Consider a Joint Business Planning Meeting with your Carrier

Your fourth quarter is underway and you’re probably beginning your business’ annual planning. As a shipper in the current freight market, you’re well aware of the tight capacity and issues with global supply chains. You may have some concerns about your shipping needs as we close out this year and look ahead to the next year.

It’s important to work with your carrier to ensure that they know about your changing capacity needs. Carriers like Old Dominion value maintaining a strong service level for you, so knowing ahead of time what your freight volumes will look like over the next 12 months helps us plan to supply you with the capacity you need.

Consider talking to your freight carrier about a joint business planning meeting that reviews the past year's performance and sets expectations for the year ahead. During these planning meetings, talk about the KPIs and measurements that are important to your business. A good carrier is listening to what matters to you and putting a plan of action behind it. Do you have a new product rollout? Do you have a new customer that requires time-sensitive deliveries? Do you need more visibility in your daily shipments? Are you expanding to international or offshore markets? Information like this is important for your carrier to know ahead of time to ensure the service you expect. Your joint business planning meeting is an opportunity to learn about services the carrier offers that may better fit your needs.

It boils down to this: gone are the days of transactional relationships with your carrier. Transportation and logistics is a relationship business that requires listening to each other’s needs and measuring performance. If the shipper-carrier relationship becomes less transactional and more of a partnership, performance will follow.

Talk to your OD Solutions Specialist about your annual goals and expectations. Our team is standing by ready to help you navigate your shipping needs.