LTL with an Internal Locus of Control
Or, what some may refer to as reaching full LTL enlightenment.
The elephant should be the official animal of the LTL industry.
Which family of elephants specifically? I have no idea. I’m not an elephant expert.
Stay with me…
There is one primary trait that prompts me to make this statement, and that trait happens to be the elephant’s memory.
Just like the friendly elephant, folks in LTL have bizarrely long memories when it comes to what they perceive as partner inflicted pain. Shippers especially.
It’s really not that uncommon when involved in a casual conversation with a shipping or warehouse manager, to hear them bring up a specific carrier, either at your prompting or as a reflex connected to some deep down, way back trauma.
Something may have happened years ago, either to them, to their predecessor, or their superior. Either way - it HURT. They want you to know that it hurt. The past scars then led to a decision made at some point to cease doing business with that company. And that decision has been passed down as tribal knowledge for all to obey and nobody to question.
The interesting solution here is that all shippers - especially those with unremitting pain and anger from years past - should aim to spend a whole lot more of their time, energy, and attention on themselves rather than their mean old partner. Become a very self-aware shipper.
If this seems counterintuitive, then I will explain.
Over and over we have seen in the LTL market where an unruly shipper, broker, or carrier turn out to be the common denominator in every equation.
Let’s think through this.
It really isn’t feasible to accept that in a system as complex as the freight industry with all of the various attributes and moving parts that are both central to the market - in addition to others being native to certain situations - that the sum of all those parts can result in the same party can running into trouble on multiple fronts, with multiple partners. They need to look down and within. To give their LTL shipping program a good, hard look in the mirror.
Then…overhaul everything that is tripping them up. Even more so, overhaul everything tripping their partners up.
Let’s recap:
Look in the mirror.
Become self aware.
Decide what needs to be fixed.
Fix it.
If this post is focused on the art of building the right LTL program - however - then we must address ‘the Resistance’.
Having recently reread Steven Pressfield’s amazing, timeless book, The War of Art, I am reminded that whenever an endeavor of higher calling is in front of us - the Resistance likes to rear its ugly head, dig in its heels, and prevent us from achieving what needs to be done.
This includes becoming an enlightened LTL shipper. Everything that you will need to take on and improve will be the equivalent of pushing a boulder uphill. Even though you get to a point where you can envision the reward and articulate the payoff - setting out to take it all on will take all of your strength and stamina.
Why? Because it’s much easier to blame the other party. Becoming an enlightened LTL shipper takes planning, consistency, and most of all, it takes an investment of your time, energy, and resources.
Key word here being ‘investment.’
Investing in the stock market and investing in your less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier partnerships may seem like two completely unrelated concepts, but upon closer inspection, they share some similarities. In fact, many of the same principles that apply to investing in the stock market also apply to building successful carrier partnerships in the transportation industry.
I’m sure you’ve heard of dollar cost averaging in the stock market world? Very applicable in the world of LTL shipping as well - where continual and consistent “buying” by way of pouring into and improving your LTL program - is absolutely key to long term partnerships. Folks that try to time the market the way our colleagues in the full truckload world end up chasing white rabbits all over, while arguably not really adding much value to their LTL scenario. At worst, they never get established as a legitimate LTL shipper. At best, they are seen as a rate shopper and price chaser.
Remember these key words:
During any time of chaos in LTL, the carriers control the narrative.
With the lack of standardization, centralization, and market transparency in LTL - the market really does run on who can tell the best story about their network, business, and perspective. Not to imply things are being made up. Just reiterating that it’s often a combination of many different factors and whoever combines them together to construct a balanced narrative will do well.
At the end of the day, the LTL market doesn’t “happen to us.”
We can control a lot of it based on the foundation we put in place inwardly.
And remember - it’s all Space, Time, and Risk.
