Third-party logistics provider Transplace has launched a program to create full truckload movements out of multiple LTL shipments moving across North America, including Canada and Mexico.
Under the initiative, Transplace will consolidate LTL traffic at various pooling points and build the freight into full truckload shipments for a point-to-point linehaul movement. The trailer will be broken down at various cross-docking points for local LTL moves to the final destinations.
The program is available in the Midwest, the mid-Atlantic, Southern California, Dallas and Houston. It will eventually be rolled out across North America, including Canada and Mexico, Transplace said in Tuesday’s announcement.
The program builds upon a strategy that Transplace launched in 2017 to consolidate lighter-weighted traffic that would normally move as partial truckload shipments into more cost-effective full truckload consignments.
The program is the first major initiative announced by Dallas-based Transplace since it was acquired last July by Uber Freight for $2.25 billion. The initiative was in the planning stages before the deal, said Frank McGuigan, Transplace’s CEO.
Depending on the density of their regional traffic, LTL shippers converting their freight to truckload could realize high-single-digit to low-double-digit cost savings, improved transit times, fewer claims due to less handling, and reduced empty miles, which translates into a reduced carbon footprint, Transplace said.
The program will combine Uber Freight’s large base of shippers and carriers with Transplace’s shipment optimization capabilities, McGuigan said. It will also, for the first time, be available to shippers that currently don’t utilize Transplace’s network and technology, known as OptiPro, a tool within the Transplace Network Services suite.
“We are opening up OptiPro to a broader universe of shippers and carriers,” McGuigan said in a phone interview late last week. “We are trying to democratize the platform to benefit all shippers.”