As any economist will tell you, supply and demand are primary drivers of price. Freight rates are no exception. When carrier supply is low and shipper demand is high, prices rise. When supply is high and demand is low, prices fall. The logistics industry refers to these conditions as tight and soft markets. An understanding […]
Freight moves a mile a minute, is it worth taking a pause to read about and review freight facilities? Nothing throws a wrench in a drivers day like unexpected delays, confusing directions or slow loading and unloading. This is a big part of why carriers prefer to haul loads from facilities they have visited in the past. […]
Today we released the 2020 Freight Insights Report, an examination of trends in the North American freight industry throughout the historic year. Convoy’s industry-leading data science and insights teams reviewed our proprietary freight data along with the best transportation and economic data that’s publicly available to assemble this report. The 2020 Freight Insights Report marks […]
What is “drop-and-hook” freight? “Drop-and-hook” is the trucking industry’s term for when a driver drops a full container at a facility and hooks their tractor to a pre-loaded trailer at the same facility. This grab and go efficiency makes drop-and-hook a win-win: reducing transportation costs for shippers, increasing potential earnings for carriers, and saving time […]
Part 1 of our case study showed how Convoy’s digital freight network provided flexible capacity for a customer when demand surged past supply chain forecasts. In part 2, we’ll explore how supply chain analytics uncovered hidden TONU (truck ordered, not used) costs, providing this customer with savings opportunities. Supply chain analytics with a digital freight […]
Business planners put a great deal of effort into demand forecasting for their supply chains. Demand forecasting seeks to predict consumer demand to inform supply chain and business operations. The more accurate the demand forecast, the more efficiently a supply chain operates. Even in typical business cycles, consumer demand is notoriously difficult to predict. 2020 […]
Macey: One of my favorite questions to ask carriers is how did you find Convoy? Isaac: I actually found Convoy on another load board. We were looking for something local to do that day and we found this shipment with Convoy as the broker. So I gave Convoy a call, and right then and there, […]
With DOT Week set for September 9 – 11, we created a list of 3 ways shippers can navigate impacts to their supply chains.
On Friday, July 10th, Convoy joined Kevin on his webinar series, Positive Matters, to discuss the current economy in regards to supply, demand, and truckload rates. In Part two of the webinar series, Kevin Rutherford and Aaron Terrazas, Convoy’s director of economic research, talked about how driver entries and exits are shaping the market, and […]
Shippers sometimes worry that the use of technology in a digital freight network (DFN) takes the place of customer service with a human touch. In fact, shippers who work with Convoy have found the opposite to be true: by automating many of the mechanical, repetitive tasks across the shipment lifecycle, the team at Convoy can […]
Supply chain visibility gives shippers awareness of how their goods move through a supply chain. This includes tracking each shipment’s location and the facilities it passes through. It also encompasses the aggregation of data that can surface trends and anomalies, and painting the bigger picture of a supply chain’s performance. The combination of micro and […]
Every day when your loads are picked up and dropped off at facilities around the country, how do you know which of your warehouses and distribution centers are performing well and which aren’t? For example, if one of your warehouses started experiencing higher detention rates, how quickly would you find out, and how easily could […]
Asset-based carriers are trucking companies that work directly with shippers and own their equipment. Asset carriers can be a reliable partner, but this depends on how well the carrier’s capabilities align with a shipper’s freight network and transportation needs.
One of the biggest benefits of a transportation management system (TMS) like Convoy Connect is that it captures all of the activity of managing freight, such as picking carriers and receiving bids, and turns it into metrics for shippers to understand the performance of their routing guide. When shippers learn about this, their response is […]
For many U.S. households and businesses, April forced us to think hard about what’s truly “essential”. Factory output and retail sales data reported this morning by the Federal Reserve Board and Census Bureau provide a quantitative window onto those priorities. It comes as no surprise that April was a brutal month for the U.S. economy […]
Let’s face it, there are a lot of things outside of our control right now. Despite all the ups and downs in the freight market, there is one thing that shippers should always be sure of – and that is the quality and reliability of your freight partners. Use these five questions to check-in with […]
The load boards that make up the “spot market” connect shippers with carriers. Regardless of your reason for tendering spot loads, understanding the forces that drive spot freight rates is useful knowledge for any shipper.
We live in uncertain times. If you are a logistics director, you are acutely aware of this. You are worried about the health of your employees as well as that of your customers, partners and suppliers. You’re worried whether demand for your business is going to go up or down over the coming months. If […]
It has been two months since President Trump declared the national state of emergency. As states begin to reopen, questions linger around what recovery means for the freight industry. In Convoy’s mid-year market outlook for 2020, we share our latest analysis on freight rates and supply chain trends, covering the following questions: How will reopening […]
Freight brokers can reduce complexity for shippers by finding drivers for their loads. Learn about the strengths and weaknesses of traditional freight brokerages, and why many leading shippers are allocating more truckloads to digital freight networks.