Peak shipping season is now upon us and, as a shipper, your goods need to deliver quickly to your retail store. As we all know, however, “quickly” isn’t always possible in 2020. Truck capacity is tight due to COVID-19 and other factors, making it an especially challenging year to fulfill your retailer requirements. Thankfully, third-party logistics (3PL) companies that offer cross-dock freight solutions can help you keep your product moving throughout peak season and beyond. In this article, we’ll look at some of the major benefits of 3PL cross docking.
3PL cross dock freight solutions
With traditional retail system, your trucks pick up the product from a warehouse and transport the product to a retailer store at a designated appointment time. Sounds quite simple. But what if your driver is ready to make the delivery earlier – like days earlier than the appointment? From your perspective, and the drivers, it would be ideal to make the delivery early and then get to the next loads on the docket. From the retailer’s perspective, however, that’s not going to happen. The appointment is set, and your delivery is limited to that precise window.
This is where cross docking comes into picture. With 3PL cross dock freight solutions, your driver can unload your product with a 3PL located near your destination. The 3PL stores your product for a temporary period of time and then make the final delivery to the retailer on your behalf. This frees up your driver to get to additional loads instead of tying up his or her time and equipment.
Cross docking is common all year round but is especially useful in the peak season where shippers have lots of product heading to retailers and they can’t afford to have trucks sitting idle.
Some Other benefits of cross dock freight solutions
In addition to the above mentioned benefit, the following are additional benefits of cross docking services.
Cross docking helps with late appointments. Cross docking can also pay dividends when a driver is late to an appointment. When that happens, the appointment will likely need to be rescheduled – often several days after the original one. Instead of tying up the driver and truck while waiting for that new appointment time, the driver can offload the product at a 3PL warehouse and come back for it later or let the 3PL handle the final delivery.
Cross docking helps when problems arise. If items are loaded onto a trailer in such a way that the driver can’t reach the product he or she needs (e.g., items at the front of the trailer need to be unloaded first), the driver can turn to a 3PL to unload, organize, reload, and/or palletize product. Or, if the delivery isn’t up to retailer’s standards (e.g., product is leaning in the trailer or not settled properly), the driver can take the trailer to a 3PL for rework services and final delivery.
Cross docking helps to avoid demurrage for imports. 3PL cross dock freight solutions can help importers avoid demurrage penalties if the container is not returned to the port on time. With cross docking, your drayage carrier can bring the container to a 3PL facility for unloading and temporary storage and then quickly return the container to the port. You can then work out the final delivery details of the product without worrying about demurrage charges.
Lean on Tenaxx Logistics for cross-dock freight solutions
Cross docking has long been a key logistics service offering of ours, and we have space and the expertise to make it happen for your company. To learn more about our cross dock services, contact us today.