Big Truck TV
Communication is always important to maintaining strong customer-supplier relationships. Unfortunately, it is often more theory than practice. This can be especially true for the trucking industry, with most carrier/shipper communication limited to the logistics surrounding the day's loads. Miller Transporters' Lee and Hal Miller discuss the operational advantages of opening up a "strategic" dialogue with their shipper partners.
Could you give me an example of how communication between a carrier and their shipper can help their bottom line?
An example from our perspective would be, it seems like everybody wants their shipment delivered at 8:00 in the morning. That might be great if you're running a chemical plant, but if you're a driver trying to get across Chicago for an 8:00am delivery, you probably couldn't pick a worse time.
We have to work with the shipper to finds ways that would allow the driver to use their hours better by not spending hours stuck in traffic. As an example, could that driver maybe make a middle of the day delivery, instead of that 8:00am delivery? I would guess that in many cases, the chemical plant would probably be okay with that change in delivery schedule if they just knew. So it's on us to open that line of dialogue with our customers to try to see if there's something that we can do that would accommodate their needs as well as create some productivity gains for us.
What kind of information do you look for your shipper to share with you?
There's often times things that they can tell us about how we conduct our business that would make us more productive and conversely, there are times that we can help them. That type of dialogue is best when there is a partnership, where I know when I speak honestly and frankly, that I'm not going to offend someone and that it will come across as constructive criticism.
Do you think carrier/shipper communication was damaged during the recent recession?
I think for a long time, I'm going to say maybe twenty-five years, there's been talk about partnerships between the shippers and the carriers, and in many those partnerships have been deeply developed and are really constructive. But it seems like during this past recession, some of that just flew out the window. Maybe it was in the name of lower costs, maybe we were going through some unprecedented economic times, but it seemed like some of the gains we had made over the years were lost. But there's still a basis of partnerships out there and I think it's going to be essential going forward for the carriers and the shippers to work together. We have common interests, and even though we are on opposite sides of the supply and demand equilibrium, we do need each other. We're going to need to be in a position to work together to help solve each others problems.
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