ERS: GREATEST CHALLENGES costs and liabilities 54 % sure from customers/competitors 53 % ipment costs 53 % ted (recruitment, retention, training) 47 % ure concerns 31 % 29 % nt policies 29 % s and compliance 29 % t/security 26 % lity requirements 26 % on (intermodal, pooling, brokers) 23 % hicles 19 % y investment 19 % ain disruption 17 % or faster deliveries (Amazon e ect) 0 % d retaining customers
TRUCKERS: GREATEST IMPACT Energy policy/sustainability requirements 56 % Driver mandates 49 % Infrastructure 49 % Healthcare 19 % Vehicle weight 14 % Highway Trust Fund 3 % SHIPPERS: GREATEST CHALLENGES Transportation costs 66 % Customer service 50 % Price pressure from customers/competition 45 % Cargo theft and security 41 % Increasing insurance costs and liabilities 37 % Matching supply to demand eciently 33 % Maintaining accurate inventory levels 32 % Ecommerce fulfillment expectations 31 % Finding capacity 28 % Shipment visibility 27 % Environmental, regulatory, and security compliance 23 % Migrating to intermodal and/or rail solutions 16 % Yes 76 % No 24 %
SHIPPERS What are your greatest challenges?
Although a freight recession in the past year has pushed down transportation rates, transportation costs still emerge as the top challenge for shippers, cited by 66% of shipper respondents. Of course, total transportation costs depend on other factors beside rates, such as how far companies ship their goods and how much complexity they’ve built into their supply chains. Like the truckers who serve them, shippers see cargo theft and security as a much bigger challenge this year than in 2023. Forty-one percent of shippers cite this as a major concern this year, compared with only 12% last year. Also, more shippers this year see customer service as a significant challenge—50% compared with 37% in 2023. While truckers as a group feel more pressure this year to reduce prices, shippers as a group are feeling slightly less pressure from their own customers and competitors to drop theirs. Shippers are also just a tiny bit less concerned about finding capacity this year than in 2023. Twenty-three percent of shippers say they face challenges with environmental, regulatory, and security compliance. While that’s not even one-quarter of the shippers who responded to the survey, it’s more than double the 11% who named regulatory compliance as a major concern in 2023.
TRUCKERS Do you have a freight brokerage or logistics services division/ subsidiary? Just over three-quarters of the trucking companies represented in our survey have created divisions that specialize in freight brokerage or logistics services. That’s a substantial number, but it’s smaller than the 87% who indicated in 2023 that they had formed business units to provide those services.
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September 2024 • Inbound Logistics 41
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