More freight on fewer trucks.
We looked at eight weeks of a medical supplier’s multi-stop truckload freight, May to July 2023: four weeks as they ran it, then four weeks routed by NT with every delivery window kept.
- Who
- Medical supplier
- Window
- Eight weeks, May–July 2023
- Trucks
- 14% fewer
- Weight per truck
- 24% more
What was going on
The supplier ran multi-stop truckloads out of its own facility. Orders were ready on set days, and customers expected them inside set windows. The question was whether the same orders could be delivered on time with less running.
What we did
- Pulled four weeks of shipments straight out of the TMS, as they actually ran
- Ran the following four weeks through our routing software, keeping the day each order is usually ready and every delivery window
- Had our routing team check each route by hand before it ran, to make sure the software’s answer could be driven
What changed
| Measure | Weeks 1–4 | Weeks 5–8 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trucks | 59 | 50.5 | −14.4% |
| Pounds shipped | 1,878,372 | 2,001,508 | +6.6% |
| Stops | 503 | 481 | −4.4% |
| Pounds per truck | 31,837 | 39,634 | +24.5% |
| Pounds per stop | 3,734 | 4,161 | +11.4% |
Why it worked
The second four weeks carried more freight than the first and still needed fewer trucks. We grouped and sequenced orders so each truck left fuller, and customers still got their windows. With medical product, a missed window is a service failure, so the routes were built around them, not the other way around.
Same industry, a different lever: delivery frequency. Same freight, 30% fewer deliveries →
Committed trucks, sized the same way: Dedicated logistics →