have the ability to filter and sort within the tool or download the data for a deeper dive outside of it.  

These features are now available to all Convoy customers. Ready to see them for yourself?

New to Convoy? Contact us. 

Already ship with Convoy? You may already have a shipper account created. You’ll just need to log in or request access. 

The post Access insights on demand, build shipments in bulk, and more: Here’s what’s new at Convoy appeared first on Convoy.

I recently overheard our VP of People, Dough (real name, Michael Dougherty), compare startup life to surfing: You’re not sure whether you’re riding the wave or the wave is riding you. It’s a feeling I can relate to. Having previously been involved in building and running Data Science teams at Amazon, I was used to scaling teams quickly, but the pace at which we build teams at Convoy is incredible. Since I joined Convoy in November 2018 as Head of Data Science, we’ve quadrupled our data science team headcount to over 40 team members and we are still growing!

Like a powerful wave, this pace of rapid growth can sometimes feel destabilizing. One thing is certain, at Convoy, we’re sitting on oceans of data — data that are critical to fulfilling our mission of transporting the world with endless capacity and zero waste. We’ve experienced our share of challenges, for sure. But we’ve also recovered quickly.

These are some of the lessons that we’ve learned from the past six months of hyper growth at Convoy Data Science.

Build a Leadership Team for Today and Tomorrow

Given the expected growth of the team, we needed to bring in a strong set of player/coach managers who could start with a small org, dive in as an individual contributor, set a vision for their domain, and then scale to managing a large org. We also needed to bring in functional leaders to mentor people in the newly created job families. To that end, we recently hired Steve Brownell (Director, Analytics) and Aaron Terrazas (Director, Economic Research) from Zillow Group, Kyle Forman (Head of Machine Learning Platform) from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and Gwen Spencer (Lead Operations Research Scientist) from Smith College. I was also fortunate that the previous Head of Data Science at Convoy, Casey Olives, was able to take over as head of the Marketplace Data Science team.

Job Titles and Specialization Make a Big Difference

My background in economics makes me a big fan of specialization of labor. As we grew the data science team, we were able to move beyond hiring full stack data scientists, to hiring people with highly specialized technical strengths to focus on specific business problems. To attract these people, we created data engineer, economist, and operations research scientist job families and posted tailored job descriptions. Hiring the first few people into any one of these job families was challenging: We had to develop new interview questions to assess their skills and decide which skills were most important for the new job family, while also properly calibrating our hiring bar. We took great pains to get the hires right both technically and in terms of company values, into these new job families to serve as models for future hires.

One challenge we encountered in our recruiting efforts was that our job titles (i.e. data scientist and data analyst) were out of alignment with how other tech companies competing for top-tier data science talent labeled particular skill-sets. Data science is a relatively new and rapidly-evolving profession; the day-to-day work of different job families can vary widely across employers. These differences can be confusing to prospective hires so it was critical for us to make our titles more familiar to our candidates and be explicit about the type of work the job entails. We therefore added the job title Research Scientist for those team members specializing in algorithm development, modeling, and machine learning.  

Hire the Right Person for the Job

In getting to know my team members and their work, pain points that I had heard before quickly emerged: they were spending disproportionate time taking care of the data warehouse, data wrangling to build model features was time consuming, and most of the requests they were getting were simple SQL queries and data management rather than deep analytics or model building which were more aligned with their skills and interests.

Too often I have seen businesses jump to hiring machine learning scientists, economists, or other PhD-level scientists over data analysts and data engineers when the immediate work is query writing, data warehouse management, metrics development, and reporting. This usually leads to dissatisfaction on both sides, with the business underwhelmed by the speed with which the scientists produce analytic insights and reports, and the scientists frustrated that they aren’t working on problems aligned to their experiences and strengths.

To better align skills to work, we prioritized the hiring of data analysts and data engineers. We quickly populated each of our cross-functional teams with an analyst who could handle database management, metrics development, and reporting, enabling our scientists to focus on building models and conducting analysis.

Additionally, we began building our Machine Learning and Data Platform team with a mix of data scientists and data engineers focused on providing tools, feature libraries, and validated data to enable our rapidly growing team to generate business impact with limited friction.

