The Shipper’s Quick Guide to Managing Tightened Truckload Capacity

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White Paper: The Shipper’s Quick Guide to Managing Tightened Truckload Capacity

Over the past couple of months, our office has received several calls from shippers who are looking for support in containing their rising costs as a result of the tightened capacity in the truckload markets.

This Quick Guide provides a snapshot of the current marketplace and how shippers can thrive in an environment with diminishing capacity and escalating costs.

The transportation marketplace continues to be a barometer that lends to theories regarding economic recovery. Specifically, the tightening capacity we are seeing in the truckload market supports an optimistic outlook. But what does this mean for the industry… or more pointedly, how is this affecting the shipper and what are the

alternatives? Anyone managing truckload shipments in todays marketplace understands the difficulty in securing capacity to move loads, whether inbound from vendors or outbound to customers, at given times in given markets. Those given times and given markets are expanding, and truckload capacity can be as hard to find as the proverbial needle in a

haystack. As shippers scramble to secure capacity, these herculean efforts sometimes are fruitless if inbound shipments of raw materials are delayed and production lines are idled. On the other hand, late deliveries of time sensitive freight to customers can easily strain long established hips resulting in sizeable financial relations.

penalties and even lost business. All indices measuring truckload capacity are indicating steady growth and rising prices. Forecasts are predicting a peak season for the first time in years. An easy response to this issue would be for truckers to increase capacity ‐ this is easier said than done.