The Future of Logistics

Changing the game: Core business model, plus ecosystem of value

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

The companies growing rapidly and staying relevant to their customers are offering much more than their core business model – they are offering “core-plus,” some form of additional value creation or frictionless experience. These companies are focusing on developing a rich ecosystem of partnerships and leveraging those partnerships to provide a robust system of offerings rather than sticking just to their core business models.

Surge...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/changing-the-game-core-business-model-plus-ecosystem-of-value

Why limit your provider mix?

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

It always surprises me when anybody chooses to arbitrarily limit their options. In this conversation, we’re discussing limiting the number of brokers shippers work with based on, well, the number of brokers they work with rather than based on the specific strengths and weaknesses of their broker partners. 

When it comes to motor carriers, the selection of carrier partners is much more deliberately made on the strengths of those carriers....

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/why-limit-your-provider-mix

All machines need maintenance: Your broker is the mechanic, not the operator

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

So much of the conversation recently has been dominated by digital transformation of the supply chain that I thought it might be nice to take a moment to reflect on what got us here.

In the years before APIs, 10 years in my case, our approach was always to provide value as a strategic partner by positioning our relationship with customers in places that needed tweaking — maintenance. Maintenance in routing guides/supply chain can be short...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/all-machines-need-maintenance-your-broker-is-the-mechanic-not-the-operator

Obstacles to Implementing FreightTech

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

FreightTech is good, there is no doubt about that. However, the rub is that it is only as good as the team who is willing to use it. Companies can implement and deploy a new technology or capability, but if they don’t get buy-in from the team and incentivize around it, then it may just essentially be a shiny new thing collecting dust. 

Buy-in can be anything from proper training and awareness, to restructuring incentive compensation to...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/obstacles-to-implementing-freighttech

Routing guides are going digital

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

Routing guides are always going to fail. The basic reason is that forecast is linear but demand fluctuates so they are not always in perfect alignment — especially when taking lead time into account. The end result is tender rejection, a failed routing guide and a need to source capacity in the spot market. 

Let’s take a moment to contemplate a routing guide that never fails. Let’s talk about one that incorporates a version of the spot...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/routing-guides-are-going-digital

Don’t compete with noncompetes

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

As we navigate our way through the Great Resignation, which is happening at the same time our nation is facing supply chain challenges of all kinds and thus creating intense competition for talent, I thought it would be worth taking a moment to consider competing for talented logisticians in a fair and reasonable way. 

As an employer, I frequently encounter the issue of restrictive agreements when interviewing prospective candidates and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/dont-compete-with-noncompetes

The dark rate: Broker-to-Carrier Contract

Most benchmarking rate tools divide rates into two categories: either shipper-to-carrier contract rates or broker-to-carrier spot rates. There is a third category that nobody really talks about: broker-to-carrier contract. Let me set the stage first. One of the most reliable ways that the tools gather their information is to ask motor carriers and brokers to export their load information to them every night in Excel or some flat file. That information is separated into those two categories...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/the-dark-rate-broker-to-carrier-contract

Tech in logistics: Disruption or distraction?

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

Until recent history, all of the top brokerages have been profitable companies. This is not the case with all of the investor-backed technology companies currently taking up market share, which leads me to ask the question: Is it better to be a technology company learning supply chain or a supply chain company learning to adopt technology?

There is an old joke in our industry: “How do you become a millionaire in the trucking business? You...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tech-in-logistics-disruption-or-distraction

API vs. RPA — what’s the difference?

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

Do you remember studying something in school and asking yourself or your teacher, “When am I ever going to use this?” Well I asked that once of a professor when talking about a calculus class. He explained that we were not studying calculus because we were going to use it in whatever jobs we ended up having. We were studying it to learn how to solve complex, multistep problems: “I know you are not going to use the quadratic equation in...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/api-vs-rpa-whats-the-difference

3 reasons perfectly executed routing guides fail 100% of the time

By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation

The most well-designed routing guides are going to fail. Even seasoned supply chain teams and managers working with a roster of reliable service providers are going to design routing guide failures into their transportation execution strategy. 

When I first started writing and speaking on this topic, national tender rejection rates were around 10%. Currently national tender rejection rates are hovering around 40% and projected to stay...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/3-reasons-perfectly-executed-routing-guides-fail-100-of-the-time

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