Draw on Other Functions to Help the Team Ramp Quickly

Onboarding 30+ new data science team members to a tech startup in less than six months could easily result in the team flailing about, struggling to identify and deliver business impact. At Convoy, I was fortunate to inherit a structure with numerous highly-aligned cross functional teams focused on evergreen business problems (which we call PODs). This structure meant that we could onboard a data scientist or analyst into a team without existing data science team members. We could provide technical mentorship from an adjacent POD, centrally provide tools and data, and have them get the domain specific context and details from their co-located software engineer, design, or product manager POD members. Had we attempted to bring this many new people into a centralized data science team without a very strong existing base of experienced technical managers, the existing team would have been overwhelmed with on-boarding responsibilities and the team’s growth would have detracted from productivity.

Dough was right. Startup life has its ups and downs. Hyper growth creates unexpected challenges, but also unexpected opportunities. Over the course of my career, I’ve seen companies opt to float passively atop oceans of data (or worse yet, watch passively from the safety of the beach) rather than venture out into the open waters. At Convoy Data Science, we’ve learned to embrace the open waters and all the opportunities it presents.  

The post Riding a Wave of Growth: How Convoy is Rapidly Building a Data Science Team appeared first on Convoy.

Each June, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) designates a 72-hour period for “International Roadcheck.”

This three-day event is described as “the largest targeted enforcement program on commercial motor vehicles in the world.” Additional inspectors are distributed across major highways to conduct mostly Level I Inspections, a 37-step process examining both the vehicle and driver for violations.

Trucks that fail roadside inspections often get placed out of service, which leads to load delays and fines for the carrier.

During last year’s Roadcheck Week, 67,103 inspections were completed, and a whopping 21% of trucks failed and were put out of service. The focus for Roadcheck Week 2019 is steering and suspension, a critical component of keeping trucks safe while on the road.

Inspections are nothing new to carriers, but the higher frequency is what makes Roadcheck Week a big impact the freight market.

“Aside from the increased inspections, we are not doing anything differently than any other day. The inspections performed during International Roadcheck are the same inspections that are conducted the day before International Roadcheck starts and the day after it concludes, as well as any other day of the year.”

Chief Jay Thompson, President of the CVSA

How does Roadcheck Week impact capacity?

The increased number of inspections makes it a perfect time for a carrier to get off the road and take a well-deserved vacation. Even for carriers with robust safety programs and full legal compliance, the higher likelihood of being stopped for inspection adds inconvenience and some additional risk to the workday.

In addition, through potentially increased violations, more carriers will be placed out of service, further reducing trucks on the road. These factors make June 4-7 one of the most (if not the most) capacity-restricting periods outside of consumer holidays.

Here are four tips to ensure your supply chain runs smoothly through Roadcheck Week:

1. Move your time-sensitive freight to ship sooner or later. Do you have high-profile or time-sensitive freight? Consider moving those loads to the previous or following week. It’s possible for even your best carriers to get significantly delayed while loaded with your product. Avoid headaches ahead of time by being a scheduling ninja.
2. Avoid the spot market until June 10. Spot market rates will increase due to an imbalance of supply and demand as well as industry perception that rates should be higher. This is likely to last through the weekend. Save money and avoid letting freight hit the spot market until the following Monday.
3. Convert pickup and delivery appointments to windows when possible. 37-point inspections take time. Even carriers that pass with flying colors can be delayed during transit. Converting appointments to windows will give carriers additional flexibility and set correct expectations with facilities.
4. Be compassionate. Even the best carriers can fail inspection. The safest, highest-performing, and most prepared carrier can have invisible equipment mishaps. A little empathy not only relieves stress but will go a long way toward building carrier loyalty. There is nothing better than loyal carriers hauling your freight!

Shippers – want to get ahead of Roadcheck Week 2019? Contact your account representative. To learn more about shipping with Convoy, visit the shipper hub, or contact us at (206) 971-1237.

Carriers – to learn more about hauling with Convoy, visit the carrier hub, or contact us at (206) 202-5645.

The post 4 Ways for Shippers to Survive International Road Check 2019 appeared first on Convoy.

Tender Rejection Index for Shippers

Monday, January 17 saw the largest single day volume decrease on record (holidays excluded) with the National Tender Rejection Index dropping almost 3%.

Mid-January is typically a lull for freight, but this year is far less volatile than January 2018. According to DAT, volume nationwide is comparable to 2018 but added capacity has allowed Dry Van spot rates to fall this month.

Both the southeast and south central regions have an excess of capacity and are shippers’ markets.

