How LTL Online Education Can Navigate Post-Pandemic Success

The supply chain in a post pandemic-world

“The new normal”—it’s been a commonly used phrase over the last 12 months. For many companies, this concept has come to represent the future they envision on the other side of the pandemic. Some companies envision greater productivity driven by increased connectivity between employees, critical processes and powerful tools. Other companies look toward technology implementations that will automate greater tracking capabilities and improve visibility to product inventory across decentralized networks. In transportation—specifically LTL supply chains—companies are working towards both goals simultaneously.

The thing about the “new normal,” though, is that it is an end state—where one hopes to be when the pandemic subsides. Getting to that end state requires both an understanding of the critical issues the pandemic uncovered and also an understanding of the emerging solutions that can be used to push forward into a more efficient, productive future.

As more and more companies have this realization, demand for supply chain education has seen a dramatic increase since the middle of 2020. In one recent interview with SupplyChainBrain, professor and director of supply chain management at the University of Illinois Gies College of Business, Nehemiah Scott, said he has seen renewed interest from students who want to better understand the changes supply chains have encountered over the past year—from consumer buying patterns, to the inability of suppliers to produce products quickly enough, or retailers to maintain adequate inventory levels. Attendance at the Jump Start 2021 conference reached record highs, as more than 1,000 supply chain professionals—including carriers, providers and shippers—all came with insightful questions about the state of the industry, technology and best practices.

More than ever, supply professionals seek cutting-edge industry knowledge and tools to create shipping strategies that will allow their businesses to hit the ground running as the pandemic subsides.

Finding the right supply chain education program that fits your needs

Finding the right continuing education classes, conferences, seminars and topics during a pandemic remains easier said than done, however. While university supply chain programs have managed to adapt some classes to e-learning, they don’t have the full infrastructure in place to maximize the distance learning curriculum or deliver an immersive experience.

This is where SMC³’s LTL online education and certification program fills a vital gap in the current supply chain education landscape. Designed from the ground up for online students, the SMC³ LTL online education program delivers a flexible, on-demand learning model that doesn’t sacrifice valuable lessons in favor of online simplicity. Offering the industry’s first path to LTL certification, each course delivers up-to-date content across a wide variety of complex LTL topics including:

• The fundamentals of LTL
• LTL operations
• Carrier pricing and costing
• LTL laws, regulations and business analytics

By investing in education now, LTL professionals have a powerful opportunity to get ahead of the curve and identify emerging insights that can help them keep up-to-date and momentum going. There has never been a greater need for professionals who are well-versed in innovative solutions and technologies that can help guide organizations out of the pandemic and into supply chain success.

Register today for a special live LTL203: Carrier Pricing and Costing session beginning April 15, 2021, featuring industry experts from around the supply chain industry who will discuss the fundamentals of LTL pricing, factors affecting costing and more. Sign up today!