Transportation Strategies for Reducing Cost and Improving Capacity Utilizaiton

In addition to promising quick response time, customers have been promised many other things that have seldom added value. Most deliveries are requested between 6 am and 10 am on Monday or Friday, and loads are frequently composed of assorted sizes. When you restrict delivery times, trucks must wait for that delivery window. While trucks are waiting shippers cannot obtain the trailer capacity to make their shipments. It takes extra time to load and unload the mixed shipments and this detracts from the capacity available for additional loads.

During the off season there is a surplus of capacity. When drivers become frustrated by lack of income during this period, they resign which decreases capacity for the peak season. The FGLC needs to identify the importance of collaboration between customers and manufacturers so all parties see the supply chain process as a continuous production line from manufacturer to final customer where all steps need to be synchronized, planned and optimized. There are many ways of doing this and they need to be explored by FGLC.