I think the biggest point to make is that shippers want to have confidence that their partners can perform accurately and on time .
CLDA Mag : What else do shippers want ?
Straub : They want to have the confidence that we ’ re going to do it right the first time . Technology plays a big role in this regard .
Geofencing is a great tool . It prevents a driver from delivering the wrong package to the wrong address . What a geofence does is it basically puts a dot on the GPS that says , “ This is where the driver is .” If the app reads that the driver is at the wrong dot , the app won ’ t let him close that order . That really helps prohibit them from delivering to the wrong location . More and more of our customers are willing to integrate their systems with ours to have that tracking .
These shippers expect on-time performance , and they want you to be able to scale up quickly to accommodate their needs . To do that couriers like ours need to reach out to other providers to help . That ’ s where our connections from CLDA come into play . When COVID hit , I called on my connections to other courier companies from all over the bordering states to ask for help . We still have a lot of those relationships today .
CLDA Mag : How have things changed within the last few years ?
Straub : There ’ s been an increase expectation that we will be in contact with the shippers ’ customers as the delivery makes it way to them . For example , when we ’ re delivering a pharmaceutical to a patient , we ’ ll send them a text when we ’ re 15 minutes away , reminding them to have their ID ready so we can verify that they are the intended recipient . Our customers , the shippers , also expect a text when we close out the order . It ’ s all about getting that first-stop completion rate up because they don ’ t want to pay us to go twice , and we don ’ t want to go back either .
CLDA Mag : What else has changed over the last few years ?
Straub : The rates . The shippers were used to paying very high rates for this type of service . Over the years I saw that get pushed down to more like commodity rates by alternatives like Uber and all other crowdsource models . They are handling some of non-controlled deliveries .
Of course , what we saw with COVID was that demand went up so fast and so high that the rates went up with it . We did a lot of COVID-related work like so many others in this vertical . It came up so quickly and initially we expected it to only last about six months . Who knew it would go on as long as it did ? Regardless , we knew it had to level off at some point . And it has . We ’ re starting to see prices retract a little and things have become more competitive .
Some couriers didn ’ t prepare their pipeline for the time when the COVID work would go away . When the business dropped off , those people believed they had to drop their rates just to get the cash flow . We wouldn ’ t do that . In fact , even with all that work going away , we ’ re still going to beat last year ’ s numbers . We ’ re in heavy growth mode . We ’ re bringing on new verticals .
CLDA Mag : Is there anything else we should include here about what shippers in this segment want from carriers ?
Straub : I think the biggest point to make is that shippers want to have confidence that their partners can perform accurately and on time . I don ’ t know if that ’ s a change , but I think with the increase data visibility they ’ re noticing it more . Now that they have the raw data , they can really see how you ’ re performing . That means you must become more and more competitive to be that performer . CLDA
26 customized logistics & delivery Magazine I winter 2023