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Shippers who understand the importance of customer satisfaction will scrub entire operations not only to reduce costs but also to seek new ways to deliver greater operational efficiency. Those shippers know by implementing factors like forecasting, real-time tracking and collaboration they can deliver benefits to their bottom lines that are nearly as good as reduced rates.

Leveraging data to boost process efficiencies of supply-chain logistics or to shorten delivery times—or both—is becoming more difficult with every terabyte of data shippers and receivers store. 

There is much reason for the trucking industry to be optimistic as we enter 2018. For one, freight levels have improved significantly for the industry. In addition, the combination of better freight volumes and for-hire fleets not adding to truck counts in 2017 absorbed much of the excess capacity that plagued the industry over the previous couple of years. With both the main drivers of truck freight demand doing well and the use of electronic logging devices now required, 2018 could be the best year the industry has experienced in the post deregulation era. Indeed, two of the biggest challenges for motor carriers this year will be finding enough qualified drivers and covering all their loads.

With few exceptions – the most notable being a vehicle braking system – friction is not a good thing.

Trucking is a business of pennies. Even the most successful carriers operate on razor-sharp margins, with the majority of carriers being “on the bubble” with an operating ratio that can easily shift from slightly positive to negative.

Federal regulators have dished out plenty of lemons over the years, burdening trucking companies with time-consuming and expensive regulations. With the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food (STF) rule taking effect last month, carriers have yet another opportunity to merely comply with the regulations or to make lemonade.