A Strategic Plan

The Problem: A supplier was running an underutilized TL from McAllen, TX to a plant in Michigan because they needed TL transit.
The Solution: We recommended our “TL Through Consol” model to them to run the truck through our Laredo dock to fill out before heading North to Michigan. This allows us to invoice the customer only for the space that they utilize on the trailer yet they still receive TL transit.
The Savings: This customer saves roughly 20% per load, roughly $32,000 per year

The Problem: A supplier ships dedicated truckloads of empty dunnage from a plant in Guanajuato to a supplier in the Midwest. ProTrans handles the cross dock operation for this customer along the US/MX border and recognized that every load was stacked 3 high but appeared to be able to be stacked 4 high.
The Solution: We recommended that the customer stack 4 high from their plant and the customer updated their loading guidelines for this supplier.
The Savings: This change cut out roughly 24 loads per year. This is an example where ProTrans did not gain any additional revenue/margin (we actually lost a small amount of cross dock revenue), but the customer saved roughly $67,000 (25%).

The Problem: A supplier is paying a TL carrier to move multiple shipments from MX suppliers from the US/MX border to Greer, SC. Their carrier has been unable to cover loads recently and they have been moving as unplanned at a much higher cost.
The Solution: We reviewed the volumes and have offered to run this material through our shared consolidation network at TL transit. We priced this with LTL rates with a max of the TL rate so the customer should never pay more than their TL rate, but will pay much less every time the volume is less than a full trailer.
The Savings: Estimated total save of $40,000 (25%).

The Problem: During the current transportation market in 2021, the carriers, other than increasing prices due to the high demand, have also reduced the vessel space allowed for all shippers. An Automotive Tier 1 supplier ships their European freight via a Shared Consolidation program with reliable transit times and costs for various plants, however, they also ship a full container to one of their plants located near the East Coast and that container is either underutilized in some weeks and in others there is more than one container worth of freight for that plant that makes the spend to go up in the long term.
The Solution: Our Procurement team was able to secure a container allocation for this particular customer for 6 TEU/week. A proposal was made to switch all their plants to a Buyer’s consolidation program which other than providing savings would improve the transit times for all plants in the program.
The Savings: By implementing this change our customer is saving between 8% - 11% per week in their total freight spend. The most important saving is the Transit Time and service reliability, which in today’s market is invaluable.

The Problem: An Automotive Tier 1 supplier ships by Air 2 pallets from Europe to USA on a weekly basis. The average cost per shipment via Air is $3,131. This freight is considered vital and our customer does not want to jeopardize production or cause plant shutdowns.
The Solution: We recommended switching the transportation mode from Air to Ocean with a period of transition where there would be Air and Ocean shipments sent during the same weeks. Once the Ocean freight schedule becomes the new normal the Air shipment would be only used for emergencies.
The Savings: By switching modes the customer has saved over $105,000/year. Similar changes were made to 4 other suppliers, resulting in saving of over $750,000/year.

The Problem: A large retailer with multiple distribution centers and stores across the United States requires coverage for all their containers imported from various Asia ports, mainly China, where shipping capacity has been reduced drastically since 2020 and during 2021. Their incumbent Freight Forwarder(s) can support these customers only up to a certain number of containers per week, and the rest of the containers continue to pile up at the origin ports waiting to be loaded on vessels.
The Solution: We have been contacted by this retailer (and several others) requesting support to move those containers. We have been successful at getting vessel space, bookings and get those containers moving with the support of our global partners.
The Savings: Although Ocean Freight rates have skyrocketed since April 2020, and continue to increase due to the high demand, Covid restrictions, port congestions, etc. the savings, in most cases, don’t come via the freight spend but in the ability of the receiving plants to continue their production without plant shutdowns, which could cost much more than the current ocean premium services. We offer solutions with different modes, including AF, LCL, premium LCL, FCL, and premium FCL to ensure that the cargo continues its course in a timely manner.