First and foremost i am an outdoors-man! When not working you can generally find me adventuring around in my 4×4 Sprinter. Surfing in San Diego and up the west coast, skiing in Mammoth, Mountain Biking all over the place, paddle boarding in Lake Tahoe and Bass Lake, and Enduro dirt bike riding! I have been growing my logistics management and warehousing business for the last 10 years And ever since i could afford to go to Outdoor Retailer i have attended annually.
That is why i have truly tried to come up with great logistical programs to benefit outdoor companies we admire and want to work with . From setting up regional warehousing and fulfillment points to allow you faster ship times, and massive reductions in transit related handling and damage. To pushing our knowledge and skill set with the new evolving API automation that can make all our logistical lives more automated and seamless. Now we even have a super nice and hands on growing in-house operations team. That you can outsource your day to day logistical needs to, if full automation is not an option. We know you have a lot of choices of who can handle your logistical needs. However we hope that our sincere desire for working with companies that revolve around our passions and hobbies sets us apart
Current RAD Brands we manage logistics for:
- Roam Built : Adventure Vans Racks, Bumpers, etc.
- Cake Electric Dirt Bikes and Motorcycles: so cool!
- Naish Stand UP Paddle and Kite
- Pau Hana SUP
- Advanced Shelter Systems International: Shiftpod Tents
- Xtracycle e-cargo bikes
- Tern Bikes and Cargo Bikes
Here is a list of our best new ideas to help you furthereconomize, automate, simplify, or plain outsource more of your logistical pain
points. If you would like our help with
any of these services, we would be happy to set up a short meeting to help you
strategize. This is my company, we are
looking to grow, and we would be honored to help you with more of your
logistical pain points this fall!
17 Tactics for the Outdoor Retailer Industry Companies to help you Crush your Logistical Pain Points!
- API automation for Freight Shipping and Parcel shipping to inject your rates into your Website, ERP business software, and even quick books in some cases. This can fully automate web sales and allow your client to pay for shipping at the same time saving tons of time and effort. We are already seeing this be a huge help for some tent manufacturer Advanced Shelter Systems and Global Surf Industries to name a few. We can API inject our rates to Shopify, Woo-Commerce, Magento and ERP systems like Netsuite, Microsoft , Dynamics, SAP, Mercury Gate, etc.
- Use a better more automated Transportation Management Software or TMS for both parcel and freight. Most TMS systems can even import your carrier direct tariffs and allow you shop our bulk rates we have with our carriers, side by side. They can also allow you to import freight classes, nmfc, and general product shipping specs to greatly simplify booking and drastically reduce shipping errors.
- TMS that shops parcel rates side by side with freight rates: This can save you a lot of time and headaches and you will always know which mode of shipping is the best for all loads in real time! We have few options in mind. This is especially helpful in the outdoor industries where larger products lend themselves to shipping both parcel and freight in some cases.
- Use a regional warehouse and fulfillment centers to cut ship times and overall cost down. This can also drastically reduce transit related damages and provide you flexibility to cross pack and ship to consumer direct as well as retailers faster. Amazon is coming for us all but we can get set up to compete. This is especially helpful for some of the larger outdoor industry products as they are more prone to transit related damages.
- Try and consolidate shipments into larger truckload or partial truckload shipments if possible. The more you ship at one time, the less it costs per unit generally. Intermodal / Rail, Truckload, Partial truckload, LTL, and Ground is generally the order of Modes least expensive to most expensive per unit shipped. You could also look at full truckload route runs with drop off points along the way.
- Package your items better to reduce transit related damages. Heavy duty boxes, bubbled wrapping, palletized, shrink wrapped, corner protect everything, if your products lend themselves to it. To further protect everything and reduce claim headaches and time.
- Buy a digital weight scale, that will print a receipt label you can attach to your pallet, bol, or packing slip to further reduce shipping price adjustments. https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/packaging/scales/pallet-truck/global-industrial-pallet-scale-48-x-48-5000-lb-capacity
- Get a Dimensioner that can also act as a scale. Obviously, some of these solutions can be expensive but we believe the cost is coming down quickly. And how many dreaded rebills does it take avoiding to pay for the system and then it’s earning you money! http://www.freightsnap.com/
- Get access to Class IT so that you make sure your freight class and nmfc codes are correct all the time to further reduce freight adjustments/ rebills. https://classit.nmfta.org/all/Welcome.aspx
- Look at getting a customer specific pricing tariff with certain carriers. This can help with getting class reductions, further rate reductions, and accessorial exemptions like liftgates, residential deliveries, over-length fees etc waived. Magic number seems to be around $15,000 in freight spend per month to begin this process in most cases.
- For fedex, ups, dhl and parcel shipping services reduce your overall cost. Focusing not solely on the discount level, but dimensional divisors, and accessorial exemptions like over-size surcharges, handling, and over-length fees, etc which can really bring down your overall cost.
- Stock Through Put Insurance to further insulate your goods from overall supply chain and shipping related damages both on international and domestics shipments. Especially if you have a high cost, highly damageable product that some carrier’s normal insurance will not cover.
- Create a written streamlined load booking Standard Operating Procedure. This will save time, confusion, and further eliminate shipping errors that can lead to rebills/adjustments. It can also help if you have to re-train new shipping department team members.
- Learn and know how to use new tracking features for freight and parcel TMS software. Most freight TMS or FMS systems now offer email tracking pings for multiple email addresses at various points of the shipment life cycle. Greatly reducing tracking communication and hassles with clients, sales teams, and logistical teams.
- Consider setting up a direct to consumer final mile/white glove delivery service to sell direct. The costs of these programs can be higher but your margin and profitability in most cases will more than offset those costs. These programs can include inside delivery, setup/install, debris removal etc.
- Hire a low-cost Virtual Freight Assistant to do day to day load booking and other repetitive computer/phone-based tasks.
- Look at a Fully Managed Transportation Offering. Generally, you need to be spending $1-2 million a year in shipping and freight. However, logistic management companies will literally build a whole professional team around your logistical needs, so you can focus on your core growth tasks and get ahead faster!