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You’re saving some money. Who can blame you, after all we’re all under pressure to cut costs. So what if the LTL provider’s truck isn’t new or shiny. Yeah, it’s a little dirty (you could scribble you name in the dust), but so what? How’s that hurt you, after all you name isn’t on the […]

The # 1 Reason Companies Fail to Control Their Costs Two years ago, we met with a global manufacturer who was undertaking a major cost cutting initiative for the North American operations. A central point of the initiative encompassed reducing the costs for supporting logistics. This led them to embark on a freight consolidation initiative. […]

How can you lose money by cutting costs that appear to be saving you money? It’s really simple. Any action you take may create effects that you don’t think about. For example, the Vice-President of Marketing decides to cut down on some expensive advertising and is quite proud of the money he has saved his […]

As we’ve written before, a company is only as good as your weakest link. The same is true in any functional area. And, unfortunately for many companies, their supply chain link is weakening because an easily overlooked link – good drivers. It’s easy to overlook the driver issue because the only time driver issues present […]

If you think about logistics, and especially if you think about trucking, it’s always been seen as a cost or expense center and not as a strategic driver. As a result, CEOs and senior executives often under-allocate their time in this area because they don’t think there’s anything to be gained by spending more. What […]

Natural disasters – like several areas suffered this year – anywhere in the world can create grave challenges for many companies. If your supplier is forced to close down for days, weeks, or even months, it will affect your ability to get your product to market. A perfect example this year was Apple, which was […]

Globalization and outsourcing are here to stay. The players will vary and changes will come, but, from a business perspective, the entire world can be the market for any given company, in the United States or abroad. It has been stated that companies today spend at least half of their income on products or services […]

Safe Service That’s Profitable. It’s a core part of our mission statement, but what does it really mean. Safety is one of those words that is used so frequently that few people ever spend the time to really think about its impact. In more than 25 years in the trucking, transportation and logistics industry, I’ve […]

Third-party logistics (3PL) relationships are becoming more and more important. “Inbound Logistics” had an excellent article in their February 2010 issue that is still true. They pointed out how 3PL providers have become more popular since they can provide services at a cost below what companies could obtain themselves. They offer capacity, expertise, technology and […]

In earlier times, CEOs didn’t have to put too much time into thinking about logistics, beyond assuring that costs were kept in line. Times have changed, however. Logistics has become a major element in creating value in the marketplace. If you’re a manufacturing business, you make large investments in the manufacturing complex. If you’re a […]