This fireside chat recap is from Thursday, the third day of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Human-driven customer service still matters.
DETAILS: Gregory Grimes, the owner and managing partner of West Central Motor Freight Inc., discusses how one of the oldest freight brokerages in the United States is leveraging both technology and employees to tackle the automotive industry’s shipping difficulties.
KEY QUOTES FROM GRIMES:
On supply chain delays: “[After COVID] we’re seeing anywhere from 45 to 60 days [for delivery], but for some of our clients, that still isn’t fast enough. … Some of our clients are willing to offset an increase in price due to, you know, increasing their inventory levels at a faster pace than maybe some of their competitors.”
On the importance of building a reliable carrier network combined with a reliable team of employees: “When you work in the automotive industry, there’s an inherent pressure and stress that comes with moving these shipments. If the network that you’ve built isn’t capable of supporting high-pressure freight or any team-oriented freight, you may miss those shipments. If you miss a shipment or have a delay in the delivery, you know it can cause a line-down scenario that costs our clients revenue, and then it damages your reputation.”
On employees leveraging technology: “We utilize both our people and technology in various ways. I know one of the advancements that we have relied upon heavily in the past several years is using a visibility option. We partner with Trucker Tools and we’ve had a great relationship with them over the past several years. So both our sales and our operations folks utilize that software to either show the type of visibility that is available or to show what we can do if you choose to move a shipment with West Central.”
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