Asset-light less-than-truckload provider Roadrunner announced Tuesday a new program that waives the total shipment cost when freight is not delivered on time.
Smart Guarantee gives customers the option to pay a 25% fee, subject to a $75 minimum, for day-specific guaranteed delivery. The fee is calculated on net freight costs, which excludes fuel expense and accessorial charges. Customers will now have an option on some lanes to select “guaranteed” when booking shipments. If Roadrunner fails to meet the delivery date, it will waive 100% of the freight bill.
Unpalletized and overlength freight is excluded from the program as are shipments handled by its agents and interline partners.
Lori Blaney, Roadrunner’s senior vice president of sales, said the option is an alternative to “expensive expedited or air service” as customers can now “use Roadrunner’s direct metro to metro long haul network and guarantee it.”
Roadrunner (OTC: RRTS) is currently operating its long-haul network at an on-time rate of more than 93%.
Other LTL carriers offer versions of speed service guarantees. However, most typically only refund the fee itself — not the entire cost of the shipment — when a service failure occurs.
“Compared to other offerings in the industry, our Roadrunner Smart Guarantee is simple, transparent, and very shipper friendly,” Blaney said in a statement to FreightWaves. “While other carriers have multiple offerings with varying levels of fee reimbursement and complex rules, we opted to keep ours as straightforward as possible — if it doesn’t arrive on the day we say it will, it’s 100% free.
“We are highly confident in the New Roadrunner after several years of significant service investments, and the shipper-friendly terms of this guarantee reflect that.”
Earlier this year Roadrunner announced one-day service between Southern California and Chicago for shipments dispatched on Fridays. It has also been adding new lanes and reducing transit times throughout its network.
The company also said it will soon add new services in Kansas City, Missouri, and Portland, Oregon.
Roadrunner specializes in long-haul LTL transportation across a network that has national capabilities and terminals in 39 major markets. It completed a financial restructuring two years ago and has improved delivery times on 279 freight lanes since.
“Our strategic improvements to our Smart Network build upon one another,” stated CFO Jack Korslin. “After several years of investment in technology, automation, data analytics and personnel, we’re excited to put our money where our mouth is.”
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Gail M Morra
To comment from Mr. Pete. Uumm. Brokers aren’t ever going to wait till you’re loaded. That’s crazy. You sound like a driver who likes to piddle down the road. The HOS service would work against you with all those added times you requested. Drivers should be on the ball and organized even if you have to drive at night to bypass metro cities. As far as becoming a broker, good luck the stats I’ve read recently brokers are dropping like flies. Why? Because they’ve saturated the market- there’s too many of them. And then. You want to base the rates to favor the driver? Lmao
Freight Zippy
Yellow tried this guarantee service. The service was so poor they had to discontinue it because too many shippers move product for free.
RoadRunner is not knwo for service or anything of quality. This should be fun to watch.
I know their system fairy well they do a phenomenal amount of interlining. Thus this is more of a scam than an enhancement.
Ben
Friends don’t let friends ship with Roadrunner…
Dick Bischoff
“Unpalletized and overlength freight is excluded from the program as are shipments handled by its agents and interline partners.”
What percentage of their freight gets delivered by agents and interline partners, my guess is quite a bit?
Pete
Guess we’re gonna start seeing road runner trucks in an increase of accidents ( unless they are planning on scheduling with a 6 hour window for driver to work with ) . No matter how much you plan there always seems to be an accident , construction or unexplained back up . Most of the planners refuse to add 30 minutes for every major city being passed through , an hour for cities like Baltimore, Atlanta , LA and so on . They don’t add for possible delays in winter with Rockie Mountain crossings … hell they don’t even add in for fuel and inspection. They use Google maps and simply add 10 hours for each 10 hour break and think that’s proper trip planning . Fact is if you want loads scheduled properly you wait until the truck is loaded then schedule based on the ETA provided by the truck driver ( AFTER THEY’RE LOADED ) .
There are way to many brokers that don’t know HOS to be properly qualified to be brokers … there will be a major rise in highway deaths if they start requiring guaranteed delivery . My brother is looking for a new business to invest in and so we’re thinking of starting our own brokerage since I know how to trip plan properly and know the industry, almost every bottle neck in country , and can plan for unexpected delays because I simply use reality …. not a computer simulation. Plus I came up with a rate model that will turn brokerages on their heads ( it’s based on making a profit , not ripping off drivers 😎 )
Robert Rheinhold
Until Road runner actually backs up what they say, customers might change their minds about road runner doing what they say. I worked for a company they acquired Rich logistics who had a 97% on time record, when Road runner,under the guidelines that feel to around 65%till the off loaded the company and started a new company formally known as Milan Express,, the new company is ascent global logistics,, same thing as with rich tell the customers whatever to get the freight, deliver it whenever they decide too.