This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Small Fleet & Owner Operator Summit.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Getting in on bids with large shippers
DETAILS: A discussion with enterprise shipper consultant Paul Estrada.
INTERVIEWER AND SPEAKER: Kevin Hill, head of communities and research at FreightWaves, and Paul Estrada with PE Consulting
BIO: Estrada has worked in various logistics procurement and operations roles for the past 15 years. Most of that time has been spent leading procurement for an enterprise shipper sourcing full truckload capacity for 30-plus manufacturing facilities and over 1 million truckload shipments annually. Estrada has also spent time in logistics software as part of a development team building a logistics procurement marketplace.
KEY QUOTES FROM ESTRADA:
Thoughts for small carriers looking to haul freight for enterprise shippers: “It can be challenging; it’s not impossible. We obviously have a lot of freight at our disposal. The downside is we have a lot of requirements, from technical aspects, from an onboarding aspect, from an operational aspect.”
On carriers that don’t meet minimum truck counts and size: “We try to come up with alternative solutions for those providers. … They’re the bulk of the capacity and we want to work with them. Oftentimes we will direct them to one of our key brokers in that particular market. We’ll direct them to a specific person within that brokerage that we know will take care of them.”
On the importance of a carrier having a niche: “Oftentimes a small fleet has really great relationships with specific receivers. Those are really important things that we can leverage.”
