Results
8%
Lower spot premium over contract rates, 10.2% down to 9.4%
13%
Higher gross margin than the month before Miles
40%
Smaller procurement team, 10 down to 6
Problem statement
A 3PL handles about 6,000 tenders a month, 2,825 of them on spot, on thin margins. Its 10 procurement managers called carriers for bids and followed up by phone. Even so, many tenders drew no bid, and only 50% of tenders were covered. With one bid, there was no leverage: spot cost about 10% over contract.
Solution
Miles went live in under 3 weeks. When a tender is released, he calls carriers, takes their bids by voice, and logs them. With a bid in hand, he goes back to other carriers: we already have a bid at this rate, can you do it lower? On 37% of tenders, Miles collected the bids and awarded the tender himself, always to a carrier on the 3PL’s approved list. The team made the call on the rest.
Before And After Miles
We compared one month before Miles with his first month live, across all tenders.
| Metric | Before Miles (1 month) | With Miles (1 month) |
|---|---|---|
| Spot premium over contract rate | 10.2% | 9.4% |
| Tenders covered | 50% | 64% |
| Bids collected by Miles | 0% | 46% |
| Tenders bid and awarded by Miles with no human involvement | 0% | 37% |
| Procurement team size | 10 | 6 |