Beverage
Which loads belong on your own trucks?
An international beverage company runs a private fleet and calls in outside carriers when demand or price says to. We took three weeks of shipments from two of its facilities and sorted every load.
- Who
- International beverage company
- Data
- Three weeks, two facilities
- Fleet
- 13 and 15 trucks
- Scope
- Fleet vs. common carrier
What was going on
A private fleet is cheapest when it runs full and expensive when it sits or runs short. Easy to ask, hard to answer from the data: at each facility, which loads should go on company trucks and which should go to a common carrier?
What we found
| Facility | Fleet | Drivers | Finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location one | 13 trucks | 15 | Fleet can handle every load |
| Location two | 15 trucks | 18 | Demand outruns the fleet at times; loads sorted fleet vs. carrier |
At the second location we worked through delivery deadlines, transit times, hours of service and delivery windows to decide, load by load, which freight belonged on the fleet and which should go to a carrier.
What it gave them
- Trucks and drivers matched to the work, including when slip seats made sense
- A clear cost comparison between their own fleet and a common carrier
- Load decisions that kept to their service level agreements
- Known capacity limits, so delays could be planned around instead of discovered
- A basis for sizing the fleet and negotiating carrier contracts
For the loads that belong with a carrier: Freight brokerage →