Case Study: How Manifold Boosted Stevens Trucking’s Bid Rate, Market Loads, and Spot Margins
Challenge
Stevens Trucking, a carrier in Oklahoma faced challenges in their load searching and booking processes. They had access to lots of great freight but their load planners were spending considerable time searching for loads to book between what was available with their preferred customers and other major and minor 3PLs. Booking loads across multiple platforms and customers was not only inefficient, but sub-optimal for their margins.
Solution
Stevens Trucking partnered with Manifold to solve this issue. Manifold provides a spot freight aggregation service with bidding tools, automated rate negotiations, and data analytics for fleets that allow them to find better fit freight for their trucks, the tools to bid on those loads better, and ways to review and analyze their performance for business intelligence. Manifold’s platform provided immediate value.
Results
Increased Bid Rate: Stevens Trucking increased their bid rate by 14% after adopting Manifold.
Increased Margins: By being able to compare all of their customer spot loads at the same time, they were able to increase their margins by 11% across all spot loads booked.
Better Key Market Activity: Through tools like Manifold’s smart lane search and network view, Stevens Trucking increased their activity in their primary markets by 9%, strengthening their position with strategic customers
Increased Brokerage activity: Additionally, Stevens Trucking sent 9% more loads to their brokerage division as a result of an increase in won loads from Manifold’s technology.
Additional Benefits
Stevens Trucking was also able to identify trends in their customer’s spot freight and recognized consistency in load postings on the same lanes and were able to convert those insights into new contracts with those customers.
Conclusion
Manifold directly improved several of Stevens Trucking’s key metrics relating to spot freight performance and efficiency. Not only did Stevens Trucking increase their margin but they saved time and reduced complexity in their load searching and booking processes. This also demonstrates the power of technology across the value chain in an operational environment like booking loads.