That was a trick question; there is no single LTL carrier that will fit all of your needs.

The world of trucking seems simple. You pay someone to pick up your stuff and take it somewhere else. Even the breakdown of trucking services is
relatively easy to grasp with brokers and intermediaries who can help you choose the right service.

With so many factors affecting price and service, how can you determine which carrier is the best for your needs, strategies, and costs?

A common trade-off you hear in the Logistics industry is cost vs. service. For example, from a service perspective, a national carrier like FedEx has the capacity to service the whole country based on zone pricing; but on average, at a higher cost. Then you ask yourself, if I’m consistently sending a majority of my product to certain areas, could I optimize costs with regional LTL carriers?

Would those regional carriers be able to provide the same level of service as a national carrier? Another consideration is the value of providing top-notch customer service quickly. If you knew that a mixture of regional carriers could serve all of your customer segments within 3 days and for 20% lower costs, and a national carrier could serve that same segment one day faster, what would you do? What factors are most critical to you and your business? This is where the dilemma and
complexity starts. Download the PDF to read the full article!