The Great Freight Recession has officially come to an end. As the market shifts, shippers should prepare for rising costs in the new year. Now is the time for companies to optimize their operations and onboard new strategic providers to safeguard themselves over the next year.
For mid-market and enterprise shippers, building a Shared Truckload strategy into their 2025 transportation plan could mean the difference between thriving and barely surviving.
“We’ve seen large, sophisticated shippers come to us to incorporate Shared Truckload as part of their overall network strategy,” Flock Freight CFO & COO, Pat Dillon said. “As the market environment is shifting, the need to drive cost-effectiveness without sacrificing speed, service, and resiliency is more important than ever.”
Flock Freight converts the 43% of truckloads moving partially empty in the U.S. into savings for shippers and earnings for carriers through their Shared Truckload (STL) model. Flock leverages their patented machine learning technology to find and fill the empty space in trucks, identifying the best STL combinations.
“Flock unlocks capacity in partially empty truckloads that no other provider can,” Dillon said. “By pairing underutilized truckloads into a single Shared Truckload, shippers only pay for the space they need while allowing our carrier partners to earn more.”
With Shared Truckload, shippers can access significant savings while ensuring their freight stays on the same truck from pickup to delivery, greatly reducing the chances of damage, delays, and theft.
Over the past year, Flock scaled partnerships with many new strategic customers amidst market headwinds. These new shippers turned to Flock with a heightened focus on future-proofing their supply chain and uncovering optimization opportunities that other providers haven’t been able to find.
“Partnering with Flock this year has been a highly strategic and valuable decision for our business. Previously, we shipped anything over 10 pallets via partially empty truckloads to ensure timely delivery to big box retailers, effectively paying to ship air,” Season Products CFO Jordan Howard said. “By converting a significant portion of our mid-sized freight to Flock’s Shared Truckload service, we have reduced our costs by 30% this year.”
Flock’s depth of experience with big box retailers and warehouses across the U.S. means the company understands the requirements and can meet the standards of even the largest enterprise shippers. Combined with its STL model, this expertise is why large, sophisticated companies are increasingly choosing Flock Freight for their critical shipments to big box retailers.
With returns becoming more and more frequent over the years, Flock scaled to support many customers with reverse logistics for big box retailers in 2024. This dependable and efficient service takes a significant amount of pressure off companies as they navigate evolving end-consumer behavior.
For shippers with large amounts of freight coming to or from a single location, Flock can also analyze their historical shipment data to create more comprehensive pooling optimization opportunities within their entire network, leading to an average of 30% additional savings.
“During a period of significant growth for Olipop, partnering with Flock has been an important enabler of service and productivity,” Transportation Manager at Olipop Sonny Vongdachan said. “By leveraging FlockDirect® service, we’ve enhanced our network, reducing the number of trucks needed from our warehouses and avoiding costly OTIF fines. This has allowed us to further expand into big box retailers efficiently, improving delivery performance, cost-effectiveness, and service KPIs while supporting our continued growth.”
Flock has also opened up more ways for carriers to haul Shared Truckloads over the past year, helping them fill trucks and increase earnings while continuing to build a more reliable network for customers. This growing and highly efficient network makes it possible for shippers to find reliable capacity at competitive rates, even in a rising cost environment.
This top-tier network – combined with the inherent cost-savings associated with Shared Truckload – gives shippers the best chance at succeeding without compromising profitability in the year to come.
Flock’s mission, however, does not stop at creating efficiencies and helping customers save money. The company is also laser-focused on providing excellent customer service, making the entire process of trying something new, like Shared Truckload, less intimidating for shippers.
“Switching over our freight to FlockDirectⓇ was the best choice for our companies. Freight, which can be one of the most difficult and stressful parts of the supply chain, is easier to manage when working with Flock,” Purchasing Manager at Reborn Cabinets, Jesse Sanchez-Mendoza, said.
With the introduction of innovative technologies and new strategic customers in 2024, Flock Freight continues to demonstrate they are the ideal partner for shippers looking to successfully navigate the evolving market landscape.
Click here to learn more about how Flock can help you navigate the changing market.
