By Fello Logistics
If good customer service is merely being friendly and agreeable, most people can do that. But great customer service means knowing how to solve problems. And at Fello Logistics, we understand that shippers sometimes find themselves with difficult challenges that require both our insight and our creativity – in addition to some good old-fashioned hard work.
A New Jersey-based wine and spirits company was a good example. It had a fairly typical set of distribution needs for a company in its industry. It does a series of local pickups in order to get product to a single warehouse. Then it needs to distribute the product from that warehouse to locations throughout the country.
But the company’s shipping costs were out of control, and they came to Fello Logistics looking for a solution. Operations manager Angela Lam dug into the situation and realized something:
The previous logistics provider for the wine and spirits company had contracted with the same long-haul carrier to do every part of the process, including local pickups. That didn’t make sense. Long-haul carriers charge a lot more for miles and stops, and this one was stopping at as many as 10 warehouses a day.
The long-haul driver did the job fine, and the long-haul part of the job very well. But the client needed a more cost-effective solution.
Angela responded by checking around for some local drivers who could handle the first part of the process – doing the local stops and getting the product to the final warehouse before the long-haul leg of the journey.
“It was a matter of finding a driver or drivers who just stay local, and are usually cheaper, to go do all the pickups and then to source a warehouse that would offload the local driver,” Angela said. “From there the long-haul driver could go and pick everything up from one spot.”
Angela tried out a few local drivers before finding the few she calls “my go-to guys,” who now know the entire process intimately and handle this client’s needs all the time.
It was a system Angela was familiar with from watching how California-based vineyards do it. It’s basic consolidation. And it saved Fello’s client $800 per shipment.
“They pick up at vineyards all over the area – one, two, three pallets – and they bring it to the warehouse, and they’ll consolidate all the orders for their customers,” Angela said. “Then the customers go to the warehouse and pick up all their orders. Most people obviously aren’t buying a full truckload of one brand. So why aren’t they doing it this way on the east coast? It might be because there are not that many vineyards there. But I thought I could do a little consolidation myself.”
And some real problem-solving the client deeply appreciated.
Fello Logistics is known for integrity, reliability, industry-leading customer service and genuine care for it’s clients. Learn more about our freight shipping services.
