Atlanta—Sept. 28, 2011—Manhattan Associates hosted the inaugural “Shipper/Carrier” Exchange at its global headquarters in Atlanta on Sept. 13, featuring shippers including GENCO ATC, HEB Grocery and Publix Super Markets and motor carriers including Celadon Trucking and Knight Transportation.
The event focused on the importance and benefit of collaboration between shippers and carriers, including working together to leverage flexibility, navigating new regulations and creating a mutual understanding of priorities. This type of collaboration will benefit both shippers and carriers by focusing on network alignment as a means to drive out transport inefficiencies, and thereby reducing costs.
“Getting freight to market isn’t optional. With the current capacity constraints only increasing, if shippers don’t work more strategically with their carriers to create efficiencies, the only other option is to pay higher rates and that isn’t good for anyone,” said Bob Walmsley, transportation planning manager, Publix Super Markets.
Barb Pitroski, vice president, carrier and freight solutions, GENCO ATC, added: “It is imperative that shippers work more effectively with their carriers to keep costs as low as possible for customers.”
Event speaker Chris Caplice, executive director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, supported the collaboration theme with data that revealed shippers who are “carrier-friendly” enjoyed freight rates that were two to three percent lower than the rates of shippers that take a strictly transactional approach to carrier partnerships.
“Over the years, shippers and carriers have applied technology to facilitate transactional interactions with each other and missing opportunities to engage on a strategic level,” said Kevin Quast, chief operations officer, Knight Transportation, Inc. “This event helped bring into focus how technology and process refinements can be used to enhance shipper/carrier relations and drive benefits for both parties.”
Manhattan Associates is especially suited for bridging the gap between shippers and carriers with its Transportation Lifecycle Management suite, which is designed to simplify, optimize, and reduce cost for every operational aspect of managing a complex transportation logistics network. Additionally, the Manhattan Carrier suite is specifically designed to address the needs of the motor carrier industry. Manhattan’s next Shipper/Carrier event will be held May 6-9 during Momentum 2012 in Orlando, Fla.
