The Shipper of Choice Awards, sponsored by Transflo, are designed to recognize shippers committed to eliminating supply chain inefficiencies and to being excellent partners with their carriers.
“This is an important award because it reflects on the positive nature of the shipper to carrier relationship,” FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller said. “It really focuses on things shippers are doing right.”
This year’s awards were broken down into three main categories – Availability, Efficiency and Facilities. FreightWaves also awarded Best of the Best recognition to 12 companies that outperformed their peers across all categories and Above and Beyond Awards to 13 companies nominated by drivers for providing a top-notch driver experience.
Almost 400 companies were nominated for the Shipper of Choice Awards by FreightWaves readers this year. Those nominees completed surveys about their operational data and tangible commitment to improving the carrier experience.
Companies that showed outstanding performance in areas like dwell time, check-in processes and overage/shortage and damages (OSD) percentages were recognized with the Efficiency Award.
Efficiency Award Winners
Agri-Mark
Associated Milk Producers
Beam Suntory
Cabot Creamery
Commercial Metals Corp.
Daimler
Jess Smith & Sons Cotton, LLC
Nestle Purina PetCare Company
Rich Products Corporation
Schreiber Foods
Syngenta CP, LLC
Whirlpool Corporation
Honorable Mentions in the Efficiency category
Costa Farms
Dillard’s
Foster Poultry Farms
Giant Tiger
HNI Corporation
PPG Industries
Tyson Foods
Weston Foods
A well-established trend has shown that dwell times tend to creep up at shipping facilities as tender rejection rates decrease. This happens because shippers do not have to be as competitive with each other when carriers have less freight to choose from in order to keep moving.
“Wait times reflect the sense of urgency a shipper has for loading or unloading a carrier,” FreightWaves Director of Freight Market Intelligence Zach Strickland said. “When a shipper is concerned about its relationships with their carriers, the shipper will not keep carriers’ trucks on the dock as long. Shippers know detaining a truck for long periods of time hurts carrier efficiency and drives up carriers’ costs, and therefore makes them less desirable as a customer.”
Despite their increase when the shippers have the upper hand, high dwell times are not good for the shipper either. Excessive dwell times keep docks backed up, can delay deliveries and make carriers less likely to work with the shipper in the future.
Shippers that are committed to efficiency have proven their dedication to keeping dwell times down and helping their carrier partners stay profitable even when the market swings in the favor of the shipper. This helps keep the industry as a whole moving forward and protects the shipper-carrier relationship when the market inevitably cycles back around.
Click here to learn more about Transflo’s new Electronic Bill of Lading for Shippers.
