This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Domestic Supply Chain Summit.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: The LTL industry’s tech evolution is occurring quickly in the COVID world.
DETAILS: A discussion on the ways less-than-truckload carriers have responded to the volume surge.
INTERVIEWER AND SPEAKER: Kevin Hill, executive publisher at FreightWaves, and Barry Craver, VP of business process and innovation at Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ: ODFL).
BIO: Craver has more than 20 years of experience with Old Dominion, originally joining the company as the director of freight processing applications. Prior to that he was the director of information technology at Epes Carriers. Craver has been in his current role since 2017.
KEY QUOTES FROM CRAVER:
On visibility in business-to-consumer shipping. “We’ll see it with apps on our smartphones — being able to get that same visibility that you and I get when we order something. I think we’ll probably see that bleed over into the LTL business eventually.”
On electronic bill of lading capabilities: “We’re all for getting more partners involved to receive that data electronically as well as provide data electronically to our customers. We’ve seen an increase with our customers asking about that kind of connectivity with us and really customers wanting to partner more with us.”
On important watch items going forward: “It’s probably market trends and seeing what happens with the continued build of inventories. How long does that take? How long does it go into 2022 for those inventories to get built back up? Are there other things that happen in 2022 that prolong that buildup of inventory?”