Shippers, Technology and the Net
“We use technology to redefine how we service the customer,” said Robert Synowicki Jr., executive vice president and chief operating officer at Werner Enterprises in Omaha, Neb. “Shippers are pushing us more and more everyday. We try to see how technology can increase our efficiency and decrease our costs.”
Max Fuller, cochairman of U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Chattanooga, Tenn., said his trucking company uses an electronic data interchange system to provide rear air freight services to customers, thereby enabling his company to carve out a niche in that market. U.S. Xpress also uses the Internet for customers without EDI capabilities.
“If technology is properly applied, it can improve your cost structure,” Mr Fuller said. “But often that technology is real expensive.”
“Carriers need to be part of the customer supply chain,” Mr. Fuller said. “And the Internet has the capability to give smaller carriers the same ability to do that as large systems used by big carriers who spend millions of dollars on them.
Mr. Fuller said U.S. Xpress often partners with smaller carriers who service freight lanes where U.S. Xpress doesn’t operate. The partnership expands the delivery area U.S. Xpress can provide its customers, and allows smaller carriers to piggyback on the larger company’s technical capabilities.
“It becomes an incremental way for us to grow business, and at the same time bring in small, strong players,” he said.
Mr. Synowicki said Werner has similar arrangements.
Our logistics division contracts with 7,300 different trucking companies,” he said. “It allows them to leverage our technology, and the customer sees a seamless means of transportation.”
Both executives said they expect to see more partnering among carriers. About 70% of Werner’s loads are handled through EDI at one point or another, Mr. Synowicki said.
“Some customers just use it for load tendering, and others use it for the entire process,” he said.
Mr. Fuller said about 85% of U.S. Xpress customers either use EDI or the Internet to ship product.
“It’s critical today for any carrier to have that kind of connectivity, no matter what the company’s size,” he said. “People who understand that connectivity and what they want to do with it help us reduce our costs.”
Mr. Fuller warned that small companies that resist using the Internet will find more and more distance between their ability to compete with carriers that are connected electronically.
“As we get more advanced, it will just create more distance between smaller and larger carriers,” he said. “But they still have the opportunity to come back with the Internet.”
Mr. Synowicki said he is even seeing instances now of carriers whose bids are being refused because they don’t offer any electronic communication.
Janet Plume is a New Orleans-based free-lance journalist.
