CPG logistics, priced at what each account actually costs.
A lot of consumer packaged goods networks look efficient on paper and cost more than they should in practice. NT analyzes your shipment history to show what each customer costs per case, then helps you close the gap between the rate you negotiated and what the freight actually runs.
- Industries
- CPG, consumer packaged goods
- Key challenge
- Cost-to-serve visibility by account
- Measured by
- Cost per case, per stop, per pound
- Execution
- Managed transportation, brokerage, dedicated
Where CPG freight goes wrong
CPG shippers usually have strong carrier contracts and reasonably competitive rates. The money leaks out somewhere else. Small orders ship alone when they could consolidate. Accessorial charges build up and nobody traces them back to the account. And the network was designed around the top ten customers, so the middle tier pays the premium. Renegotiating rates won't fix any of that.
NTelligence™ rebuilds your shipment history into a cost per case for every account. It shows which customers are profitable at current order sizes and which ones cost more than anyone realized. Then it points to the changes that bring the number down without touching the customer relationship: consolidation, mode shifts and routing adjustments.
What NT does for CPG shippers
- Cost-to-serve analysis. Per-account freight cost broken down by lane, mode, order size, and accessorials. Usually the bottom 20% of accounts cost 2–3x more to serve per case than the top.
- Consolidation opportunities. Where orders going to the same region or the same DC can be combined into a single load instead of shipping separately.
- Accessorial audit. Detention, liftgate, fuel surcharges, and appointment failures add up without anyone noticing. We trace each one to the lane, customer, or carrier and get rid of the ones that shouldn't be there.
- Managed transportation. If you want NT to run the freight program for you, we manage the carriers, routing, and network reviews as volumes and accounts shift.
- Inbound managed freight. CPG companies often manage raw material inbound loosely. When we take it over, the savings usually come in close to what outbound fixes deliver.
Who this fits
CPG shippers who get the most from NT have annual freight spend of $25M or more, ship to a mix of retail, club, and distributor accounts, and have seen their order profile change in the last two years: smaller orders, more stops, or new customer types. The analysis works at any size, but the more complex the network, the more there is to save.
Common questions
We already benchmarked our carrier rates last year. What would an analysis show us?
Rate benchmarking shows whether you're paying market for a lane. Cost-to-serve shows what each customer or account actually costs when you add up accessorials, order size, frequency, stop count, and mode. Most CPG shippers find that the two numbers don't match, and the gap is often larger than the rate savings they captured in the benchmark.
Can you handle multi-temperature CPG freight?
Yes. NT runs ambient dry van, refrigerated, and multi-temperature loads. A lot of CPG networks include both, and we track the cost per case across modes.
We use a TMS. Does NT work alongside it?
Yes. NT can run the carrier program alongside your TMS, or feed better routing and carrier decisions into it. We always start with the network analysis, which shows where the current setup is leaving savings behind.
What's the difference between brokerage and managed transportation for CPG?
Brokerage covers individual loads. Managed transportation covers the network, including carrier relationships, routing rules, accessorial controls, and ongoing optimization. Most CPG shippers start with the analysis, then decide whether to move freight with NT, use the findings to improve their own program, or both. More on managed transportation.