Schneider Logistics Releases 2019 Transportation Industry Review To Help Shippers Prepare For The Rest Of 2019

Schneider Logistics published its 2019 Transportation Industry Review, arming shippers with the information they need to make short- and long-term distribution plans, budget freight costs and provide industry context to their broader audiences.

Schneider's supply chain professionals also use the information featured in the report to help customers build routing guide strategies and multi-year cost improvement plans.

Last year proved to be a challenging time for supply chain leaders, with linehaul rates climbing 15 percent and the cost of securing a truck through the spot market increasing an average of 20.6 percent over the year.

"Leading analysts believe increases will continue in 2019, but at a lower rate than last year. Now is the time to improve your network's resiliency and cost positioning," said incoming Schneider National President and CEO Mark Rourke in the report. "Your objective over the next two years should be on balancing the value triangle of cost, service and capacity."

The report utilizes expertise from inside the Schneider enterprise, as well as specialized knowledge from outside consultants. It contains several different outlooks and a handful of how-to sections, providing shippers several ways to improve their businesses.

Outlook sections include:

Overall economic outlook
Truckload rate outlook
Less-than-truckload (LTL) outlook
Intermodal outlook
Flatbed outlook
Bulk/energy outlook
Air freight outlook
Ocean outlook
Transload/port drayage outlook
Warehousing and distribution outlook
Fuel outlook
Regulatory and tariff outlook
Livingston International, an expert in customs brokerage, trade consulting and international freight forwarding services, provided the air freight, ocean and regulatory outlooks.

How-to sections include:

How to: Become a shipper of choice
How to: Run a network bid
How to: Run a BidSmart® Auction
How to: Complete a network optimization study
How to: Identify and quantify continuous improvement

Key highlights cited last year in Schneider Logistics' 2018 Transportation Industry Review included demand outpacing capacity in the first quarter, significant deterioration of primary contracted carrier utilization, spot freight cost peaking almost 40 percent above contracted transportation rates and overall shipper freight costs increasing.

Insight gained from the 2018 release prompted prompted several of the company's customers to strengthen their transportation routing guides.

"Supply chain leaders that rely on Schneider Logistics' expertise experienced favorable linehaul rates relative to both DAT and Cass industry benchmarks," Schneider General Manager of Supply Chain Management Michael Kukiela said in the report. "While Schneider wasn't immune from the impact of a tight transportation market, it successfully offset a portion of the increased costs through the results of its continuous improvement program, which yielded a 59 percent ROI for our supply chain management customers. Aggregating our $2.5 billion of customer-managed freight into collaborative bids, streamlining the carrier experience and driving competitive rates meant shippers that partnered with Schneider were better off in 2018."

Schneider's 2019 Transportation Industry Review once again helps supply chain leaders prepare for what is to come throughout the rest of the year. Proper preparation can be the difference between weathering the storm and being swept up in it.