Transportation Operator & Author
Transportation should require less of your organization.
I spent nearly 30 years inside transportation, including more than 27 years owning and operating a 3PL. Over time, I began paying attention not only to whether the freight moved, but to how much work transportation created for everyone around it.
That thinking became the basis for THE WORK AROUND THE FREIGHT.
About the book
Experience
Nearly 30 Years Inside Transportation
I spent nearly 30 years in transportation, including more than 27 years owning and operating a third-party logistics company.
I sold transportation, worked with carriers, managed employees, dealt with claims and missed pickups, handled customer problems and built relationships with customers that lasted more than 20 years.
For a long time, one of my best measures of success was hearing a customer say, "They take care of me."
I still think that matters. I just look at it differently now.
Taking care of the customer isn't only responding quickly when they ask where the freight is. Sometimes it means asking why they had to ask in the first place.
The Book
The freight is only part of what the customer experiences.
The book is written primarily for transportation providers.
Its argument is straightforward: moving the freight is the requirement, but the customer also experiences everything transportation requires from the people around that freight—the chasing, coordinating, correcting, repeated decisions, escalations and management involvement.
A provider cannot control everything. Customers, vendors, carriers and receivers all have responsibilities.
The question is what a strong transportation provider can reasonably take off the customer's plate because it knows the account, understands the transportation and has learned from what happened before.
Professional Digital Edition
Professional Digital Edition — $24.95
A digital edition for transportation professionals who want to read, reference, and apply the ideas in their work.
A Different Question
Who had to do what because transportation was managed this way?
For years, transportation performance has been measured through questions such as: Did it pick up? Did it deliver? Was it on time? What did it cost?
Those questions matter.
I've become increasingly interested in another one. A relatively small freight problem can sometimes create a surprising amount of work across an organization. Seeing that work changes the way I think about transportation performance.
Current Research
Listening to Both Sides of the Relationship
The book began from the provider side because that is the side of transportation I know best.
I'm now deliberately spending more time listening to the customer side.
I'm talking with people in Purchasing, Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, Logistics and Transportation, along with experienced 3PL and carrier professionals.
I'm not looking for people to simply agree with me. The places where experienced people disagree may be more useful.
Contact
A Perspective I Haven't Heard?
If you work on either side of the shipper-provider relationship and see this differently—or see something transportation providers routinely miss—I'd like to hear your perspective.
Bob Schwieger
Transportation Operator & Author
THE WORK AROUND THE FREIGHT
[email protected]
Replace the email above if your final domain differs.