How to Manage Supply Chain Challenges in 2021

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3PL Can Help Mitigate Supply Chain Challenges

A recent op-ed by Daniel Yergin and Peter Tirschwell (read here – external link) highlighted supply chain challenges and disruptions and noted how the issue is likely to continue into next year. If you are wondering how to manage supply chain challenges at your company, keep reading.

At Customodal, we are committed to our clients’ success. During this unprecedented challenge, we’ve doubled down on ensuring our existing clients are receiving the best communication and expert commentary.

We closely monitor changing market conditions and tactics to optimize rate and transit time.

“If anything, we’re over-communicating with clients to stay close, and hear their frustrations and problems more clearly and address them more quickly….or to adjust expectations where necessary,” said founder Mike Eberl.

Eberl frequently uses a “canoe on a river” analogy to describe the movement of freight in the US economy: Moving with the current is obviously more productive than trying to battle against it. Additionally, the different paths available to the canoeist are similar to the ways different shippers cope with freight market conditions. There is no wrong path, only those that are filled more or less with eddies, pools, rapids, logjams, and easy paddling.

Having a 3PL is a great resource during challenging times. Benefits of working with a 3PL include:

• Communication & Perspective

A good 3PL, like Customodal, is providing ongoing commentary about changing market conditions across different modes of freight movement, helping clients forecast future conditions, and leading in helping clients manage the expectations of stakeholders that are impacted by higher transport costs or less dependable transit times.

All the while, they are helping you focus on what’s important within all the news and fear-mongering.

• Tactics Adjustment

Right now is a bad time to be negotiating for bigger discounts from carriers, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to mitigate cost increases or even hold costs in this environment. It’s also an excellent time to be positioning for when the markets normalize…and even reverse.

“Transportation is cyclical and using the right tactics at the right part of the cycle is experience good 3PLs share for their clients’ benefit,” said Eberl. “Today that may be about being a ‘shipper of choice,’ or shifting peak monthly shipping from the last day to mid-month… or even finding ways to orient freight more vertically instead of beating carriers over the head for discounts.”

• Time

There is so much going on in business today that very few have time to keep up with everything. If you are focused on freight…what other part of your business are you not keeping up on? A trusted logistics partner allows you to leverage their experience while you focus on core areas of your business.

Contact Customodal to learn more!

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