Is That A Blue Unicorn In The Garden?

Now that the reality of the drivers of cost in transportation are grimly settling in as a new normal, much belated attention is being paid to knee-jerk actions designed to control costs.

Look, only those who believe that anything 80 proof is one of the FDA's basic food groups are going to turn to last century's common sense should-have-been-done-long-ago solutions to this century's newer, more potent, challenges to profitability.

One of the trade publications recently pandered to the slightly dim practitioner by characterizing the inexorable forces at work in the industry as "runaway" freight costs. Further, they identify freight costs as the single greatest cost component in the supply chain. No stuff, Sherlock.

Here are their solutions.

Improve packaging design. What!? This hasn't been done already?

Maximize cube utilization. Dude, what did you think that optimization software was for? Full employment for the IT staff?

Centralize transportation procurement. Or continue letting the janitor in a remote facility make plans, carrier portfolio definition, and load assignment? Really?

Control inbound freight. Like should have been done thirty years ago. Shift modes. Hello, intermodal knocking. Anybody home? Dang, there goes that annoying train whistle again.

Use a TMS. Too much trouble? Costs money? Owners happy with what was saved by not going that route?

Become a shipper of choice to attract drivers and gain favorable position in tight capacity markets. A little late, don't you think, to mount a multi-year campaign to become something you've never been.

Use 3PLs. Surprise! They might not have all the answers you haven't come up with, especially when you try to beat them down on a commodity pricing level.

News flash! If these are what you haven't done years ago, you may be too late to save yourself. And, handing off all of your problems and expectations to a third party. Maybe, just maybe, you need to recognize that huge cost challenges will remain even if you do the easy fixes - and figure out how you are going to deal with the longer term implications and complexities, building them into your pricing structure and communicating with your customers.

Nope, that was not a unicorn - just a passing Best Buy truck.