Four Best Practices for Technology in an LTL Environment
Authored by SMC³ on June 14, 2024
Technology plays a central role in the Less-than-truckload (LTL) industry. While the trucking industry as a whole has been slower to adopt new technology, it’s apparent today that technology solutions are where to turn to optimize freight spend, achieve shipment visibility and streamline transportation planning.
During the fourth and final session of the SMC3’s Spring 2024 Continuing LTL 202 Hybrid series, panelists Avi Geller, founder and CEO of Maven Machines, and Dwain Key, senior vice president of operations at Ward Trucking, provided their perspectives and best practices on how to leverage technology to advance the LTL industry. Geller founded Maven 10 years ago, after working in software development for various non-transportation companies. Key served in the Navy as a nuclear reactor machinist before learning the ins and outs of trucking.
- Embrace Change to Move Forward
Sticking with manual solutions or outdated technology is a sure-fire way to hinder progress in the LTL sector. But many people get comfortable doing things a certain way and change can seem daunting, said Key.
“In the Navy, I learned a lot about how to fight a modern-day war with 1980s technology,” said Key. “And that’s pretty much what trucking is today.”
Geller agreed that discomfort with change is a factor in the industry’s reluctance to embrace new technology. But he also noted that many of the technology-enabling tools available today weren’t around 10 years ago.
He pointed to the technical advancements that needed to take place over the past decade before being able to run software more powerfully and cheaper on the cloud rather than an on-premises server. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, ChatGPT and other revolutionary technologies also didn’t exist.
- Technology Delivers Value—at a Lower Cost
The panel agreed that technology is advancing faster than ever before. That’s due in part to today’s LTL technology being fairly low cost compared to a decade ago. Yet it delivers major value to the industry.
“There’s a lot of buzz about what we can do [with technology] and how we can become more profitable,” said Key.
Geller stressed the need for constant conversation and collaboration to determine a good ratio of cost to value. “It ends up being a combination of technology, implementation, training, processes, structure and the day-to-day uses of it. We provide a tool, but the carrier is the one that uses the tool,” he said.
- Think Long Range About Technology Needs
Rather than focusing on every problem that’s occurring today, Key advised carriers to take a longer-range approach to the problems they will need to solve in five to ten years down the road. “If you’re trying to solve for a problem today, it will be yesterday’s issue by the time you get done,” he said.
“Have a forward-looking mindset and think about where we are going, not just how do I keep the ship level right now,” said Key.
“It all comes down to what outcomes an organization wants to achieve through technology,” said Geller. The panelists encouraged all constituents in the industry to attend SMC3 conferences and Maven events to keep pace with the changes happening in LTL technology.
- It’s about More Than TMS
In recent years, some organizations have taken the step to implement transportation management systems (TMS) to improve visibility into the supply chain. But as Geller noted, a TMS on its own is best suited for back office operations.
Maven has developed dozens and dozens of integrations for TMS that make the technology more functional on the execution side. For carriers, Key said technology can help you learn about your organization and your customers.
“We know more about our shippers and individual shipments, the types of deliveries they have, delivery times and their areas classified,” Key said. “This allows us to act and make better business decisions faster than ever before.”
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