Achieving 95% Carrier Compliance Using Descartes MacroPoint™ for Real-time Freight Tracking

Best Dedicated Solutions is a third-party logistics company founded by experienced professionals with a vision for a better brokerage experience. Specializing in immediate pickup and direct delivery for consumer and industrial freight, BDS offers white glove, temperature-sensitive and high-value services.

Best Dedicated Solutions (BDS) is committed to increasing operational efficiencies while maintaining a high level of service for its freight customers who often require expedited shipping.The Descartes MacroPoint™ multimodal freight visibility platform enabled BDS to enhance customer service and increase employee productivity by automating load tracking and providing real-time freight status updates—with carrier compliance reaching 95-98%.

“The enhanced visibility provided by Descartes MacroPoint has contributed to our ability to provide a superior customer experience. This has also been a huge time saver. In fact, the productive time we have gained by automating tracking efforts is equivalent to the time of at least two employees. Real-time visibility allows our team to spend more time sourcing drivers and building relationships to serve our customers more efficiently.”

-- Jennifer Greenhill, Sr. Operations Manager, BDS

Traditionally, BDS relied on its network of 15,000-20,000 carriers for visibility into the status of their freight shipments throughout North America; however, the company struggled to obtain the timely updates their customers required. The BDS team depended on time-consuming check calls and manual processes to track 300-400 loads each day. With manual practices, carrier compliance with tracking was not where they wanted it to be. In addition, BDS had less time to spend generating revenue because the team was busy providing customers with hourly status updates. To achieve a higher level of customer service, the company needed a more efficient, less time-intensive way to monitor shipments and ensure carrier compliance.

In 2018, BDS deployed the Descartes MacroPoint multimodal, real-time freight visibility platform to help maximize carrier compliance and improve customer service. Integrated into the company’s Revenova TMS, Descartes MacroPoint provides multiple ways for carriers to provide tracking data, including using their TMS or telematics connections, or via MacroPoint for Truckers, the most downloaded tracking app of any visibility provider in the market.

As adoption of the app grew within its carrier network, BDS was able to increase the number of loads being automatically tracked, monitor shipments more closely, and proactively manage exception conditions that may impact shipment delivery for customers. Better visibility with increased carrier compliance also translated into more efficient scheduling of docks and loading/unloading resources, as well as reduced yard congestion.

The end-to-end visibility solution has also helped BDS to upgrade the customer experience. BDS employees, who are organized in customer teams known as “pods”, are responsible for all operations pertaining to their assigned customers. The ability to view the location of every shipment in real-time, combined with automatic updates on the status of each load at departure, arrival and pre-arrival intervals, means more accurate and timely information for customers.

BDS has also realized dramatic productivity gains by eliminating the need for check calls with customers and carriers. With automated, real-time load tracking, the time formerly spent on manual track and trace efforts has now shifted to more revenue-generating activities such as bidding and booking loads—and driver safety has increased.

Another benefit for BDS customers is that Descartes MacroPoint can transmit data files on freight shipments (e.g., when/where freight was picked up and delivered) directly to shippers so they can create their own reports for analysis.Results

Increased Carrier Compliance: By replacing manual load tracking practices with Descartes MacroPoint, carrier compliance now steadily performs over 95%--and has even reached 98.5%!

Improved Visibility: By integrating Descartes MacroPoint with its TMS, BDS provides customers with real-time data for their end-to-end freight movements via one platform and can readily identify potential service disruptions before they occur.

Enhanced Customer Service: Knowing the real-time status of every shipment allows BDS to alert customers about possible delivery exceptions in advance. The solution also provides shipment data files directly to BDS customers for their own reporting.

Greater Productivity: Eliminating manual tracking and recheck calls saved BDS the equivalent time of two employees, which has created more time for the team to generate revenue by booking more loads.