Share Information or Shrivel Up

Carriers that do not participate in online distribution networks may be left on an island, unable to share in the benefits of electronic commerce, according to panelists at the Transport Topics Management Outlook Forum.

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The good news for carriers is that by collaborating — hooking onto computer networks and sharing information with third parties — they will have access to business they never could have gotten on their own, panelists said.

To thrive in a collaborative business, carriers will have to leave their egos at the door. They have to be willing to surrender not only information, but also some control to their customers.

Shippers will control the supply chain and hire third-party transportation planners that can help carriers manage use of the Internet. “In order to have a controlled supply chain, the Internet is going to be the key,” said Barry Butzow, senior vice president of freight broker C.H. Robinson (CHRW) in Eden Prairie, Minn.

While panelists predicted that shippers would control the supply chain, they had several pieces of good news for carriers. One, according to Butzow, is that carriers are farther along in internal use of the Internet than most shippers.

Carriers “are sourcing freight over the Internet, trying to find freight that is closer than an available piece of capacity,” and even doing some advance planning, Butzow said.

The second piece of good news is that carriers wishing to get involved with collaborative supply chains can do so fairly cheaply by using computer software that can be paid for on an as-needed basis. Even small carriers can collaborate within a supply chain at low cost, said Jim Bramlett, president of online freight aggregator, freightPro.com, headquartered in Overland Park, Kan.

For the full story, see the Dec. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.