Texas a record this week reaching an all time floor in tender rejection percentage at 4.82% for the state. Rates are following suit and remaining low for all outbound Texas freight.

Georgia also set a state record low for tender rejections. Florida followed suit, recording tender rejections 67% lower than the same time last year. In fact, some carriers are seeing shippers putting contracted freight to the spot market to undercut primary rates.

Current Bids on Trucking Freight RFPs

Want to know what’s happening where you ship?

See a detailed breakdown of trends in your region with the Convoy Shipper Platform. The Market Outlook curates a vier of freight impacts and trends by region to give you a full picture of the market. It’s free to access, simply sign in or register now.

Are you a carrier?

Interested in a hassle-free experience, automated detention, free quick pay, and unique offerings such as Request-A-Load? Call us at 206-202-5645 or sign up for free here.

Convoy Shipper Platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online booking platform for shippers.

The post Weekly Freight Market Update: It’s a Shipper’s Market in The South appeared first on Convoy.

Outbound Tender Rejection Rates is Down

FreightWaves is reporting tender rejection rates are down to 12.71% nationally and close to year-to-date lows. The December freight market has been stable, showing little volatility or capacity constraints. That is a far cry from the anomaly that was December 2017, one of the most erratic periods for freight in recent memory. Not only is the market more stable than last year, but December volume has increased year over year. Even with the added demand, supply has grown enough in 2018 to keep up.

Bids on Trucking Loads for the West Coast

Tender rejection rates are important market health metrics to Convoy, so it was relieving to see the downward trend mitigated across the West Coast where the market is split.

Capacity constraints in the Northwest continue, which is typical in the fourth quarter. While most of the country is seeing volumes dip, the tail end of Christmas tree season is keeping demand high, which is affecting capacity for local, regional, and long-haul shipments. With the Christmas holiday approaching, expect capacity to improve over the coming weeks.

[Read More: A Better Alternative for Freight RFPs]

It’s a different story in California, where volume continues to fall. Compared to November, Los Angeles experienced a 20% drop in outbound volume while Ontario dropped 14%. Such a reduction is attributed to low container numbers entering the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

In Northern California this month, outbound tender volumes in freight hub Stockton have steadily decreased and tender rejections remain unusually low for the season.

San Diego is one of the only markets in the Southwest trending upward with volumes booming in December. Truck capacity is tight in the San Diego market as supply has not yet caught up with the increased demand.

Want to know what’s happening where you ship?

Sign up to access Convoy’s Shipper Platform — it’s free, and there is no commitment to tender a load. Already ship with us? Simply log in to access Shipper Platform. Or request a demo.

Are you a carrier?

Interested in a hassle-free experience, automated detention, free quick pay, and unique offerings such as Request-A-Load? Call us at 206-202-5645 or sign up for free here. 

The post Weekly Freight Roundup: A Tale of Two West Coasts appeared first on Convoy.

DAT is reporting load posts rose 54% last week while truck posts only increased by 21%. Dry van rates followed suit with rates rising on 63 of the top 100 lanes in the US. This is especially relevant in major distribution hubs such as Allentown, Pa., which is leading the national trend of e-commerce driving volume in non-major metro freight hubs. Capacity there continues to be tight.

Major metros around the country, but in particular on the East Coast — where land is scarce and prices are high — are outbound freight “dead zones.” Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City, and Boston (and other markets) use places like Allentown and Scranton, Pa.; Winchester, Va.; and Newburgh, N.Y. as their “freight counterparts.” Warehousing space is readily available and relatively cheap, so the big cities get their supplies (and holiday presents) from these areas.  

Compared to last year, capacity is more readily available on a macro level. December 2017 brought ELD confusion, inflating rates and exposing shippers on the spot market. This year, businesses have planned their shipping strategies ahead of time to avoid transactional freight and to take advantage of primary carrier networks.

Want to know what’s happening where you ship? Sign up to access Convoy’s Shipper Platform — it’s free, and there is no commitment to tender a load.  

Or, request a demo.

Already ship with us? Simply log in to access Shipper Platform.

Carriers – Interested in a hassle-free experience, automated detention, free quick pay, and unique offerings such as Request-A-Load? Call us at 206-202-5645 or sign up for free here. 

Convoy Shipper Platform is now part of Convoy’s integrated online platform for shippers. For more information, take a look at our freight booking software.

The post Weekly Freight Roundup: Hot Holiday “Counterpart” Markets appeared first on Convoy.