Trucking Companies Need to Flex in the Face of Disruption

This is an unprecedented time of disruption and volatility. The pandemic is showing the need to be more diversified. Trucking companies built around a specific customer base shut down when that industry shut down. Oversaturation in one market or customer base means disruptions hit harder. Companies supporting the food and beverage supply chain saw traffic jump exponentially, as grocery stores remained open and in high demand.

The ability to see these potential events before they happen, develop strategies to reduce risk, and provide the ability to flex up or down will be key to success in the market.

Independent owner-operators may be the most diversified, because they can quickly pivot to haul a variety of items. They are spot providers who are not bound by dedicated contracts and pick up from load to load. But even their back-up plan to switch to another industry like construction when volumes are down is ineffective in a pandemic.

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Author details Greg Karr – Service Delivery Manager, Invent NA Greg is a Manager within Capgemini’s Supply Chain Technology Practice.  He has 10+ years in the Transportation and Logistics industry specializing in Transportation Process Improvements, Transportation Management Systems, End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility, Control Tower Solutions, and Operations/Systems Orchestration. He has extensive experience in leading strategic logistics initiatives for industry leading global companies in the Manufacturing, Food and Beverage, Automotive, Consumer and Packaged Goods, and 3PL/4PL industries.  Greg’s experience includes managing large scale technology implementations and partnerships, operations and sourcing cost-outs, and network optimization and modeling.