Many shippers spend countless hours trying to cover loads when carriers fall off at the last minute or fail to honor their contracted rates.
Inevitably, this leads to a spike in cost, low on-time performance and ultimately is an inefficient use of valuable time. This is why Spot developed its exception freight program, which allows for Spot’s customers to avoid excessive freight costs and to save time by knowing their freight is covered in literally every circumstance.
What Is Exception Freight?
Exception freight can arise for various reasons, such as loads being dropped by primary carriers or falling through the entire routing guide, loads with less than 24 hours’ notice, or low volume/temporary lanes with no rates on file. Covering these types of loads where no standard plan exists can prove to be difficult and time-consuming, especially in a capacity-strained market.
How the Program Works
Each exception freight program is customized to meet the unique needs of every customer…from the pricing structure to the program implementation and the back-end reporting. As an example, one of Spot’s customers (a multinational packaging company), receives a 100% coverage rate when primary carriers are not utilized thus eliminating all spot quoting and struggling to secure capacity. These rates are subject to our “true cost” guarantee, which includes a quarterly cash rebate to the customer if Spot’s actual margin exceeds the fixed profit margin and standard weekly reporting.
Results
This same customer received a rebate of approximately $90,000 in its first quarter under Spot’s exception freight program and saved over 1,000 man hours vs. their prior coverage model. In addition to these savings, Spot’s customer now has year-round pricing stability and carrier capacity, improved load coverage, and increased on-time delivery to their end customers.