Consider the Benefits of Outsourcing Container Drayage Management
By Paul Benfer – Managing Partner, Kinetic Supply-Chain Services, LLC
Over the past fifteen years, we have seen our container drayage management segment grow significantly more compared to our other supply-chain services. One of our largest accounts recently asked me to provide a benefits analysis for presentation to their management group. It turned out to be an excellent exercise for our operations team. What follows is a list of the benefits of our services.
¨ Kinetic uses multiple providers in high volume ports, providing flexibility and increased capacity, reducing per diem and demurrage costs.
¨ The Operations Team functions as an arm of your supply-chain/logistics group. Our services help you redirect employee functions. You don’t have to add head count to manage growth, as we can scale our operations to manage your increased business.
¨ Kinetic performs a pre-audit that finds and corrects issues before they become costly mistakes. A few examples are incorrect delivery addresses, paperwork errors, customer closures due to inventory and summer shutdowns. We recently arranged to warehouse a load for thirty days in Chicago because it was mistakenly shipped before the facility was operational. When the carrier rolls into the client’s facility you know that we have done the groundwork to ensure your delivery will come off without a hitch.
¨ Anyone who has worked directly with carriers knows that it can be difficult to get even a mediocre level of customer service. Providing one point of contact for container drayage management means faster response times and more accurate information. Imagine how efficient it is for a customer service group to have one point of contact for the movement of thousands of containers via multiple drayage carriers.
¨ Automated pick-up, appointment and delivery information via one source becomes a reality for drayage across multiple ports in the United States.
¨ Container drayage providers in the U.S. are primarily manned by owner-operators who are reluctant to adopt GPS tracking services. We step in to provide that information to your supply-chain team seamlessly.
¨ Kinetic’s insurance coverage offers another layer of liability protection to you, an important benefit for any chemical manufacturer or shipper.
¨ Our team provides consulting services free of charge when issues arise with other carriers and providers. Recently, our operations team assisted a client that had multiple containers burn on a container ship. We arranged for transportation, storage and disposal.
¨ Kinetic does not take across the board rate increases. We manage rates incrementally. All increases are done on a lane by lane basis with your prior approval.
¨ We do not mark-up ancillary costs such as chassis fees, hazardous material, triaxle, trans-load, tolls, overweight, demurrage, per diem or pre-pull fees. Accessorial fees are billed as pass through with no mark-up.
¨ Many larger companies push payment terms out to sixty (60) days or more. In times of tight capacity longer terms can mean significant delays, as carriers replace slower paying customers. Our policy is to pay carriers in twenty-five (25) days. Think about the benefit your company can derive through our payment terms. In times of tight capacity our ability to secure equipment could be critical for the timely delivery of your shipments.
¨ On many occasions Kinetic has paid storage/per diem out of pocket to move loads with no interest billed or paid by our clients. Do your other partners do that without compensation?
¨ The Operations Team have received more than fifty notes of thanks from our clients in the last year for superior customer service. Check out our reviews on Google.
Last year, I requested a quarterly review with our largest container drayage client’s customer service group and logistics team. Since that time, it has become apparent to me how integrated we are with our clients. My client’s teams rely heavily on us to manage their business and adjust on the fly based on their customer’s needs and requirements. The relationship continues to evolve and grow, as our business continues to increase by double digits every year. I am amazed at how strong the relationship is between our two teams. As we move forward into our sixteenth year with our largest and best customer, we will continue to strive to offer improvements and stretch our resources to provide higher quality services.