What is Expediting?

[slfisher45]

I always believed expediting came into its own in the 80's when the Big 3 realized that if we didn't warehouse our parts and instead had them delivered the day we needed them we would save billions of dollars in revenue spent on parts in bins being taxed while sitting in warehouse ficilities. They would also save money on the buildings and labor required to maintain those buildings. From that initial endeavor sprouted other tangental "Just in time" pursuits as, broke down machinery, medical emergencies, or anything that constituted, "need it now" requirments. Who delivers it or in what vehicle it is delivered doesn't make the flower smell good. What makes the flower smell good is, "On time delvery".
What do you think it has evolved into?

 

[greg334]

There was a discussion a while ago about the history of expediting and one of the things I said was that this thing was not new - using the exclusive use (one load, one truck) idea there are many examples of expediting prior to the Robert's express experience.

The other thing that is not new is Just In Time (JIT). Many think it is a post war concept but Ford and other companies used it at the turn or near the turn of the century, one is Borroughs. There were transportation companies who accommodated Ford and others with their inventory transportation needs, actually using trucks in the 30's.

The bigger problem now is we don't have the output of the factories we used to in the country, we don't have the demand for the cars and other good so automotive style JIT freight has dropped considerably and I feel that the word expedite now has evolved to be mean more customer centric freight (on time, special handling, extra needs, etc..) than it is emergency freight. With that in mind, I would also say the exclusive use thing for 80% of the work is not something that is a selling point anymore because of the costs involved.

 

[arkjarhead]

Exclusive use of a truck for a load is nothing special or only expediters do. I mean JB and Swift can do an exclusive use load. I know many don't want to hear that, but it's true. Alot of times the truck load carriers are more exclusive use than the expedite carriers when you consider all the swaps certain expedite companies make their drivers do. Of course the is jmo and I know many will disagree.

I think what will help expedite survive is having more professional operators than what most of the big companies like Swift and JB have. As soon as the expedite companies start scraping the bottom of the barrel and hiring on a bunch of inexperienced drivers, expedite is in real trouble, if you ask me.

 

[ATeam]

Terry O'Connell is well-schooled and very articulate on the "What is Expediting" topic. I wonder if we might trouble him to restate his suggested definition here? His October, 2007 piece is very informative.

 

[greg334]

October is a long time ago, a life time to some. Things have changed a lot since then and the outlook is growing dimmer by the doom and gloom crowd. Evolving into something that will be different than what we knew, maybe?

For example
GM has figured out that they need to cut more jobs and close more plants. But in typical GM style, they stated that they didn't expect oil to be as high as it is and because of that they will be finally considering dumping Hummer and brining a car out in 2010 that gets 45 mpg - like 30 years after VW did it. With all of their new NA market cars, they will be doing a lot of cross overs (glorified station wagons) and some cars that get better mileage.

GM is one, Ford will be another and today over lunch I heard Chrysler is considering some drastic changes and may close a lot of plants.

It all effects us.

 

[nightcreacher]

In the early 80's I hauled produce coast to coast.my back hauls most of the time came from J F K.In those days pick up on friday to deliver monday was same as next day delivery,and air freight was high paying freight.In fact,my loads going west some times were higher than the loads comming east.Except in New Mexico and Il.air freight was excempt to regulation.This wasnt called expediting,but it was a time delivery service.
When you have something that needs critical attention,you try to have it expedited,and as far as i can remember,Roberts Express was the 1st to use the term Expedite in their means of operation.There were carriers advertising jit delivery,but Roberts coined the phraise expedite. Frieght was put on trucks just the size the shipper needed rather than pay for 48 ft of space for 1 pallet.During the times of deregulation,a sad thing happened.Carriers strarted to pop up and bid the rates lower and lower. Now,years latter, we have expedited carriers giving away their services,charging customers rates that truck load carriers wouldnt haul it for.
Expedited freight is a time critical commodity,it is specialized,and if the consignee needs it or his machines are going to shut down,then he should be paying for the service