Supply chains are most effective when they’re built on strong relationships. Some of those relationships are geographically near you — operators of a local transport hub, perhaps, or a trustworthy carrier representative who knows and cares about your business. Then there are all those critical relationships with service providers farther afield. To make an important delivery window, for example, you may find yourself relying on a transportation provider thousands of miles away on the other side of the country.
A smooth freight operation needs both. It’s precisely in response to this complicated state of affairs that IL2000 makes a point of giving out both a regional and a national Carrier Of The Year Award. Otherwise, the picture would be incomplete.
In this blog post, we’ll show you how IL2000 can help you maintain strong relationships, both near and far.
1. Select the right carrier for the right shipment
With IL2000, your carrier selection process is streamlined via our proprietary TMS software. Using the platform, customers can rapidly compare rate quotes to make optimal shipment decisions based on cost and service. You gain invaluable access to a vast network of carriers, with all the prerequisites for a reliable outcome baked into our platform.
But what about the leverage you have through existing carrier relationships? Do you have to lose that in the transition?
Not at all. The majority of IL2000’s customers begin working with these kinds of relationships in their back pocket. Using our TMS doesn’t stop you from calling your local carrier. You maintain that control, with all those contacts and shipment options readily accessible and available via a centralized system.
2. Adopt a data-driven approach
Without a reliable dataset, suboptimal shipment decisions can enter standard practice. In the rush to keep things moving, it’s easy to make shipment decisions out of habit or based on financial assumptions that gradually move out of sync with the freight marketplace. What’s different when you begin to engage those same carriers through our TMS?
Here’s where that key difference begins. Note the field labeled “exceptions.”
Through our TMS, you can still activate all your existing contracts via this field. You can still pick up the phone, for that matter, and capitalize on your existing relationships. Now, however, our team and yours can analyze the outcomes as part of our quarterly business review process.
If you’re missing opportunities for savings we can weed those choices out, transitioning away from those carrier decisions that aren’t getting the results you want. We’ll work with your freight team to identify where you could save more money on freight, what you can do to overcome your supply chain challenges, and how you can continually improve supply chain efficiency.
This all begins with a TMS that equips you with a powerful evidence base to systematically reality-check these assumptions … and it ends with a team of supply chain professionals crunching the data to reveal even more efficiencies.
3. Partner with true supply chain experts
Then there’s the wide spectrum of supply chain optimization opportunities you gain from building a relationship with IL2000. We’ve talked a bit, of course, about our TMS. This tool grows with your company. It integrates with your systems. Above all else, it lends structure and precision to the countless decisions — small and large — that shape your freight operation. You can dig deeper here into why our TMS outshines the rest.
- You also get the ongoing benefit of routine supply chain audits. If you’re being overcharged, our supply chain team notices it, notifies you, and investigates. You can learn more about our freight audit service here.
- If something “goes south” during a shipment, our rapid response team is there to troubleshoot, getting your shipment back on track – day or night.
- Finally, bringing us full circle back to analysis, your relationship with IL2000 is built on the foundation of a dedicated pod of supply chain experts. Their job is to enhance your logistics insight with quarterly business reviews, market analysis, and a keen eye for emerging trends.
Partnering with us makes your supply chain leaner, more reliable, and more resilient.
Connect the dots for a golden future
Your freight operation’s success depends on strong relationships.
Your local relationships form a vital foundation – efficient, trustworthy carriers in your neck of the woods will pave the way to a strong hometown advantage.
Then you need that all-important national network. Having solid carrier choices in this domain is going to position you for agility and lasting operational resilience.
And surrounding all those relationships is your partnership with IL2000. We equip you with the management tools, BI, and expertise to choose wisely, learn from the past, and build a highway to continuous improvement.