Dedicated and/or 3rd Party Logistics Services
Dedicated Logistics Division & 3PL Services
Outsourcing freight management is huge. In 2006 the government reported that freight managing third party logistics companies (3PLs) controlled $103 Billion of the $671 Billion freight market! That’s a far cry from when Tucker started in this business, when our segment controlled only a few million dollars.
Tucker’s Dedicated Logistics Division is our version of Dedicated 3PL services. Our customized and high-end logistics support provided, the systems and procedures for control and our personnel allocated to this Division are focused on managing our clients’ inbound freight, outbound freight or both, on a larger scale and by mutual contract.
What’s in a Name?
In the 3PL business, there are safe sounding names and there are “sure bets.” Tucker’s your sure bet for a solid freight managing 3PL experience. Where so many firms go wrong is assuming the big name can do the 3PL job effectively. Unfortunately, most of the big names are busy learning the basics of the 3PL business. And while Tucker is always learning, our resources are spent honing our already refined and responsive services.
Dedicated Logistics is Tucker’s fastest growing and largest single business segment. Tucker manages processes for multiple Fortune 100 customers as well as other clients including outbound freight and/or inbound freight, high value products like prescription and OTC pharmaceuticals, highly sensitive energy industry freight and more. Our programs are designed to save money, increase performance, improve reporting and cost allocation and gain better visibility and control of supply chains. Our IT systems stay continually updated to remain best of class.
Ensuring Product Security
Cargo security is possibly the number one issue relating to freight today. Tucker handles world class multi-million dollar pharmaceutical truckloads, is U. S. Defense Department approved to haul military freight to and from nearly every military installation in the U. S., and we are U. S. Treasury approved and have a long history of moving United States currency from U. S. Mints. We know security.
But how do we handle issues relating to security? Basically, we do whatever our customers request us to do. Every customer is different, with very different requirements. Every shipper of sensitive cargo has its own risk management requirements, like each type of customer mentioned above.
Most security sensitive customers require us to provide a variety of documentation on any carrier we utilize. Once Tucker qualifies a carrier, sometimes a customer does its own research and authorizes that carrier for our use. Some customers will provide Tucker with a checklist of carrier needs including authority, insurance, DOT safety ratings, SafeStat scores (if fully functioning), a completed safety or security questionnaire, driver background checks, or even a “Site Access Agreement” the carrier must agree to and sign prior to entering any sensitive facility, etc.
The point is, in addition to Tucker’s own scrutiny of carriers, which we believe to be best in class, we perform any additional screening and/or ongoing qualification that our customers demand.
Please review our information pages entitled “Insurance & Risk Management” and “Quality Carriers” for a detailed discussion on our carrier selection procedures.
Dedicated to Learning and Leading
Tucker Company takes an active role in many of the major industry trade associations. Tucker is involved on the Boards of several groups, the committees of others and attends and occasionally presents at many more. Our focus is to stay current with all new trends, news, hot issues and best practices. Talk to us more about our industry involvement and activity.
How Do You Know if our Dedicated Logistics Division and a 3PL Contract is Right for You?
If your firm is experiencing problems with freight or is being harmed by customer service issues relating to freight, please talk to us. We can probably help.
What Customers are Generally Served by Tucker’s Dedicated Logistics Division?
Tucker’s Dedicated Logistics Division is generally reserved for clients who contract with Tucker to handle a significant logistics project as a “single-source” i.e., inbound and/or outbound freight management, prescription pharmaceutical shipments. Depending on the details and our resources required, sometimes customers with annual freight spends at Tucker over $500,000 will be serviced by this Division.
What’s the First Step?
A Meeting
The first step is a 45 to 90 minute meeting with a Tucker representative. At that meeting we review a variety of questions to get a preliminary idea of your specific needs and the service issues you most want to address. Over the years we have found it to be very important that an organization’s top management approve of the concept.
Step Two
Free Audit of Your Freight Bills and Procedures
If after review of the information and materials collected from our meeting, we mutually believe there is merit to moving forward, we request approximately 3 months of freight bills to audit. In some cases we may request to interview or at least request procedural or other background information from other departments of your company, like salespeople, customer service, shipping, etc.
By performing the freight bill audit, we get a crystal clear picture of what you are shipping, where it is going and what you are paying. You provide the bills; we assure confidentiality and do the data input and analysis.
Step Three
Presentation of Preliminary Findings and Our Proposed Program
In approximately three weeks from receipt of your freight bills and the answers to our questions, we present you with our findings and an outline of our proposed program for savings and service enhancements.
Step Four
Agreement to Proceed, Final Program Presentation and Implementation
After presentation of our proposed program, should you wish for us to quantify our program, establish benchmarks and implement servicing the program, we will present you with a contractual agreement for your review and request you to provide us with a note authorizing us to negotiate rates with carriers on your behalf. Once both items are received, we lock in the pricing with carriers and begin service on an agreed date.
How are Savings Benchmarked?
When the freight bill audit is complete we use these past freight bills to establish benchmarks. We create a spreadsheet and insert the benchmarks in order to report to you how much we can save you in freight dollars. If you accept our offer to manage your freight, you will get savings reports against benchmarks every month.
Hard and Soft Savings
In addition to the freight dollar savings, we save you significant accounting expense with our once a period statement billing. No matter how many carriers are used – LTL or Truckload – all freight bills for that period are attached to one statement. This reduces the time and aggravation it takes you to process freight bills. Additionally, the bills you receive are twice pre-audited by Tucker Company for accuracy.
We streamline communication requirements. You do not need to know which trucker took which shipment. Anyone in your firm can trace any shipment in seconds with one toll-free call or visit to the web. One Tucker contact, with a cross-trained backup person, manages all of your firm’s freight, and one web site contains all your firm’s shipment tracking information.
Customized Reports Give You an Edge
Once we begin handling all of your company’s freight and all the shipping data are entered into our computer system, we have the ability to custom tailor spreadsheet reports to tell you virtually anything about your freight patterns and costs you could wish. These tools have proven invaluable to some of our customers.
The insight these reports give you could help change the way you do business forever or open new market opportunities; a value far beyond the freight bill savings or the visibility and control leverage |
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