During his 34 years at SMC³, Danny Slaton was lucky enough to experience seismic shifts in the logistics and supply chain industry – first on the front lines of the computerization of the supply chain and then as an executive making sense of a post-deregulation transportation world. Slaton retired from his career at SMC³ following the Jump Start 2019 logistics conference, and in his three decades at the company, he saw a lot of change.

The SMC³ team has been hard at work cooking up numerous automated messaging options for shippers and 3PLs. Learn more about SMC³’s cornucopia of APIs.

Volume LTL deals with shipments that won’t fill an entire truck, but don’t fit into contracted LTL rates. These goods can move on a carrier’s backhaul or chronic empty lanes and are priced at spot-market rates. With volume LTL, customers only pay the going rate for the space their freight occupies. Volume LTL is mutually beneficial for shippers and carriers.

SMC³ works with some of the leading service providers in the supply chain industry, giving them the tools to optimize their LTL operations. Frank Hurst, president of Roadrunner Freight, recently spoke with SMC³ about how the company uses its logistics technology products and how the carrier views innovation.

Less than truckload shipments make up a given company’s overall freight spend, but making sure these shipments are rated correctly, sent expeditiously and arrive at their destination undamaged, takes care and attention. Without the right technologies, it’s nearly impossible to drive the complexities out of the LTL shipment lifecycle. SMC³’s CzarLite XL and RateWare XL help connect shippers with the optimal carrier for their needs based on qualities like price and customer service.

The activity-based freight costing model, Cost Intelligence System, allows carriers to analyze transportation costs at the load level and optimize shipment profitability and improve customer service. The result is a unique set of data points – not a freight costing average.